95 Civic Vx : With custom extended top-hats = smoother ride but still slammed

[speedooo]

saw it at maple grove. it was lookin nice and shiny all the way in the back

[Danronian]

Originally Posted by redex04

Let me know how dying the interior turns out out i would like to try it in my coupe. My plastics are grey and i wanted to go to all black. Wheels are sweet!

I have some black VXs right now for winter tires, and damn they are UGLY! I did buy some bronze paint to repaint them, but that was three months ago, and I still haven't summoned up that motivation to do it... I also like bronze since it will hide the dirt, unlike the oem silver and black (which looks dirty soon as I pull out of the driveway).

I'm gonna polish the summer VX wheels, I think they'll look a lot better that way.

The dye-job should go great. I had to dye every plastic in my 75 malibu, due to it all turning pink/chalky. Took forever, but the paint has now lasted 6 years. If you just make sure you use some heavy-duty cleaner on it (purple power, simple green, etc), rinse it with water 100%, then scuff it up with some light sand paper, the paint will stick amazing. Just make sure you use very thin coats. Hopefully I'll work on those extra plastics I have within the week. I have a nasty rattle going on in the back of the car, behind one of the plastics, so they need to come out anyway.

[Danronian]

Originally Posted by speedooo

saw it at maple grove. it was lookin nice and shiny all the way in the back

Thanks.

Still looks pretty much the same other than a little dent in the hood and a dented fender thanks to a deer that ran into the side of the car... Die deer die.

[Danronian]

Little update:

Recently I did a few things to the civic:

Installed rear AGXs, rear mud-flaps, OEM fogs, air horn setup, EG6 JDM OEM fogs, and re-blacked out the front bumper as well as dyed some of the interior to begin to make it all black instead of gray/black.

Still need to make some extended upper top-hats for the struts and then lower it some more for the summer in Ocean City MD.

Coming this week are some old-school Denji style projector headlights I ordered.

[Danronian]

Looks like I should be getting these lights in the mail tomorrow.



Got them for a pretty decent deal, and I think they'll work nice for some HIDs in place of the projectors at some point this summer. I heard the light output is meh with them, but the headlights now are so terrible, I'd be amazed if it was that much worse.

Some people hate these on the EG but I like them.

[Danronian]

Installed my new lights. I like em a lot.

A lot more light output, somewhat OEM appearance, and a good replacement for my broken/not-so-clear OEM ones.







Lowered it a little more today, but it was mostly to just even out the front, which was almost an inch off side-to-side for about 6 months now... ooops. Tomorrow I have some softer springs to throw in the rear. Going from 470 in/lb rate springs to 340s. Should feel a lot softer I think. After that, hopefully soon, I'll install some home-made/designed extended upper hats, then the front and back will be lowered about a half inch more.

Today I also noticed that my one lower ball joint has some play in it, and my axle doesn't seem to like to spin too nice on the one side from having a ripped boot for about 20 k miles now... so that is some maintenance I need to get to soon in addition to the warped front rotors and the spark plug wires which seem to be giving me a miss sometimes with my brand new plug wires. I hate having to buy stupid replacement parts...

So break-down should be like this for those parts...
Ball joints - $30/pr
Plug wires - $55 (OEM ones so they last 10 yrs, not 1 yrs like these POS advanceauto ones I have that all pulled apart)
Rotors - $50/pr
Pads - $25/set
Battery should be replaced soon since it has like 3 months left on it - $40

So it looks like about $220 of **** my car needs this year. Oh well. Car does have 252k on it, and never breaks, so it's money well spent for this 43 mpg non-highway car.

[Danronian]

Ordered some hawk pads for the front. Gonna install them, new rotors, new lower BJs, and a new axle soon. All the OLD AGXs are starting to die out on me, so I'm gonna replace them with some skunk2 struts (only $230 a set!!) around May. Making some extended upper top-hats tonight.



Ground clearance:

[Honest_Bob]

you damn crazy honda kids...


I'm gonna steal your gas mileage!

[driftingrx5.7]

dam dude i thought my civic was low! but i will tell you i love those headlights i want them now for my eg

[HatchSurfer3]

Yea man those headlights are nice. I might come switch them in the middle of the night

[Danronian]

Originally Posted by Honest_Bob

you damn crazy honda kids...


I'm gonna steal your gas mileage!

GL doing that!



Thanks guys.

I like the headlights a lot too. They have so much better light output than the factory ones, and look cool.

[Danronian]

Gonna install the extended upper hats tomorrow! We finished fabing them up tonight.

[redex04]

post pics of the tophats, i got an extra set i wanna extend sometime here soon

[Danronian]

Originally Posted by redex04

post pics of the tophats, i got an extra set i wanna extend sometime here soon

I´m out of the country now, but after I clean them up, I´ll snap some pics before installing them.

They´re really simple to make if you have access to a welder.

[Danronian]

4/15/08 Update

Collected some Si interior parts including door panels and a rear seat, and a new steering wheel (only part that isn't installed yet), to upgrade from the not-so-nice VX parts.

Before/after door panels (before is on the right):



Interior all upgraded:




And now for the biggest Si upgrade...



Yup, rear discs (they BARELY fit under the VX wheels). Found a rear brake setup of a LOW mile 99 Si for about a $60 trade with NIB rotors/pads already installed! Picked up a disc brake proportioning valve and installed that as well. Also replaced the front lower ball joints, and the front rotors/hawk pads all in one weekend, and WOW, after that weekend I am now beat. Lots of rusty bolts gave me a lot of trouble, otherwise this should have been an 8hr job at the very very most, but it was a decent amount more....

The end result is a car with SO much better braking. I was kinda scared it wouldn't be worth it, but wow, such a difference between the nearly new drum brakes compared to the rear discs that I just put on (aren't even fully broke-in). It's also a huge upgrade for the bushings in the rear since the old trailing arm bushings were 100% ripped as well as all the other bushings that were attached to the trailing arms (253k miles will do that).

I do have some carnage pictures of all the parts that were cut/mangled to get them off, not sure if I want to open them up to the public to see.. Kinda scary. HAHA

Hopefully I'll get some better brake upgrade pics, because the equal sized discs front/rear look so much better than those puny drums that used to be in the back.

[97`Rolla]

yes bump for my old door panels!

[whiteturbo]

I would just like to give you some props, i've been looking for a car and reading this whole setup makes me want to get a honda and save as much money for a nice car in the future. Nice job and keep it clean!

[Danronian]

Originally Posted by whiteturbo

I would just like to give you some props, i've been looking for a car and reading this whole setup makes me want to get a honda and save as much money for a nice car in the future. Nice job and keep it clean!

Thanks man.

As soon as I land a job and move (hopefully in AUGUST) I'm going to be picking up an s2k as the "nice" car then this can truly be considered the dd.

[Danronian]

Also..

The brake upgrade was DAMN worth it!

The car stops so fast now and no more terrible brake fade like the drums were giving me all the time. Rear alignment is off a bit now though due to one of the rear "toe arms" being siezed in the car, but hopefully I can mess with it a little and make it a little better!

[Honest_Bob]

Sexy door panels.