Cobl18's 98 Civic Ex Slow build thread

Cobl18

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So roughly a year and 2 months ago I traded my truck for a civic, a really bummed up barely hanging on t life civic because i was spending nearly 120 bucks a week on gas. I was super happy to find out that it only cost me 35 bucks to fill it up and it lasts all week! Regardless the car needed major work done on it. Here's a list of the things that were wrong with it.
1. Needed a new dizzy because the car would die because the TDC sensor was out.
2. The car over heated because the cap on the radiator was bad.
3. The driver side door had a huge dent in it due to my buddy who i bought the car from had hit a tree (the frame was not bent, i had it checked out at a body shop)
4.The front suspension "popped" due to a broken strut I'm guessing.
5. The tires were bald as all get out.
6. The bezel around the radio was broke due to someone stealing the radio a few years back.
7. The car had no fender cowling, so dirt gets all over the place when i drive in the mud (I live on a dirt road)
8. The A/C was busted, needed a new compressor.
9. The cat was bad and needed a new header O2 sensor.
10. The back seats had some cigarette burns in it.
11. The headlights were like driving with a crappy flashlight taped to your car.
12. The carpet was basically like a huge coke stain on the drivers side.

I'm sure anyone that read the above list would probably thing WTH WHY WOULD YOU BUY THIS CAR, I had a 2000 GMC Sierra, but gas was killing me. The car had some good things going for it :
1. 30 MPG
2. Ram air intake (lol)
3. Super cheap to fix and build

So anyways here's a pic of the car when i had first bought it:
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So after I bought the car I put 300 dollars into it to fix the A/C my self. After I did that there was still a lot of things that had to be done with the car to get it running right. 2 weeks after buying the car I replaced the Distributor because the TDC sensor went out and at lights and stops the car would die and my gas mileage was suffering. I bought the car in late august and it was just beginning to cool down and before i had bought the car the guy (my friend Ronnie) that I had bought the car from had the radiator cap replaced and that had fixed the over heating issue, little did i know that would come back to haunt me in April.
I saved up my money and bought me some cheap headers to slap on the car because the exhaust manifold had cracked and was making my car run stupid, I even went out and bought some nice wrap for them.

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After I installed them I went to a car meet and everyone was pretty impressed what i had done on my own and gave me some tips. On the way home that night I had a blow out and the next day i pulled into Discount Tire and they showed me the tires and they were worn on the inside corned bald and i dropped 600 dollars on tires, there went my funds for a whole 2 months. During that time My battery died and I had to grab a new one. I felt like my whole car was falling apart.

In April it was tie for an inspection, I failed because my lights were broken and I didn't have a horn. I got on ebay and grabbed a cheap air horn lol and some crappy led lights.



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Here's before lights:

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Here's the new lights:



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I thought at the time that the lights were cool but when they started breaking they sucked and i ended up hating them, but hey they let me pass inspection. About 2 weeks after inspection I started having overheating problems, this would last all through the summer and I still need a radiator shroud and a name brand radiator. I dropped about 1,200 dollars (ridiculous i know) into my cooling system to help keep my car cool in record temps (I live in Texas some days on the road its 125) here's some of the parts i bought:
1. Godspeed radiator (I would never ever buy anything from them ever again)
2. 3 OEM pairs of radiator hoses (kept ripping on me) and 1 pair of Samco Sport hoses
3. Mishimoto Transmission cooler
4. Mishmoto 70 degree thermostat
5. 2 ebay cooling fans
6. probably 20 gallons of antifreeze
7. Fan thermostat from summit racing
8. lots of little hoses and ace hardeare
9. timing belt, water pump, gaskets, cam gear
10. many hours of my time on the weekends

In this picture you can kinda see everything I did:

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After I did all this I noticed my brakes making a terrible crunching noise so i bought some nice R1 concept rotors and pads and put them on:

Here's them put on:



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There was no brake pad left and the rotors were gouged so i just replaced them both. After that ordeal I did a light tune up with new plugs and wires after i was having trouble with my car misfiring, it was a combination of my bad wires and the sensor went out in my distributor again (it was used)

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After finally getting everything running right and all the leaks plugged on my engine it was time to start working on my really crappy looking interior and exterior. I grabbed some Duplicolor paint and painted my interior arm rest I thought it looked pretty good for my first paint job =)



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Don't mind the dirty floor lol. Then when I was just about to buy a Mishimoto Triple core radiator and shroud I hit a deer. It sucked but it gave me an reason to work on my outer body! so i picked up 2 doors (front driver and passenger side door) and a passenger side fender from a scrap yard. Lucky me some ricer kid had driven it before and I guess he was about to paint his car because the whole car was primed saving me a whole lot of work. I paid for those and drove around looking like a cool kid with primed doors and a primed fender lol! heres a pic:

The fender on a 2000 civic are a bit different when it comes to head light housing because you can see the headlight just barely doesn't fit:



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Me and my dad (lucky me hes a certified mechanic, diesel mechanic and A&P (airframe and power plant for helicopters and airplanes) mechanic) grinding it down to make the light fit better:

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This last weekend I installed new lights, the deer broke my mounting brackets for the passenger side light, and we painted up the car:

New lights:

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After I put the lights in we painted the car the next day =) heres some pictures of the process:

Here's my dad spraying it down and cleaning it up, the doors and fenders are already sanded down and taped:

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Here's the finished fender I think it looks great:

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Here's the finished passenger door:

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Here's the finished Driver side door, NO MORE DENTS :lol:

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I was really happy and after 4 hours of piecing my car back together it looked good as new! I got my girlfriend to take some really nice pictures of my car on the road and ill upload them later today. Hope you enjoyed reading this and any feed back is welcome!:lol:
 

emerican

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Good progress man
Tuned in for the new pics
My stepdad is also a certified mechanic and certified to work on helicopters and planes that what he does in the miltary and has for 17 years now
Whats your plans for her?
 


Cobl18

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Dude that's awesome that's where my dad got started at. It's nice having him around just in case something goes bad he can help me out. well I got her running all smooth so right now I'm working on the exterior and interior. I'm almost done with the exterior, I'm looking for the stupid pins that hold the door trim on. Do you know where to grab those at I have looked everywhere! After that I'm redoing my interior, doing it all back ( the right way no spray paint) dying the rugs, new seats, and some stuff with my speedometer and stuff. Then I'm doing a transmission swap, going to buy a used one and rebuild it with nice internals and a light weight flywheel with a street clutch. Then I'm going to redo the whole suspension with lowering springs and wheels and rims. Then comes the fun part, engine >=). I'm going to stick with the d series and make it the fastest most bad ass d16y8 ever. I'm thinking turbo and a super. Fully built engine and lots of weight reduction. It might be a slow build but that's what I'm planning to do.
 

emerican

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Solid plans man and yeah it really is i dont need him for almost anything i do, but its really nice to have my stepdad there when i work on stuff cause i know if i cant do it or cant figure it out he can tell me how to lol.
Im glad your planning on sticking with the d series i love the little sohc motors and they can be built to be extremely fast
 


Cobl18

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Yeah I'm excited for my build. I'll hopefully post those pictures tonight
 

Cobl18

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These are some pictures that my girlfriend took after we just finished putting the car back together. this weekend i plan on detailing it so just ignore some of the mud (i live down a dirt road)

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Cobl18

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once i detail it the doors and fenders will blend into the car, its really dirty right now :(
 

Cobl18

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So what are you guys opinions on pin stripes? It is my birthday and part of my birthday present to me was my dad painting my car and helping me fix it up a bit. Today he let me open his present and he got me the really nice 3m pin stripe. It's blue to match my color scheme, but I'm not really sure if I'll like it or not on my car, what's the most clean look for pin stripes? I don't want to look all ricer and gay, I'm really trying to keep this car squeaky clean. On a side note anyone ever gotten 2 tickets within 2 weeks? Can you take defensive driving for both or not? Does anyone know? Thanks guys!
 

emerican

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I personally wouldnt do the pinstripes i tooke the stock ones off my car i dont like the way they look personally, but its up to u man.
 

Cobl18

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I see. Well I'm kinda stuck with doing them haha. I know it sounds stupid but I don't want to dissapoint my dad. Hopefully I can make it look good, but of not I'll take them off. Thanks for the input.
 

Logan98036wa

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I wouldnt do pins but since he got them for you just do it, Im not digging those headlights but ive seen worse the paint looks really good. good job going through and doing the dirty work first
 

Cobl18

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Thanks for the positive input man! Tomorrow I plan on buffering the car really good, sea foaming it, and maybe I'll get around to getting the pin stripes on. I'll post up pictures when I'm done. I also have to work on my girlfriends accord, putting in a thermostat and cabin air filter.
 

Cobl18

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So I know this might sound like a noob question but if I get lowering springs, like the skunk 2 ones can I use them on my stock shock absorbers? I want a quick way to lower the car until I get coil overs.
 

emerican

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technically you can, but you shouldnt depending on how low you go with it and how long itll stay like that
How low are you gonna go with it?
how long will it be on stock shocks
 

Cobl18

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I was going to go with the Skunk 2 ones and i was planning on running them until i get my interior done, so i would say less than 6 months until I get coilovers. They said that the drop would be between 2-2.5 inches. what do you think?
 

emerican

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Thats pretty low on stock shocks i guess short term you can technically do it, but it will eventually blow the shocks out and it will ride like ass.
 

emerican

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Personally i would just leave it stock height untill you buy the coilovers no point in spending money now and 6 months down the road IMO. cause then you will just have springs sitting around and even if you sell them youll prolly have to take some sort of loss on them since they will be used.
 

dj_hallucn8

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Nice another sedan, looking good so far, my center console looks the same as yours, I also painted the shifter plate. I would save up to get the coilovers or a set of adjustable dampering struts & springs, you will be better off not putting lowering springs on the stock struts if you want 2" or more of a drop. In for more pics & glwb!
 


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