MorningZ
Respected
I'm a long time Integra owner, but that car's days on the road are over. It's current setup (roll bar, fixed seats, harnesses) is just too tough on the body for just "driving around", so I was on the hunt for another run around car and I found this 2000 EX 5 speed two weeks ago today on Craigslist.
Checking out the car: it sounded good when started, the interior was in pretty good shape, needed/needs paint, but that's alright, I bought this to just run around in. Mods already on car: Skunk 2 intake and short ram, side and rear visors, and a generic front lip. There was also a Bosch temp gauge mounted on the A-pillar (yuck), which I discovered after I bought it that this was more a "necessity" than a "add on modification", i'll show why later in the post.
Here are sone "before" pictures except that I had already put on one of the sets of Integra Meshies i have
Once I made the purchase, things started to get ugly with the car as I dug in deeper, here is what I discovered (and fixed) in the two weeks I've had it:
- Dash lights didn't work: figured out the cause was that the plug on the back of the dimmer switch was loose. A previous owner had tried to shove toothpicks to make a connection. I just simply removed that hack and used a small flat head screwdriver in there and bent all the connections tight again, now I have dash lights
- VTEC solenoid switch = broken (and is now replaced). The stock ECT sensor that feeds the cluster's temp gauge = destroyed. So there was this horrid looking A-pillar gauge kit installed holding a Bosch ECT gauge. I didn't think much of it when I got the car, but after driving it a bit, I noticed the stock gauge was just buried on "C" and not working. Looking into it, the stock sending unit on the side of the head is completely f-cked. There is no hope for getting this out to replace, so I instead moved the Bosch gauge to a cluster gauge kit I purchased (also bought a voltmeter gauge to match)
On the second morning I had the car, I went to start the car and the clutch pedal went right to the floor and stayed there. Investigating: yuck, look at that fluid. Replaced: Clutch Master Cylinder, the Clutch Slave Cylinder and completely flushed out the system of that garbage. The cotter pin holding the CMC to the pedal was completely screwed up, I had to take the whole pedal out to make it right, thankfully that's not really a big deal, just awkward to get to that 12mm that holds the top of the assembly in there.
Not knowing anything about the car (the guy I bought it off of only had it a short time and couldn't really provide much history) I decided to replace the front pads, get the front discs resurfaced and replace the rear drum shoes, what a huge pain in the ass to replace the rear brakes. While getting under the car for those rear brakes, we noticed the rear trailing arm bushings were shot, so the trailing arms got yanked out and we used the 20 ton press in my garage to replace them (this actually went nice and easy).
So up in the attic, I've had a set of 2006 Si seats sitting up there waiting to get used in something. After being up there for a few years, this Civic I just got was the something. My buddy Jeff is a welder, he was up for the challenge! Pretty much he just cut off the brackets from all 4 seats and welded the brackets from the stock seats in the car to the Si seats. Little bit of trial and error to get the passenger seat done first, and then the driver seat was complete on the first try. These came out great, I'm so happy with them, they really change the car.
While he was working on the seats, I was working on the stereo system. The factory radio plug was hacked up (of course it was), so I first soldered on a Metra 71-1721 plug, I then hooked up:
- JVC radio
- Set of JVC 6.5" components in the front doors
- Matching set of 6.5" components in the rear deck
- Mounted my trusty ol' Alpine PDX5 five channel amp behind one of the side panels (this is the 4th car of mine this amp has been in)
For bass, I wanted to keep the spare tire in place, so I put together this box for my shallow mount Rockford 10". It's a great woofer that doesn't need a lot of airspace to operate. So I have all my storage and the stock spare tire stays right where it was designed to be. It's bolted in place using 4 stock bolts that hold the body to the subframe. I just had to get bolts that were 1" longer to account for going through 3/4" MDF.
Other minor things done:
- the passenger side wiper arm was completely non-existent. Picked up another on eBay and put it on
- the hood latch handle was broken. Ordered a replacement from eBay and that is replaced.
- flushed out the brake fluid after we did the brakes.
Still to do:
- I hate how low the car is and the springs and shocks are garbage, I have a set of Yonaka coilovers on the way
- The passenger rear camber arm's bushing is completely shot. My buddy has a set of adjustable ones to give me
- Timing belt and water pump (since I have no idea when they were done last)
- Get the AC working again. I already have a new compressor, I need to order a new dryer as well. Figure I'd do this while I am doing the timing belt and water pump.
- Ordered a replacement steering wheel cover so I can cut and remove the one in there now.
- I'm throwing around the idea of trying to get cruise control working again, a previous owner had pulled it all out for some reason.
I think I have already spent more on the car than I paid for the car, but ah well, that's how it goes.
Checking out the car: it sounded good when started, the interior was in pretty good shape, needed/needs paint, but that's alright, I bought this to just run around in. Mods already on car: Skunk 2 intake and short ram, side and rear visors, and a generic front lip. There was also a Bosch temp gauge mounted on the A-pillar (yuck), which I discovered after I bought it that this was more a "necessity" than a "add on modification", i'll show why later in the post.
Here are sone "before" pictures except that I had already put on one of the sets of Integra Meshies i have
Once I made the purchase, things started to get ugly with the car as I dug in deeper, here is what I discovered (and fixed) in the two weeks I've had it:
- Dash lights didn't work: figured out the cause was that the plug on the back of the dimmer switch was loose. A previous owner had tried to shove toothpicks to make a connection. I just simply removed that hack and used a small flat head screwdriver in there and bent all the connections tight again, now I have dash lights
- VTEC solenoid switch = broken (and is now replaced). The stock ECT sensor that feeds the cluster's temp gauge = destroyed. So there was this horrid looking A-pillar gauge kit installed holding a Bosch ECT gauge. I didn't think much of it when I got the car, but after driving it a bit, I noticed the stock gauge was just buried on "C" and not working. Looking into it, the stock sending unit on the side of the head is completely f-cked. There is no hope for getting this out to replace, so I instead moved the Bosch gauge to a cluster gauge kit I purchased (also bought a voltmeter gauge to match)
On the second morning I had the car, I went to start the car and the clutch pedal went right to the floor and stayed there. Investigating: yuck, look at that fluid. Replaced: Clutch Master Cylinder, the Clutch Slave Cylinder and completely flushed out the system of that garbage. The cotter pin holding the CMC to the pedal was completely screwed up, I had to take the whole pedal out to make it right, thankfully that's not really a big deal, just awkward to get to that 12mm that holds the top of the assembly in there.
Not knowing anything about the car (the guy I bought it off of only had it a short time and couldn't really provide much history) I decided to replace the front pads, get the front discs resurfaced and replace the rear drum shoes, what a huge pain in the ass to replace the rear brakes. While getting under the car for those rear brakes, we noticed the rear trailing arm bushings were shot, so the trailing arms got yanked out and we used the 20 ton press in my garage to replace them (this actually went nice and easy).
So up in the attic, I've had a set of 2006 Si seats sitting up there waiting to get used in something. After being up there for a few years, this Civic I just got was the something. My buddy Jeff is a welder, he was up for the challenge! Pretty much he just cut off the brackets from all 4 seats and welded the brackets from the stock seats in the car to the Si seats. Little bit of trial and error to get the passenger seat done first, and then the driver seat was complete on the first try. These came out great, I'm so happy with them, they really change the car.
While he was working on the seats, I was working on the stereo system. The factory radio plug was hacked up (of course it was), so I first soldered on a Metra 71-1721 plug, I then hooked up:
- JVC radio
- Set of JVC 6.5" components in the front doors
- Matching set of 6.5" components in the rear deck
- Mounted my trusty ol' Alpine PDX5 five channel amp behind one of the side panels (this is the 4th car of mine this amp has been in)
For bass, I wanted to keep the spare tire in place, so I put together this box for my shallow mount Rockford 10". It's a great woofer that doesn't need a lot of airspace to operate. So I have all my storage and the stock spare tire stays right where it was designed to be. It's bolted in place using 4 stock bolts that hold the body to the subframe. I just had to get bolts that were 1" longer to account for going through 3/4" MDF.
Other minor things done:
- the passenger side wiper arm was completely non-existent. Picked up another on eBay and put it on
- the hood latch handle was broken. Ordered a replacement from eBay and that is replaced.
- flushed out the brake fluid after we did the brakes.
Still to do:
- I hate how low the car is and the springs and shocks are garbage, I have a set of Yonaka coilovers on the way
- The passenger rear camber arm's bushing is completely shot. My buddy has a set of adjustable ones to give me
- Timing belt and water pump (since I have no idea when they were done last)
- Get the AC working again. I already have a new compressor, I need to order a new dryer as well. Figure I'd do this while I am doing the timing belt and water pump.
- Ordered a replacement steering wheel cover so I can cut and remove the one in there now.
- I'm throwing around the idea of trying to get cruise control working again, a previous owner had pulled it all out for some reason.
I think I have already spent more on the car than I paid for the car, but ah well, that's how it goes.
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