Hello Honda-Tech. My names Anthony and I have been out of the car scene for over 7 years. I have been dying to have something to work on and have fun with while spending time with my two daughters Havyn(10 Yrs old) & Ryann(9yrs). I had the opportunity to by a 2007 Taffeta white Civic Si that I sold my mothers x-husband new over a decade ago when I was still selling cars at a Honda dealership. I always saw this car when he was driving it and wanted it bad, and I finally got the chance to buy it from him. Let me know what you guys think, and if you think this was a good deal. It is a 2007 with 230k on it. He lives in upstate NY 2 hours from where I live and commuted in this car for years. That being said, most of the miles are highway. He takes good care of his cars, and changed the oil every 3k with Mobil One. The only problem I can gather is that with all the salt on our roads that the under carriage has its fair share of rust along with a few spots on the body. The car runs great and I drove it home two hours enjoying every second,not having any glaring issues. I purchased the car for $2500 so let me know what you guys think.

I have novice mechanical skills, but learn quick and seem to be able to figure things out when presented with something I enjoy. I do not have a ton of money so this will be an on going budget build/restoration. I am first going to concentrate on repairing the vehicles visible rusting issues. There seems to be a hole in the exhaust somewhere. I will probably upgrade the exhaust when I can afford it vs repairing the stock damaged equipment. I have already repaired the rear license plate bolt locations, as one rusted an broke off. I used the gangster way to repair it as I do not yet know how to weld or have welding equipment(on the to do list). I used JB weld to attach a new bolt location using a washer and the correct size bolt after treating the rusted service and painting it with Rustoleum Gloss White paint to prevent further rusting to an extent. It is behind the plate, so it cannot be seen. The interior of the car is immaculate, I would say a 9 out of 10. I would like to keep the interior as stock as possible, with a few touches to make it my own. Nothing crazy.

 

 

 

Glad to have you in the forums. I too have a Taffeta White FA5, but mine's a 2010.Not much difference except the front facia update and that yours has the interior lighting in the foot wells ( I am led to believe this was deleted after the refresh in 2008 ). I have Brembo front callipers ( from a rear hit FD2 Type R in Japan ), H&R Racing wheel spacers ( to allow the callipers to clear the standard offset stock wheels, the HFP aero kit and HFP wheels, but the rest is stock.

Tye best thing you can do to start is to do a complete fluids change on the car as soon as possible so you have a true fresh baseline for maintenance purposes, and check everything for roadworthiness. Then you can start with that exhaust, and new engine air filter.

Most people say go with a cold air intake and such, but here's the thing, the Si's already draw their engine air from the driver's side fender, and doesn't really need a new complete CAI, just maybe a freer flowing air filter element.

I would then start with lighter wheels and if the clutch needs replacing, a new clutch. The clutch master cylinder could be replaced with a better design a la EM2 Civic Si ( no fluid buffer ) but if you're not quarter-mileing it, stick with the design Honda gave it.

If you want to drop it a little, the HFP suspension has Honda warranty on it and is about as close to no gap as you can buy factory, but there are dozens of companies that have better valving and stiffness settings than OE aftermarket, its really your choice.

Enjoy your FA5, I am doing so with mine!!

Cheers,

 

 

The interior is absolutly mint.


It is going to need me to remove the valve cover and repaint it. Either this or buy and extra one and powder coat it. I was thinking I would powder coat it and the wheels body colored. I know most white Honda’s go with wrinkle red but it has been done an aweful lot. Let me know any suggestions.

 

 

I am looking into powder coating places around me now. I wanted to powder coat the wheels to match the Taffeta white and get the valve cover powder coated to match. Do you guys think that is to much white? I could do the valve cover myself in wrinkle red, which would match the stitching in the stock SI seats. My favorite Honda from when I was in high school would be a 1997 Integra Type R in Champ White. Unfortunately they are still out of the price range. So this SI is going to fill the void for now! I figured since I loved the type R with matching champ white wheels, I would also like this Civic with matching white wheels. Open to suggestions. I am just excited to finally have something to play around with.

 

Good powder coating costs about 100$ per wheel.

Personally, I would either put the $400 you would spend on the PC to buy a new set of wheels. Since the car is 5x114 you have a ton of great wheel options.

If you choose to paint the wheels take some paint remover, wire wheel the corrosion down the best you can, then just rattle can them.

 

I agree powder coating would be an expensive option, but my train of thought was, the wheels I would want to buy for this car are a lot more then $400 dollars. That being said, driving the car with the wheels so badly corroded makes me crazy as well. It would clean up the appearance of the car greatly to have them repaired, allowing me to continue on the basic restoration of the parts of the vehicle that have wear/damage. I would like to get the car to a well sorted blank canvas before beginning the modification process. I would love to score some black or maybe even bronze TE37's in the long run, but again money is tight.

I would not mind trying my hand at rattle canning the wheels. Dos anyone have advice on the best paints to try my hand at painting these wheels? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

This here is what I'd use
https://www.eastwood.com/ew-rally-wh...eos-12-oz.html

 

Ok you guys have convinced me. I am going to rattle can paint my wheels. I watched a million videos and now just have to decide on a color. My three choices I cant decide on are either white to match the car, I also like bronze, and then I would paint valve cover to match, or just leave them factory silver for now since the car is still stock. I was thinking white would look good as my favorite car cam with champ white wheels from the factory, but taffeta white is way off of champ white. I don't want the car to look ricey, just nice and clean. I was also thinking gunmetal would look nice. I was concerned about a full color change without also painting the inside of the wheel. If I painted them white I would also have t do the inside of the barrel and I wanted to avoid that. Would love to get your imput guys so let me know what color you vote for!

After driving the car yesterday to work I am starting to suspect it will need a new clutch soon, as the engagement point is close to fully compressed. I am going to get it up in the air the best I can today to see where the obnoxious hole in the exhaust is and if it is repairable. In the event that it seems a quick weld will temp repair that will allow me to save for the exhaust I actually want. The hole is making the car sound like absolute garbage. I plan on going with the Invidia exhaust as its low deeper tone is was I am shooting for. I really just want to get the car back to its former glory prior to making any performance modifications. Things like having my body guy repair all the little bit of rust the car has. It appears to be minimal and only surface rust. Nothing should need to be cut and repaired. When he is repairing that, I will have him paint the hood and front bumper to take care of the chips.

I ordered new rear window sashes for the car because mine are rusted to hell and its a major eye sore. They are scheduled to be delivered today at my office. I listed for them to be left at the front door as my office is closed today. Hopefully the mail man will leave them and I can install them tomorrow. Let me know if your guys are interested in seeing the installation process as I was thinking of making a video.

 

 

After

After

After

After

 

This is the product I used. I would recommend it especially if you don’t own a buffer. (Which I don’t at the moment). It was 29.99 with a 7 dollar mail in rebate and comes with a polishing ball and a buffer wheel you can use with you cordless drill. Also comes with wet sand paper pads for “severe damage repair” which mine definitely qualified for. They were yellow and cloudy and hideous. They look much better now but today made all of the cars poor spots really stand out after a good wash.

 

 

If you put headlight protection film on they won't yellow again, there is enough uv protection to stop it.

 

 

All new and installed. Will post pics of parts numbers tomorrow when I get into the office

 

I'm ordering Duplicolor wheel paint and seriously on the fence about the color to go with. My daughters want me to go with white, which at first I was agreeable to, but now am torn between gunmetal or bronze. What do you guys think?

Been reading mixed reviews on all the different brands of paint so if anyone has experience please comment!

 

White works but it is difficult to keep clean. The Bronze will look really good as well and a bit more user friendly. Me personally... I am not a fan of the darker colors, so the Gunmetal idea is like "meh"... and Black is a "hell no".

I LOVE the look of a White 8th Gen Si Sedan... I wish I could have talked my wifey into that color when I bought her one in 2008. She chose Habanero Red Pearl. I also have a 2007 Silver Metallic Si Sedan in the fleet... still not as pretty as the White one though.

 

I really like the white wheels as well. My only concern with white is that the colors wont match since the white paint on the car is 230k miles deep. So when I paint the wheels they are going to be crazy bright white vs the faded white on the car. I was thinking I would go get Taffeta white in aerosol form and use that to match the wheels to the car. I would spend alot of time prepping the wheels, wire brushing the corrosion, and priming and sanding. Lay the color coat down and then a few coats of clear coat.

Since this are my only wheels I would need to finish this in a weekend so my car would be ready to drive to work Monday. I would start Saturday morning and let them cure till Sunday night before re-installing the wheels. If I go white the only right way to do it would be to prep and paint the whole wheel including the inside of the barrel, which would make the job considerably harder then just painting the faces. I just think painting the faces white with the barrel still being silver would look like trash.

 

 

I can't believe how rusty this car is, ouch. I'm glad to see your taking the time to restore it, 8gen's I still feel are the best civic's around!

 

The owner loves meeting Honda/Acura fans from all over... I will put in a good word for you. I spend a lot of time there myself... and you just never know what projects they have going on.