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)
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
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
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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:
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
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:
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
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:
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
Here's the finished fender I think it looks great:
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
Here's the finished passenger door:
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Here's the finished Driver side door, NO MORE DENTS
[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
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!
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:
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.
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.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Here's before lights:
Here's the new lights:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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:
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:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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)
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
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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:
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:
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:
Here's the finished fender I think it looks great:
Here's the finished passenger door:
Here's the finished Driver side door, NO MORE DENTS
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!