My first car, Project "Deborah"

[C1Civic]

I recently started this buildup thread on clubek.net, and decided to post it up on JDMU as well.
I bought this car off of ebay motors last year on may 11'th, with 160,000 on the chassis and 80,000 on the gsr motor. My thinking was that if I bought a car that was already modified I would save some money vs. buying new parts. And just like any car you buy without even seeing it in person, there were some things, both good and bad, that you didnt expect or that you werent told before hand.
Here is the mod list, as listed on the ebay auction, with some comments.

1997 RED Honda CIVIC DX EK body style... MINT ...

******FRESH MILANO RED PAINT JOB******* (paint job somewhere between professional and maco)

EXTERIOR
Complete 2000 SI OEM front end conversion (depo headlights and fogs)
Yellow SI fog lights
2000 EK tailights
CTR back lip (knockoff)
Spoon sport carbon fiber wing (spoon style)
Brand new 16 inch GT3 rims red & new tires
(knockoff ctr front lip not mentioned)

SUSPENSION
2000 Front & rear GSR disc brake conversion
Brand new H&R lowering springs
D2 Lower control arms
Megan lower strut bar
(lightweight lug nuts not mentioned)

UNDER THE HOOD
99 GSR engine (80,000 mi)
2000 SI tranny (60,000 mi)
Skunk 2 pro series manofold
65 mm ELDEBROCK throttle body
Competition clutch .. stage 3
Energy suspension motor mount inserts (these werent there, but I found that out much later)
Motor mount damper
OEM new type R valve cover
OBD2-OBD1 jumper harness with P72 GSR ECU (actually a P30)
2 1/2 inch straight pipe with stock muffler ( straight pipe= loud and buzzy)

INTERIOR
00 GSR front & back black leather seats
00 SI power window conversion
SI cluster
SI center console with CTR shift boot
CTR airbag tray
Sway bar across back window
Stock GSR radio (here was a plus, its actually 00' type r cd player)
RSX Type S floor mats
Alpine type S interior speakers
(New windsheild and si tweeters not mentioned)

So this is what it looked like when i bought it

I got some recent paintwork done. The bumper had been rearended twice and the door had been keyed, so I got that fixed, as well as the rear lip taken off and the mirrors color matched.




The door all fixed, I have no before pictures

Here is a picture where you can see the rear lip

I have no pictures of the damage, but this looks much better than before

[names2blame]

nice

[C1Civic]

UUPDATE
Recently arrived from stockinteriors.com

Its all rolled up so you have to unpack it quickly!


The underside

You can see how its molded, theres more resin material in the molded parts

As opposed to the stock carpet, which uses shredded foam and fabric as padding, this carpet uses old compressed carpet fibers.

The old carpet

The main reason I got a new carpet, this stain was moldy and smelly. This car has had many owners.

Fritos??

I had to organize while stripping the interior other wise I would be completely lost.

At least I got paid to work on my own car



^$2.57
Some tools I found in my car behind panels and underneath the carpet


....


After some google searching, I found a place to get dry ice locally. I used 30 pounds, and it turned out to be just enough. If I were to do this again, I could get away with using 20 pounds.







Once done with one area, move the ice to another.


I did this at night in 40 degree weather so the ice didnt have to do so much work.


Inside the fog

There were many areas, like this one, where the sound deadening tar overlapped the chassis sealent, which I didnt want to remove. I had to do my best to take out the tar but not the chassis sealer.

[C1Civic]

Overall I shaved 17 pounds!


This will be used to clean up the interior.


There are a number of plugs in the floor pan. I took some of those out and took the tar off of them, and resealed them with hondabond because I had it lying around.



And thats it for now, more updates coming soon.
I removed the tar because it saves some weight and the new carpet is thicker than the old one, so there shouldnt be too much noise. I'm keeping the firewall mat because my b16 tranny revs very high on the highway. Taking out the tar should increase road noise a little bit.

[C1Civic]

Ok, here is whats new for today.
I got new plugs and slapped those in.

I decided to bolt in the driver seat and see how the car feels stripped.
With nothing in it, it was loud and rattly, but much more responsive.(i did bolt up the ecu)

Then, using that 3M adhesive cleaner, I cleanup most of the tar residue around the car, cleaning up all of it in the trunk in preperation for paint.

The trunk of the car, ready for primer. This was always the worst looking part of the car.

I taped up some cardboard, and then sanded and primed anything that needed sanding or priming.

Between coats

All done, no flash

All done, with flash.

When all the panels are in, only the painted areas will show. I ended up using 4 coats of paint. And for some reason, the can of red krylon I've had for over a year matches the outside of my car very nicely!

[C1Civic]

[jdmjnky]

sweet very well done!

[Juanit0]

Nice!

[hondaacclx84]

very nice dude I'm looking forward to it keep us updated. Glad you're taking the crap out

[nyek]

Very sick bro! And who's Lotus Elise is that in the 7th picture? Its insane! Also post some money shots...unless ur saving that till the end.

[I HEART MY HONDA]

Originally Posted by C1Civic

thanks for the tease.... lol the car is comingalong awesome.
congrats on a good build thus far

[Greenergy]

AMAZING, SIMPLY AMAZING! Man, you give so much love to your car!

That ice-thing is kinda new for me... mind telling how exactly it works and what exactly you were doing there??

[C1Civic]

Thanks for the comments you guys. Dont worry there are many more updates coming soon, I've just been a bit busy. And nyek, thats actually a lotus europa I saw one day in a parking lot. I'm guessing its like a more luxurious elise. That pic is the only one of the fake ctr lip I used to have on there.
Greenergy, the dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) is used to freeze the sound deadening tar off of the floor pan for easy removal. You just take a block of the ice, break it up with a rubber mallet, and spread it on the tar panels untill the tar starts to freeze and crack. Then its easy to pry off the tar with a puddy spreader. This is a much quicker, cleaner method of tar removal than just using a hammer and chizel.

[eg6BT]

Originally Posted by C1Civic

Thanks for the comments you guys. Dont worry there are many more updates coming soon, I've just been a bit busy. And nyek, thats actually a lotus europa I saw one day in a parking lot. I'm guessing its like a more luxurious elise. That pic is the only one of the fake ctr lip I used to have on there.
Greenergy, the dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) is used to freeze the sound deadening tar off of the floor pan for easy removal. You just take a block of the ice, break it up with a rubber mallet, and spread it on the tar panels untill the tar starts to freeze and crack. Then its easy to pry off the tar with a puddy spreader. This is a much quicker, cleaner method of tar removal than just using a hammer and chizel.

hey where can you buy dry ice from?

[C1Civic]

Originally Posted by eg6BT

hey where can you buy dry ice from?

I encountered the same problem. I think I google searched "dry ice NH" and I found out there was a welding company called Airgas selling dry ice just 2 towns away. Maybe do the same seach "dry ice (your state)"