Picked up a '97 Euro Civic Hatch, EJ9 over here. 1.4 iS model. 18,000 original miles. Pretty clean. Going to get going on it pretty soon. Follow the fun here.

 

This is going to be interesting thread. :D

 

Jaaaa, sehr güt.

 

Well I got started on it... wife wasn't happy with me since I burned up another weekend "working on that car". At the end I decided it was too low, so I pretty much need to do it all over again. I need to move the spring perches up one level on the Koni's. The ASR rear bar brackets also interfere with the muffler, so that didn't go on... yet. Haven't done the fogs, shifter, or steering wheel yet. I'll get to that eventually. Pretty much most of this stuff is illegal in Germany... pfft, oh well. I picked up a Mugen Twinloop from my buddy in FLA. Mugenmike still has my Mugen tower bar from when I lived in the USA. Now I gotta figure out how to get it over here - maybe a golf or ski travel bag on my next trip over?

I also picked up some OEM parts from Lings Honda in the UK. Lower front window moldings (those always get crappy from the sun, but not cheap!!!), antenna gasket (the old one looked like someone took a blowtorch to it), new emblems for the rear, and the little gaskets that go under the windshield washer nozzels. Decent prices and they even had some NOS "Elegance" floor mats and mud guards. I had to ****** those up. Sadly they do not have any factory front lips left... I want one of those so bad. I also found a used rear bumper cover as mine was not in great shape. It had a crack and a bunch of scuff marks that were through the paint. The new cover was 50 Euro and is in great shape - score.

Stereo was also replaced. I'm not a big car audio guy, but the Blaupunkt cassette deck and stock speakers just weren't gonna cut it. I got a basic JVC head unit and some Alpine GS series door speakers and 6x9's for the rear; disco.

I refinished the wiper blades. Peeled all the old **** off, sanded... and sanded, and then hit them with Plasti-Dip. Turned out pretty decent. I considered buying new OEM units, but it's not worth the price.

After doing the suspension install I decided there were a few other things that needed to be addressed. The car must have sat in a field for a long time. It was only driven 500 miles since 2014, I know that because there was a tag in the engine bay documenting the last oil change in 2014 at 28,113 Kilometer. I purchased the car with 29,600 ish. The body, interior, and engine bay all look like 18,000 miles, but the suspension components look bad. I figure it sat in a field and the grass/weeds grew under the car, they were wet, and corroded all that stuff. No worries, I have new front lower arms, new tie rod ends, etc... She'll be looking all OEM new soon. I've also got new front callipers, rotors, pads, and some stainless lines - maybe I'll do those too.

One thing I can tell you, having worked on many Honda's over the years. The Canadian produced cars from 1996+ had much much better anti-corrosion treatment compared the Japanese produced models. At least it seems that way. I'd be real curious to know what parts on the Canadian models were sourced in North America vs. Japan. My bet is that most of the hardware and suspension arms were North America.

Anyway... latest round of pixors.

 

New Honda parts arrived today!!

Washer nozzel gaskets... these little guys were hard to track down.


All new and fresh badges. 1.4 liter, look out.


Factory muds




Brand new factory Elegance floor mats.

 

Dope!
Btw, how much $ for carpets? And where did you get them?

 

They were $60. Got them from Lings Honda in the UK. They are the European parts center for Honda.