NOLAcivic's Daily friendly EJ8 build.

[NOLAcivic]

Hey guys/gals,

I'm new to the board and new to the EJ8 or generically referred to EK chassis and wanted to share my progress with a group of like minded folks as my build moves along. Thanks for commenting and viewing.

Purchased my bone stock 2000 Civic EX coupe 5spd 2/26/2016 for $2800 (USD)



First drive to work!


Cleaned the engine bay up. Looked like it was never ever washed through it's life. Every part looks from the factory.

Before:

After:


Put some tint on the windows, sunroof, and top of windshield



Added new tires and my SI wheels I've been having for years not being used.





Bought some new floor mats (thanks for the opinions from HeX and Mr. Baker).

 

[NOLAcivic]

Installed the floor mats, CTR boot, B&M precision short shifter w/ spoon sport shift knob I had laying around. Cleaned the interior and the door jams. I still need to clean the truck jam and inside of the doors.



Test fit and installed the SI style front lip. I have a SI rear lip and EM1 front grill to fit and then to get everything painted (front and rear lip, side skirts and front grill). I may do the front and back bumper as well b/c they are a little rough.

 

[NOLAcivic]

I also have aftermarket fog lights w/ OEM dash switch to install as well as some Tein BASIS coilovers.

 

[mportedcivicsi]

Welcome! Looks like you are off in the right direction!

 

[XpL0d3r]

Looks good! I had Tein Street Basis on my Civic. Minus the unfortunate event where one leaked a few months into owning, I really liked them!

 

[HeX]

That's one great looking all-original EX. Congrats on the find.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Looks good! I had Tein Street Basis on my Civic. Minus the unfortunate event where one leaked a few months into owning, I really liked them!

Hopefully that won't be the case. Were you able to exchange it since it wasn't that old? How low were you?

 

[5SpeedEJ6]

This car is CLEAN! I hope you keep it that way man (and you seem like you will so I ain't too worried lol).

 

[NOLAcivic]

This car is CLEAN! I hope you keep it that way man (and you seem like you will so I ain't too worried lol).

Sure will man. It will be tastefully modified.

 

[XpL0d3r]

Hopefully that won't be the case. Were you able to exchange it since it wasn't that old? How low were you?

Too low, probably. Not slammed, but almost as low as you could go on them. Would have gone lower but my 3" downpipe / exhaust would have been too low. The issue was, Tein wouldn't exchange it unless I sent it in for them to look at first. They would exchange it if they determined it was a manufacturer defect not caused by improper installation. Since I can't just take one coilover off and drive around, that was not an option for me. FWIW I have Street Advance on my RSX now and I love them. I've installed them to spec + 1/16" lower, so far so good.

 

[mportedcivicsi]

Yeah, Tein is a great product. I've been running them since about 2004. But they are def a function product. Going too low will put more stress than designed and pop them. A lot of people that don't understand this, and I'm by no means saying that of the situation you had Xplod3r, but you can if its true , and they don't use them properly. Then they get all mad and talk trash that they couldn't go nuts low without trouble. They just failed to understand they bought a function coil, not a form type. But under designed conditions, they last. My SS lasted from 2004 to 2013 before one started leaking. That was a load of daily and a few years of tracking too. I sent them all in to Tein and had them serviced and they were great after. Now I'm using a rather old set of Type HA and they have been great as well

 

[NOLAcivic]

This what I figured. I'm not going to drop much lower than stock. I'll have the 15" si wheels using 205/50 tires. With the lip kit I probably won't need to get much lower. I was on the fence between the Teins and the progressive kit. Both had good reviews. We will see how it goes soon enough.

Thanks for the feedback. This is how she sits with the front lip.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Finally got some work in on the car. I got an English Mastiff pup over the week so my time house training him has taken over and I have a 3 year old. I'll probably get to the suspension next weekend. I'm on the fence about bringing the lips and side skirts to get painted, buying the paint and painting with my paint gun, or trying the duplicolor paint match and then clearing it with my paint gun. Does anyone have any experience with using the duplicolor paint? It's such small parts. I've painted with autopaint before and it came out great but it is a lot of work.

Anyway, here is how the trunk spoiler came out.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Did the fog lights last night. Was pretty straightforward and everything fit very well. These things work awesome.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Installed my coilovers yesterday but had 2 bolts break. One was on the lower control arm where it bolts to the trailing arm and the other was a strut mount on the top hat. So to my disappointment I haven't been able to drive the car yet. Fortunately a buddy of mine has a top hat that should work until I get an EK one unless all civics are the same. Napa Auto just happened to have a rear control arm in stock as well. I'm just going to replace this one since it's old and bushings are trashed. Probably going to hack this one up trying to get the bolt out anyway. I'll have some pics later if all goes well.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Did some work this afternoon. Went to the junkyard this morning to get the Accord plug for OEM fog light switch. If anyone else goes looking. It's only on the driver door and it's between the bracket that the pocket of the door card mounts too. It's not on the actual window button switch.

Anyways, I was able to get the switch installed and hope one day to come across the correct color switch as this was all that is available new. I got my coilovers installed and very VERY happy with the ride quality but as you can see in the pics, I'm not slammed by any means. It rides as good as stock. Not much of a performance upgrade but wasn't looking for that in this suspension system. Decided to give the car a bath as well.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Oh I also test fitted the rear lip and while I was messing with it, I got the rear bumper alignment straight. No more gaps on the side. Was pretty simple and made a world of difference.

 

[5SpeedEJ6]

Talk about a mild drop! lol anyways it's looking clean man, I like it a lot. You seem to be doing everything right the first time, which is really rare in the Honda community to be honest.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Haha yeah man. It just closed the gap a little bit. My 3 year old rides with me in this car and my ride to work isn't the smoothest. I'm sure the springs will settle a bit too. I may go a tad bit lower in the end.

Now, my integra gets more of a drop and stiffer Springs. I'll soon be moving from GC /Illumina setup to a higher end Tein set now. I've worked on Hondas for over a decade now and I'm not one to cut corners and always do my own work so I know it's done correctly. I just had my transmissions apart swapping internals and LSD back to a hydraulic casing. I used to have a DA integra and a crx so everything was cable type.

 

[NOLAcivic]

Shimming a viscous type LSD is quite the task. But, I was able to get it worked out and back together.