EK4 VTi-R Project

[mbikeboy]

Sorry for the lack of updates lately everyone! I started a new dream job this week as manager at a custom motorcycle workshop, which as you can imagine has kept me rather busy...I've been floating between being on the tools, sorting out accounts and paperwork, wrapping my head around new computer systems, getting to know the staff and customers, etc. All fun and games!!

Anyways, we bought a new battery as the old one was pretty tired and wasn't holding charge very well. After an exhaustive amount of searching around for a good deal on a quality battery, we found a great deal locally from an auto store where if you traded in the old battery, you received a $50 discount, and it ultimately was too hard to pass on...the new one cost us $125!! Also the sound system is finally all installed and OMG it sounds amazing! I'm expecting the tweeter surrounds to arrive tomorrow judging by the tracking number, and am desperately looking forward to installing them properly so that everything looks nice and integrated. I'm going to order a slimline subwoofer this week to install under the driver seat to give some bass to match the amazing top-end clarity and mid-range of the speakers.

The biggest news however is getting some new front tyres and an alignment on saturday afternoon!! We didn't stuff around with the choice, going for a pricey but high-performance Dunlop, and will be doing the same to the rear next week hopefully when they have more stock, haha!! I'll get some more pics up on the weekend when we have some free time and daylight.

I've also been looking around online for a few nice upgrade parts, found a crazy amount of things which I want at excellent prices, am itching to pull the trigger, but have to wait another week or two. I've decided to keep my beast toolkit at home so I can work on the cars, and simply buy another one for work...a sucky dilemma/priority list for sure, but is a necessary evil, can claim most of it back on tax shortly, and besides who doesn't love new tools?! Until then, I'll just keep adding to the "want-list".

 

[mbikeboy]

As you may remember, I purchased a pair of tweeters and surrounds from the USA a few weeks ago...well they were waiting for me when I got home lastnight!! I excitedly opened up the postage bag and was a bit disappointed and p*ssed off by what I saw. There was next to no protection/bubble-wrap in a thin plastic bag, which isn't good enough given how much postage I paid, and the bag had clearly been thrown about during transport. The surrounds had scratches and marks on them, and definitely aren't the same ones which they had shown in the listing on ebay that I bought. I'll have to clean them up as best as I can, and if all else fails do a sand/fill/paint at work after hours to restore them. It's definitely sucked the excitement out of getting them, as I was wanting to fit them this weekend.

As per the listing:



What I actually received (I'd removed the actual tweeters before taking this pic btw):



Another thing which was in the mail box was something rather boring and am sure 99% of you already have...no prizes for guessing what this is hahaha! It looks waaaaay better than the rusted crappy battery tie-down plate that was there before.



We also got the front new Dunlop tyres fitted. I'm absolutely stoked with them, as they are obviously much grippier, performed excellently in the wet today, and are far quieter than the cheap crap that was originally on there. That's to be expected going from $65 tyres to $270 tyres!! I'm not so impressed with the service from the place where I got them however. I was told 1hr and it would be done, so we went and got lunch, did grocery shopping, came back to it still not finished. It ended up taking over 3hrs to fit and balance 2 tyres and do a 4 wheel alignment.

While killing the extra time, we thought we might as well take our Accord Euro to a valet cleaner across the road for a thorough detailing, relax and have a coffee...what a balls-up that was! A staff member shortly after they'd started sheepishly asked us if our car automatically locks, to which we replied "nope, why do you ask?"...yep, the morons had managed to lock the keys in the car! I cracked the shits totally (it was my 36th b'day and incompetent morons doing straight forward things were doing a great job of ruining what was a perfect day and us having to cancel plans), told them to call the RACV (the local autoclub) to get it unlocked and they were going to pay for the call-out. An hour later we were on our way and the detailing was free of charge. The quality of the job wasn't great, but it saved me cleaning it, cost us nothing, plus they'd left a bottle of kickass windscreen cleaner in the car, so you've gotta chalk that down as a win, hahahaha!!

As soon as I started driving the Civic home, I noticed that the car was tracking a bit oddly and the steering wheel was cocked a little to the left. Between sets of traffic lights I was reading the printout from the alignment machine and was shaking my head in disbelief (dropping a few f-bombs along the way naturally lol!)...it was a pretty rough alignment job and wasn't acceptable by any means. I've got a booking for next sunday to have the matching rear tyres fitted, so am going to tell them that they can redo the whole alignment from scratch properly free of charge.

I have high standards of how I do things because that's how I was trained and pay attention to detail, understand that not everyone's had the luxuries which I've been afforded, but do have a reasonable expectation of things to be done properly by others. Near enough isn't good enough, and I'm seeing too much of this attitude lately everywhere...my gf is calling me a cranky old man, but totally gets where I'm coming from and is sharing the same frustrations. I'm definitely not a nit-picker, but today just kicked my ass hard by morons.

Thankfully we went to do some solid retail therapy choosing birthday gifts after all of that crap at the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere which was an adventure (a few minutes from home)...she found a park straight away, I spent the next 40mins trying to find one thanks to countless selfish jerks stealing parks, had a clueless lady run into the back of me (thankfully no damage), and I only got a park when a 6th jerk tried to steal it. I cracked the sh*ts hard, got out pointing at the guy and said "don't you f*cking dare"...I was at my absolute limit of annoyance and frustration and about to head straight home.

My gf knew I'd hit my limit of what I'd take, was now in a foul mood, and wow did I got spoiled rotten!!! I scored an awesome pair of retro Nike AirMax shoes, a Macpac puffer jacket and beanie, Batman pyjamas, Ugg boots, my football team's travel mug, and a Nike basketball...oh plus amazing lunch and dinner! The bar has been set high for her birthday next month, bahahahahaha!!!

 

[mbikeboy]

I changed the rear engine mount over today...wow was that fun! It's fair to say that there isn't exactly a lot of space to work, there was a bit of wrestling to get the old one out and the new one in, but I'm glad to get that over and done with!

Here's the new one:



And here's the old one...the centre was completely broken off, which I've never seen before! I'd reckon it would have to be the original one fitted to the car when it was new hahaha!

 

[mbikeboy]

Today was a good day...the car has passed the Roadworthy Inspection!!!!!!!!!

There was a very dodgy attempt from the place where the 1st inspection was done to try and screw me over the other day by adding things to the "to do" list when it went in for the final inspection which they could conveniently fix while the car was at their workshop. Knowing that the car was a perfect "pass", I called bullsh*t, explained what I do for a living and demanded they show me and explain why it hadn't passed. Suddenly these things vanished from the invoice, a vague apology was muttered and they were keen to settle the bill quickly. Funnily enough, to test their integrity I had deliberately left one bolt from the passenger seat mount in the centre console to see if they picked up on that during the inspection, and nope, it was still sitting there when I picked the car up! There is a very strict list of items to inspect and photograph, so I know with certainty they're dodgy and they ought to be ashamed of themselves!

The main thing is that I now have the sacred green form and I can start building up the car! I'm seriously fighting the urge right now not to buy some sweet parts...I'll probably cave in to my desires in a couple of hours for a few basic things!

 

[mbikeboy]

Due to being flat out at work, not much has been done to the Civic lately other than driving it every day and enjoying it. The little beast has really grown on me, and is the perfect daily-driver, offering insane fuel economy, easy parking, and plenty of overtaking power. It's also terrific in the stop-start driving on the way home in peak-hour each night.

I decided to lash out this week and have bought a few goodies for it which I'll put some pics up in the next day or so. I bought some front and rear EBC drilled and slotted rotors, Brembo front and rear pads, a Nakamichi slim-line subwoofer with integrated amp, and a new rocker cover gasket kit. These all arrived this week, but sadly won't have time to fit any of them until next weekend!

As I'll be changing the rocker cover gasket and spark plug seals, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to paint my rocker cover. As my work has a spray booth and my boss is a highly skilled painter, I asked if he could paint my rocker cover, and naturally he said yes! We'll get onto that mid next week, but I'm still very much undecided what colour to go with...he can do literally anything in any finish, so any suggestions are welcome! I'm leaning towards a mid-blue gloss, which would contrast nicely with chrome/billet finishes which will be done throughout the engine bay, going a boring black gloss, or a typical red gloss. I'm totally open to suggestions, so bring them on fellas!!!

 

[mbikeboy]

Sorry for the crappy photos, I'll take better ones tomorrow when the light is better, and I can fetch the discs and subwoofer from the spare room.

Front Brembo brake pads



Rear Brembo brake pads



Valve cover gasket & spark plug seal kit

 

[Brak]

If you want a better set of tweeter mounts, let me know.
I for sure have one laying around, and can snag another one at the yard this weekend.
Cost ya nothing more than shipping.

 

[mbikeboy]

If you want a better set of tweeter mounts, let me know.
I for sure have one laying around, and can snag another one at the yard this weekend.
Cost ya nothing more than shipping.

Thanks for the offer mate! I'll set about tidying up the ones I have and see how they come out...with some time and effort spent on them they "should" come out looking fine, but will keep your offer in mind if I'm not happy with the outcome.

 

[mbikeboy]

I've been doing a bit more online shopping over the weekend, just compiling a few bits and pieces that were on the want-list. I got a Momo gearshift (the OEM feels cheap and nasty), a billet oil cap, some billet ignition lead separators, a black Skunk2 billet cam seal, silver Skunk2 cam cover bolts & washers, black and silver billet engine mount set, a distributor o-ring set, and a silver cam cover breather. Nothing too amazing, but I'll be happy to see the postman nevertheless!

 

[mbikeboy]

As promised, here's a few pics of some of the parts which have arrived so far, and there's more arriving throughout the week. It's going to be a busy weekend on the tools and I can't wait!!!

The front drilled and slotted EBC rotors (nice and stealthy)




The rear drilled and slotted EBC rotors (nice and stealthy)




The billet ignition lead seperators




The Skunk2 billet camshaft seal. I ordered black and have received grey, so have contacted them to see what happened and what can be done about this stuff-up...




The Nakamichi 8" slimline sub to fit under the drivers seat

 

[mbikeboy]

I've discovered the fun of doing several projects at once...compromise all the time! I'll be fitting all of these parts to the Civic this weekend, and it will be about 3 weeks until I lash out on the next decent purchases. I've already spent a fair bit on my motorbike without complaint from my gf, and out of fairness, balance and love, have just spent a fair bit on some bling parts for her scooter as part of her birthday present.

I'll put up some fitment pictures of everything over saturday and sunday...can't wait!

 

[mbikeboy]

The weather was dreadful last sunday (my only day off), so haven't got anything done to the Civic for a little while. I did manage to take care of something rather important however, yep I lashed out and bought my toolkit for work which arrived today!! I've customised it to suit working on motorbikes, which is what I need it for, and gees it's going to make each day so much easier...very glad to get that huge purchase out of the way. Time to save up for some more Civic parts now...hehehe!!!

 

[mbikeboy]

Some new billet engine mounts arrived yesterday...more parts added to the pile of "to fit". I just need a window of good weather over this last long-weekend for months so that I can get some progress happening!!

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[mbikeboy]

Time and weather has been working against me as usual, but thought I'd share a teaser for the moment. I've taken the timing cover off, sanded, prepped and repainted it...wow what a difference it's made!!! I'm currently waiting for the last coat of clear to dry, and have swapped over the cover bolts for the Skunk2 low-profile ones. In a few hours everything will be back together and I'll put up some more pics.

 

[mbikeboy]

Hey everyone! It's been a while between updates and thanks to winter nothing particularly exciting has been done to the car. Spring has just commenced, so expect plenty of work to be happening from now on!

I've fixed the leak in the engine bay, which turned out to be both the VTEC solenoid gasket, and the distributor seal. I never did get around to showing the freshly painted rocker cover, so here it is!

 

[mbikeboy]

Something which has annoyed me ever since buying the car was how yellowed and scuffed the headlights are. I contemplated using a restoration kit, but they honestly look and feel too far gone to be saved. Further to that, they've been allowing water in. The pictures don't show it to be as bad as it is in real life, but they really let down the appearance of the car.

I decided to simply buy a replacement pair of headlights, which will look amazing once installed .

 

[ctag]

RIP Photobucket Time to jump ship.

If you're seeing the pictures, try loading this page while not logged in, it just shows a "account limit exceeded" placeholder to the rest of us

 

[mbikeboy]

RIP Photobucket Time to jump ship.

If you're seeing the pictures, try loading this page while not logged in, it just shows a "account limit exceeded" placeholder to the rest of us

Ah righto then, thanks for the heads-up!

I installed the Chrome plug-in which bypasses Photobucket's recent nonsense ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embed-fix/naolkcpnnlofnnghnmfegnfnflicjjgj ) and everything's fine. Sorry, I presumed everyone had done this. What do you suggest as an alternative?

 

[ctag]

Never heard of the plugin before.

I've used Google pictures and Imgur for my vehicle pics. Google is nice, but the URLs are a mile long and they keep screwing with the UI. Imgur is a pretty solid experience, but they have outages and stuff. Just my $0.02.

 

[mbikeboy]

I got cracking this afternoon and fitted the new headlights...wow what a difference to the appearance that has made!!

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