The Story
So I’ve had this car for two years, and it’s been nothing but ups and downs with this car especially financially and mentally. Started off with an accident in my first car ever (another older civic). Totaled it doing something stupid that I still regret to this day… lesson learned get good tires. Anyway this one popped up and I fell in love with the color which has all but been ruined which we will get to later. This car was a lot of firsts for me… 1st manual, first “sport trim” vehicle, and first car payment 😒. Well I had so many idea for this car and I wanted to do it right. First thing I purchased was a skunk2 exhaust and stage 2 clutch kit with a light weight fly wheel, totaling out of budget for me at the time because I had no idea what was gonna come next. I started getting really good hang of the car and then synchro and gear were going out almost monthly and I drove 8hrs to San Francisco with the car in this condition. Finally made it to summer where I can submit for diagnosis at my local Honda and see what my extended warranty would cover. A few days with out the car and I get a call with some bad news, everything trans wise was bad, Slave cylinder leak, stretched shifter cables, semi seized pilot bearing, non existent 2nd and 3rd gear synchro, you name it it had the problem. Totaling over 7k in repairs. Luckily clutch was in amazing condition so the warranty covered a pretty good chunk bringing costs down to under 5k. And a neat little hook up I have at that dealership brought it down to 2300 flat. So brand new transmission, installed my new clutch and fly wheel, and brand new everything. Did not think it was a bad deal, but I was without the car for two months and slowly going insane without it. BUT prior to all this the car had been hit in 3 hit and runs in my owner ship of the car (in the span of 3-4 weeks) which led to me having to chase cracked paint all over the car and replacing my passenger door with a black one I found at a junk yard. Needless to say the car has had some bad luck, but I kept on. Got a new job, and started focusing on maintenance parts and improving certain qualities the vehicle had. Coming to a year of ownership and California gets hit with record rain and that lead to a breed of new problems. The inside consistently smelled wet inside and I couldn’t understand why until I sat in my back seat, to cut a story short my sunroof leaked bad which I spent many days taping to seal it. Then the floor by my clutch started to get wet and I traced it to the windshield, so I had that replaced which was expensive but I got a few pay bumps and a promotion or two since so i could cover it. Then the final nail in the coffin before I ripped every single piece of interior out was a hole in the fire wall that looked like it was plugged with silly putty. I went to step in my car and the carpet squished and puddled almost like a pool. And I was so furious spent hours tearing apart my car that day and the end result had me depressed, it took me weeks of looking to find the hole which I then plugged, interior was destroyed. So in trying to think of what to do I thought why not upgrade. Come to find out the next year of my car 2013 came with a black interior and fake carbon fiber accents which I have come to love to this day. After weeks of searching I found one that someone was parting out down in LA and jumped at the chance, one of the other issues with my car is rust and I’ll touch more on that later. So I arrive with one of my good friends and we get ready to tear this apart. After some time of wrenching and hanging out with the sellers we grew into our own little group tearing out part after part and sorting what I wanted and didn’t… which is a great experience and very unique if you get the chance to experience it. As I’m waking away loading up two cars worth of parts I look at the other parts of the car back end was completely gone beyond repair it the front still had some goodies… front subframe, knuckles, and more. After some thought we decided to take the subframe which was in great condition not a lick of rust. The sellers said $100 and I reserved my emotions because on the inside I was jumping with joys as this part used goes for anywhere between $500-$800 and the entire interior with everything else I got totaled around $850 or so if memories serve me correctly out of the 2 trips I took with some big items being the entire dash, headliner, and very bolt and clip you’d need. Then after months and months I had it all put back together with some minor retro fitting and dying of the old interiors parts and I had a newly refreshed and detailed interior with brand new oem carpet from my hook up at Honda. In all that that time there were upgrades here and there… wheels and tires, rear end suspension (sway bar, new shocks, new trailing arms, endlinks, knuckles, brake calipers,) , acuity short shifter, engine mounts (hasport) , but no coil overs yet and some other things I might be forgetting. I have a lot of other parts on stand by just because it will be easier to do it all at once. And more recently had a carbon fiber hood and fenders installed on the car and I’m so happy how it turned out. There is definitely more to the story but this story is already getting too long. Now after two years or so I can actually start doing very cool mods to the car and make it mine. Also I work at America’s Tire so I get 30% of everything including wheels and tires, definitely has been my savior in more then one accounts in my ownership.
Current Setup
- Wheels: 18x8 +40 Enkei TS-10 Storm Grey
- Tires: 225/40 r18 Nitto NeoGen
- Interior: 2013 Civic Si interior retro fit
- Exterior: Carbon Fiber Hood with Hood Pins
- Exterior: Carbon Fiber Fenders
- Performance: Skunk2 MegaPower RR Cat-back exhaust
- Performance: Takeda a Cold Air Intake
- Suspension: K-Tuned control arms, camber arms, and oil pan brace
- Exterior: Black Passenger Door
- Performance: Acuity Short shifter
- Performance: Hasport lower and transmission mounts
- Suspension: New end links all around, rear Megan racing sway bar, new trailing arms
- Wheels: Full size spare with same wheel and tire
- Interior: Mugen Red Carbon fiber shift knob
Planned Upgrades
- Suspension: K-tuned k1 street coil overs with covers
- Exterior: Carbon fiber trunk and spoiler
- Exterior: New paint job
- Interior: Buddy club hydro dipped steering wheel
- Performance: Insane Shafts chromoly steel axles
- Performance: Brand new hubs and wheel bearings
- Performance: Acura RL caliper retro fit with 350z nismo rotors (powerstop pads and rotors)
Gallery
