Man i'm old lol.
But this is fun....let me bust out my civic history just to keep it site related.
I know some people think i'm talking s**t or showing off with some of my suggestions or part selection, but really it's just because i've been there and done that. All the way from knockoffs, overboard custom work, rushed mods, useless/pointless mods, unrealistic goals etc. I try to keep people from going through what I went through. I didn't look for advice much as learned things, I just kinda did whatever came into my head.
This was my very first civic (not my first car though). I bought this bone stock...previous owner was a girl and the car was well taken care of =( Talk about regret.
Started off with the body kit era. At the time it was a little eye catching, but to a very small and dying crowd.
"R34 style bumper, mismatched sideskirts, shaved side molding, M3 carbon faker mirrors painted white, Blue Ion headlights, painted black hood, no name cold air intake, Tein s-tech springs, apexi N1 catback exhaust, dual guage pod because i was piecing together a turbo kit (glad i didn't finish because I had a lot more to learn about boost), custom trunk lid with modded stock reverse lights, and Konig Holes in 17's.
Then I caught on to cleaning up the car and trying to undo all the damage I did. Never got though. Around this time I was leaving the military and didn't have funds to waste on modding a car.
Some of the old stuff plus, CTR style grill, Spoon style front lip, engine was pulled for a rebuild that I never got to do, paint was sanded down to smooth out the terrible shaved side molding job which i did myself, oem rear bumper, and stock side skirts.
years later, itching to have another go at a civic, i bought this as is. euro lights and everything that was on it was done by the previous owner. I planned to swap it all to stock but the motor was more than a headache. B16a2 with CTR cams, unknown cam gears, chipped ecu with no rev limit, and a fart can so loud that it still echoes to this day lol. This motor eventually blew up
Motor was replaced with this b18b1 mated to a b16a2 trans. After loads of issues with the guy i bought it from and not being able to receive a title, it was returned to the owner with long list of issues this car had to begin with.
Old cars were taking their toll on me, so i got my mind right, got into college, and jumped into this FA5. Only mod was a spoon sports reservoir cover. After a super long story of an ex-wife and loads of drama, the Si was given to my mother as her commuter car and she financed it and took over.
Difficult times including having to drop out of school, lost my job, and my car at the time (DC5-S)...I decided to get back into the cheaper cars and figured i'd fix up a civic which brought me to the coupe that a lot of you know.
and it's many slow stages
Theft of my ej2 left me out of the game for a good 9 months or so until i found this
Which became this and then was smashed into....in creeping traffic....by a newly licensed teen girl on her cell phone SMH
Wanting to make use of the K24a2 and having no decent luck with a newer usable chassis to drop it in, I resorted back to where it all started....a 6th gen coupe
and here we are today. After experiencing fake s**t, slow s**t, performance mods, useless mods, a few swaps of my own and friends, owning K series cars, and having a taste of genuine parts...I can say through experience that IMO nothing was better to me than the K series and real parts. Thus my reasoning for going with what I am. There's other good options but this is what i prefer. I never liked the hassle of "making things work" or owning things that were meant to be like something else. It was always more of a headache instead of something I could just get in and enjoy.
I hope somebody reads this so I didn't waste my time hahaha. Laugh at my mistakes, and learn from them...or don't learn and let the wrath of all the interwebs rain down upon you, and only you!