My name is Mike, and I own a 1997 Honda Civic EX. I bought it in April 2005 from a used car dealer:
These are the first shots of red4 when she had officially become mine:
The first mod to the car was the CTR style grill. Gotta love the Dremel tool:
Next up came time to mount a tranny cooler on the coupe. I wanted a 5-speed, but this coupe was at the right price and was a red EX, so I decided I could live with the auto tranny….for now, lol.
My next mod I stumbled across from a seller on ClubCivic.com. He had a spare D16Z6 valve cover, so I bought it from him and sprayed it with VHT wrinkle plus paint. It turned out ok, but I’m wanting to redo it someday.
After the valve cover was bolted on I made a purchase I would later regret. I found a StreetStyler lip on eBay for cheap, so I picked it up before I really knew what other nice lips were available. I mounted it on the car in its stock black plastic form.
The next exterior mod to the car was a set of 99-00 OEM tail lights and an OEM antenna block-off plate. The tails came from a forum member and the block-off came from InlineFour.com. I was very happy with the way the car looked sans the long flimsy antenna.
I’m currently going to school working towards a degree in marketing so I live in an apartment off campus with no garage. For most of my installs I end up traveling back to my parents place and taking advantage of my dad’s newly built garage.
While I was home that time I painted my front lip and side skirts to match the car, sprayed my steelies gloss black and installed my Eibach Pro-Kit springs. When I returned back to college-town I took the car down to the car wash and went on a photo shoot to various locations.
A couple months went by with me mostly paying bills and planning out the future of the car. I had been buying parts all along and waiting for a good time to install everything. When I had all the parts needed, I made another trip to the parents place and installed my Si rear disc brakes, OEM 13mm rear sway bar, Omnipower rear LCAs and Magnum stainless steel brake lines. The whole project took me most of the weekend off and on, but I had fun doing it and even got my dad involved.
About a week after installing all my parts I had a minor fender bender in college-town. I was on my way to class and was in the middle of some stop-and-go traffic when it happened. I looked off to the side of the road for just a second and when I looked back the lady in front of me had stopped and I skidded into the back of her at a fairly low speed. The damage was fairly minimal to my car, but included a bent hood, some cracking and flaking of paint on the front bumper and a slightly downward-bent bumper reinforcement.
I was able to straighten the beam back out, but the hood will have to be replaced eventually. I'm thinking carbon fiber.
Even with all the parts I had been stockpiling, I managed to find some money still laying around and looking lonely. So, I sent the whole of it off to EdgeRacing.com and had a single 15” Falken Hanabi wheel with tire sent to my place. I only bought one because I wanted to test it on my car and see how I liked the look. If worse came to worse I figured I could just use it as a full-size spare, lol. Here are the pictures of it mounted on the coupe:
I loved the way they looked on the car and have decided to purchase the rest this spring (2006) when I get my tax refunds back and save a little more money.
To celebrate my birthday in November (2005) I put in an order through Nukabe Automotive for some Cusco parts and this is what showed up:
And with my birthday in November, the next big event to hit was winter. I found one day that wasn’t too far below zero and cleaned up my car for some pictures.
In December I ordered a Cusco front strut bar and installed it over Christmas break while I was home. I don’t have any pictures of it yet. During my break I also decided that the StreetStyler lip was not the look I wanted for my coupe. I wanted something more authentic and something that was built with better quality. I decided on the JDM SiR lip and sold my StreetStyler piece to a forum member on d-series.org.
Also over break I got married to my lovely wife, Stef, and my car was subjected to the regular wedding day tradition of chalked windows and toilet paper. Unfortunately I haven’t got any shots of that either.
With my return back to college-town I ended up slapping an OEM grill back on the coupe and took some time to try and repair some of the damage from my fender bender a month back. I masked off several sections of my front bumper and then sprayed away with a couple cans of milano red paint. I did the paint work at a friend’s place in town. Two of his cars are in the driveway with mine.
And for now, that is the current state of my car. I do, however, have some parts on their way to me via big brown trucks. Those parts are an Espelir JGT500 exhaust, a JDM SiR front lip, a stock Y8 exhaust manifold to replace my cracked unit and a stock Y8 5-speed intake manifold for my future tranny swap plans.
My car has come a few steps forward from when it was purchased and has also taken some steps backwards. All in all I’m having a lot of fun building it. Next week I start my new job and should have most of the new parts so things should really be picking up.
For more pictures and/or details about the car you can visit my site:
http://www.red4.org
Please post any comments or suggestions you have.
These are the first shots of red4 when she had officially become mine:
The first mod to the car was the CTR style grill. Gotta love the Dremel tool:
Next up came time to mount a tranny cooler on the coupe. I wanted a 5-speed, but this coupe was at the right price and was a red EX, so I decided I could live with the auto tranny….for now, lol.
My next mod I stumbled across from a seller on ClubCivic.com. He had a spare D16Z6 valve cover, so I bought it from him and sprayed it with VHT wrinkle plus paint. It turned out ok, but I’m wanting to redo it someday.
After the valve cover was bolted on I made a purchase I would later regret. I found a StreetStyler lip on eBay for cheap, so I picked it up before I really knew what other nice lips were available. I mounted it on the car in its stock black plastic form.
The next exterior mod to the car was a set of 99-00 OEM tail lights and an OEM antenna block-off plate. The tails came from a forum member and the block-off came from InlineFour.com. I was very happy with the way the car looked sans the long flimsy antenna.
I’m currently going to school working towards a degree in marketing so I live in an apartment off campus with no garage. For most of my installs I end up traveling back to my parents place and taking advantage of my dad’s newly built garage.
While I was home that time I painted my front lip and side skirts to match the car, sprayed my steelies gloss black and installed my Eibach Pro-Kit springs. When I returned back to college-town I took the car down to the car wash and went on a photo shoot to various locations.
A couple months went by with me mostly paying bills and planning out the future of the car. I had been buying parts all along and waiting for a good time to install everything. When I had all the parts needed, I made another trip to the parents place and installed my Si rear disc brakes, OEM 13mm rear sway bar, Omnipower rear LCAs and Magnum stainless steel brake lines. The whole project took me most of the weekend off and on, but I had fun doing it and even got my dad involved.
About a week after installing all my parts I had a minor fender bender in college-town. I was on my way to class and was in the middle of some stop-and-go traffic when it happened. I looked off to the side of the road for just a second and when I looked back the lady in front of me had stopped and I skidded into the back of her at a fairly low speed. The damage was fairly minimal to my car, but included a bent hood, some cracking and flaking of paint on the front bumper and a slightly downward-bent bumper reinforcement.
I was able to straighten the beam back out, but the hood will have to be replaced eventually. I'm thinking carbon fiber.
Even with all the parts I had been stockpiling, I managed to find some money still laying around and looking lonely. So, I sent the whole of it off to EdgeRacing.com and had a single 15” Falken Hanabi wheel with tire sent to my place. I only bought one because I wanted to test it on my car and see how I liked the look. If worse came to worse I figured I could just use it as a full-size spare, lol. Here are the pictures of it mounted on the coupe:
I loved the way they looked on the car and have decided to purchase the rest this spring (2006) when I get my tax refunds back and save a little more money.
To celebrate my birthday in November (2005) I put in an order through Nukabe Automotive for some Cusco parts and this is what showed up:
And with my birthday in November, the next big event to hit was winter. I found one day that wasn’t too far below zero and cleaned up my car for some pictures.
In December I ordered a Cusco front strut bar and installed it over Christmas break while I was home. I don’t have any pictures of it yet. During my break I also decided that the StreetStyler lip was not the look I wanted for my coupe. I wanted something more authentic and something that was built with better quality. I decided on the JDM SiR lip and sold my StreetStyler piece to a forum member on d-series.org.
Also over break I got married to my lovely wife, Stef, and my car was subjected to the regular wedding day tradition of chalked windows and toilet paper. Unfortunately I haven’t got any shots of that either.
With my return back to college-town I ended up slapping an OEM grill back on the coupe and took some time to try and repair some of the damage from my fender bender a month back. I masked off several sections of my front bumper and then sprayed away with a couple cans of milano red paint. I did the paint work at a friend’s place in town. Two of his cars are in the driveway with mine.
And for now, that is the current state of my car. I do, however, have some parts on their way to me via big brown trucks. Those parts are an Espelir JGT500 exhaust, a JDM SiR front lip, a stock Y8 exhaust manifold to replace my cracked unit and a stock Y8 5-speed intake manifold for my future tranny swap plans.
My car has come a few steps forward from when it was purchased and has also taken some steps backwards. All in all I’m having a lot of fun building it. Next week I start my new job and should have most of the new parts so things should really be picking up.
For more pictures and/or details about the car you can visit my site:
http://www.red4.org
Please post any comments or suggestions you have.
i'm excited for the new SiR lip to show up though. that'll really set off the front bumper well.