Motors Call to BTers: Pimp my civic!

I recently purchased a car. Its a 91' honda civic DX hatchback with a 4spd manual, 263,000 miles (Yes, I know thats alot.). At the moment, its nothing special, but I'd like to change that.

You see, I have an extremely high value for the opinions and ideas that come from this forum. Theres alot of genius flowing around here just waiting to be utilized, so I thought I'd have a go at getting some of it

No, I dont want to "rice" it out, I dont want to have dvd screens ANYWHERE in the car (I still dont really understand why you would want to spend 4000 on screens alone just to show them off), and I will not be getting a muffler tip that makes it sound like a 747 landing infront of my house.

I'm looking to just make it sleek, simple, and just have enough flash that its something I can be proud of.

Heres what it looks like atm:



I'm currently:
Fixing the rear windshield wiper
Fixing a leak in the trunk (boot)
and looking into getting a tachometer.
Fixing my drivers side inside lock. (I have to use the key from the outside right now)
GF got me slick neoprene seat covers

What I'd like to do:

Add a system. For cheap. I have an amp and a sub allready. (Its a 50w rms amp and a 600w sony sub. I'm not replacing these, because I cant really afford it, unless its on sale of course ;p) I'd like a stylish head unit that can support a sub and mp3 cds. Price range is < $150 including shipping.

Fix the scratches and paint wear. Its waxed atm so I'm not too concerned about rust, but as soon as we get some warm weather around here I'd like to touch up a few scratches and spots where the paint has worn through. Any advice on this would be appreciated. I cant afford a full paint job, so this is the best I can do. The side plastic peices arent quite black anymore. Could I fix this with a dye/spray/or vinyl?

Style up my rims. Again, I cant afford new ones, so its either make the ones I have look hot or get wheel covers, which are difficult to make look good. I'm a picasso with spray paint, so hopefully that can turn out something. I'm looking for design suggestions in this area, unless you know of some good wheel covers.

Other possibilities are tinting the rear windows (window film is cheap, right? And if you do it right it looks good.. maybe?) inside paint accents; pretty much anything thats cheap, looks good, and I can do myself. I'm good with my hands and have access to a near endless supply of tools.

In addition to all this, I'd be happy to sport a Bit-Tech sticker on one of my windows, because with any luck Ill be able to say "Bit-Tech pimped my civic!" Maybe if a certain idividual contributes alot, I'll sport an individual sticker with their alias ;p

Man, I'm a riot. lol.

Also, if you hate imports, or want to call my car a POS, or are posting just to start an argument with someone, please dont. Constructive criticism only. Its general BT rule but sometimes people forget..


So, Bit-Tech, let me have your ideas, I'm all ears.


::UPDATE:: Pics on page 2

 

EDIT : Don't be awkward.

:: Phat ::

 

wow do we even have then cars in the uk... lol any mate.


just get some better round things and clean it up a bit don't change anything tho as it will be harder to sell.


don't spend money on things that will not help it sell or you can take with you to your next car

and use ebay not shops to get bits for your car or a scrap heap

 

what part of that was realy constructive?


Anyhoo as your bit of a wizz with spray paint id touch up your bumpers and trims, get them looking realy black again. Have you got any inside shots of the dash etc ?

 

I say gut it out completly down to the chasi. Weld in a racing harnes, replace the motor and trany with a real engine, maybe a 3L v6 or larger. Make it rwd and get a suspension setup from another car and adapt it to it. Then reapulster the interior covering the cage. Put in some simple racing seats in the front, and a lightweigh bench in the rear. Upgrade the tiresize to at least 16inch but not higher than 17inch and put some high performance tires on those.

At the end of the day you will have a monster on weels but you will still be driving a honda civic. so scratch that.

I say drive it as is till it dies and then get another car with way less miles.

 

Go here....

Hey, if you are looking for ideas and help, go to www.accordinglydone.com and post in the other rides section of the forums. Tons of smart people on the boards and I am sure they can help you with anything you may need.

But for my opinion....

1) Touch up the paint like you want to. I just did this with my car and the results make it look brand new.

2) Get a nice suspension set-up. H&R Springs and Koni-Yellow shocks would be a nice combo for that car. Also, hit up eBay for some strut bars and you'll have tighter steering in a hurry.

3) New intake and Exhaust. K&N Typhoon intakes make power and give your car a nice throaty sound at the lower RPM range. For Exhaust, I'd go with an Apexi World Sport Cat-Back set-up. It is a nice system and is quiet so you won't sound like an airplane taking off!

4) Window tint is easy, cheap and does make your car look better, only as long as it is installed correctly. As for wheels, painting your stock wheels Black after giving them a good sanding and cleaning will be nice with the Red color of your car.

These are just some ideas I have. Hope it helps!!

 

SHAKIRALOVER, Thank you for your worthless input.

In any case, I was thinking black paint on my wheels would look good as well. Gloss?

And as far as my bumpers, is there any paint recommendation for something durable?


I'm not worried about reselling the car, it has 260k miles on it ;p If it gets resold as a car (and not parts) then its gonna go for a few hundred dollars to somebody who cant afford better.

 

oo nice, lots of stuff you can do here.

1. Lower about 2"
2. Get some nice 16" rims
3. Fix ur paint scratches
4. get the interior detailed
5. tint the windows
6. do a little bit of performance (intake, exhaust, tb,...bolt on stuff)

5. DONE

you can make a really nice car by just making it look "clean"
i have a 95 ford escort and thats about all i did (and added a nice system)
get compliments for it being "a nice escort"

 

*Rolls his eyes at those who deserve it*

Chop the springs - get it riding in the weeds.

Fit larger steels from another Honda (15" or 16"). Remember that large wheels and low profile tyres ruin the handling and make the car slower.

Paint aforementioned steel wheels gloss black.

Fit whitewall tyres.

Get paintwork touched up and glossy - bright red body, bright black trim.

Paint the bonnet matte black for that JDM-racer look.

Fit moon discs to the wheels (optional).

And most importantly, have fun with a great little car and don't listen to people who feel the need to disparage it to make their own inadequacies seem lesser.

*n

 

first things first i'd sort out the paintwork you say theres scratches and some rust if you go to your nearest halfords (or whatever the us equivilent is) and buy a scratch repair kit and a can of primer paint and laquer for redoing the paint work and it looks pretty faded to will probably need a good buffer and polish to bring it back upto spec. as for the strips you could probably paint them but i'd be tempted to remove them all together but there probably held on with clips which would need the holes filling and in the worst case there could be a channel down the side of the car where the strips sit. altho if there only help on with trim tape you can remove them by heating them up with a hair dryer then running some dental floss down the back to cut scrape the glue/tape off then just use tome tar remover to get rid of the gunk that left on.

your after a system your best bet for a cheap one is ebay altho if you can find shops with older modles in you can get a bargin there too. i've got a jvc kd-s891r mp3 hu in my car and it cost me £150 last year and you can pick them up new for as little as £50 new only 12 months later so my guess is used on ebay they'd be less. its a good hu with one pre out for an amp and 45wx4 on the hu which is more than enough to run components and 6x9's. ifi were you i'd probably try and spend about $75-90 on door speakers getting the best you can and the rest on a 2nd hand head unit

now onto styling i'd probably colour code the wing mirrors which is really easy to do and good practice for painting (just remember to take them off the car first), colour code the door handles (again remove them first) and remove the strips if its not much work. i'd not recomend colour coding the bumpers coz unless you have pro spraying equipment it'll look bad painting a large area with spray cans. as for the rims i'd spray them black if your keeping the steel wheels altho over here you can pick up a 2nd hand set of 15" alloys for as little as £100 and you might be able to get some honda alloys off a higher spec honda which wouldnt look out of place on yours just make sure you get the right fitment unlike a friend of mine who got some alloys for his saxo without checking the fitment only to find out his car had 3 stud hubs and he'd bought 4 stud alloys. as for the interor just give it a good clean and buy some new mats (you'd be suprised with the difference it makes) you could have a go at painting some of it (heres an example of a painted dash in a corsa just to give you an idea clicky) your thinking about tints which do look cool but you have to be carefull when your fitting it as its easy to mess up but if you take your time it shouldnt be too hard, the only tricky part might be with the back side windows as it looks like they have some sort of bolt going thru them for the opening mech but i'm guessing you can remove that while you tinit it. i'd probably go with a medium/dark with the red paint

now onto performance its an old car with an old engine so unless your willing to spend big bucks your not going to get monster performance. i'd give it a full service (oil, plugs and oil filter)first off to get it running a little better, you may have noticed i left air filter off that list with the full serice thats due to my next point get a performance pannel filter not a cone filter, then drill holes in the bottom half of your airbox on the oposite side to the engine that way you get most of the benifits of a performance cone filter with the bonus of not sucking in hot air from your engine bay due to having still your airbox. now onto the exhaust youve said you dont want a big exhaust so that pretty much rules out universal (aka cheap) back boxes which is good as universal translates as fits feck all. so your left with the option of buying replacement back box designed for your car but seeing as you have a jap car they'll most likly be big loud ones or an exhaust tip, you wont get any power gains but then a back box only gives you around 1-2 bhp anyway. if you go for one of these they just bolt on over the end of your current back box and it sometimes shows if you have a large bolt on. a way to get around that is to cut the tip of the standard exhaust down so theres only enough showing to bolt on the tip. if you want to lower it springs are the cheap option and can be found on ebay but if your shock absorbers are worn fitting lowering springs will only make it worse the alternative is a set of "sports" springs and shocks you can get them for around £150 new over here and they'll help with handling no end so will fitting strut braces front and rear.

hope that helps its all i can think of for budget modding. if your not sure how to paint bodywork theres loads of guides online just google it.
good luck with the car

edit: you could also check scrapyards for parts from sportyer version of your car i managed to find a spoiler for my car already painted the same colour as mine for £25 and there were around £100 for an unpainted repoduction version which dont look as good, aslo you might find a car the same as yours that somone has been doing up but written off with some salvageable parts. i've seen sports seats and body kits on cars in my local yard, i've just never had any money for them

 

You are a pubic hair. Your "99 problems" are obvious and unfixable.

 

Awesome. Keep the ideas coming guys.

As far as the engine is concerned, its allready been given a good once over, as far as oil, replaced seals, gaskets, new distributor, new timing belt, and ensured everything is lubed and up to par.

The junkyard idea for better looking parts sounds great, but I've never been to a junkyard for. What kind of discount do the parts at a junkyard see? Am I expected to wander around looking for stuff or should they keep a catalouge of what kind of cars they have and where they are?

Thanks for all the input, I knew I could depend on you guys

 

depends on the junkyard,
some around her catalog and some dont. doesnt hurt to make a list of what you are looking for and call around. around here, junkyards prices are always negotitable.

 

In leiu of JC Whitney having free shipping until the end of tomorrow, I took a quick look at window film.

What % of darkness should I go for? The options I have are 98%, 80%, 62% or darkest and dark from http://www.jcwhitney.com/wcsstore/splittest/images/imagecache/10014626.gif

 

With regards to the darkness of the windows, you *will* need to check with the law of the land, as there is a limit to how dark you can have your windows at! For a motor vehicle.

However, i think that applies to windscreen and the drivers and passengers side windows.

 

Wow 263,000 miles. A good start would be an engine rebuild or a new engine, maybe a DOHC Vtec, cause I cant see it lasting much longer.

 

psh, just keep putting oil in that puppy and it will last ^_^. My 88 stanza is almost 240,000 miles and running like a charm, hell, i even raced a neon and sunfire and beat them both har har har. Anyways i think you should hav some fun with the car. Or maybe thats just me. Im not the type to care what people think as i got a blue fuzzy steering wheel and i had spinner hubcaps for the longest time. I even "modded" one of them to make it looks like a real spinner. Got lots of looks on that but anyways. I think you should just go buy some nice hub caps and and redo the interior. Dont waste the money when you could be buying new computer parts

 

as far as the rims, rough them up with sandpaper, prime & paint like normal, gloss black or red seems to be pretty popular these days in the us (me personally, i go for lots of chrome)

the bumpers, are plastic, so vinyl dye will work, or if you really want to put in the time, you can take them all off, sand them smooth, prime & make them body color (newer models of civics have body colored bumpers, and black trim on the side) there's a product in the US called "Mother's Back In Black" that does wonders on any exterior black or dark gray trim, but it's something thats done with general maintainance (washing the car etc)

if you can afford it, i'd reccommend taking it to a professional to have the windows tinted, as self done stick on stuff tends to be a hassle, and a professional can do it perfectly (i've never had an issue with shop done tint, but have seen self done tints come off & have bubbles after a month), they will also know the laws of the area for allowable darkness in which windows etc

a decent set of lowering springs, new shocks, and strut bars do wonders for both the handling and the overall look of the hatchback civics, and can be had for relatively cheap

a k&n replacement for the stock airfilter makes life both easier, and makes the car breathe slightly better, so you might notice a small increase in hp (1-4hp maybe) and some appreciable gain in fuel ecconomy (1-2mpg maybe)

upgrading the headunit can be easily done by yourself, as well as replacing the stock speakers (though the rear set can be a hassle in those)

and as always, a nice set of all around tires will do wonders for the car

properly maintained, a honda civic of that era assuming sensible driving, and use, can last well over 350k, i had a teacher in highschool with a 91' civic dx hatchback with a 4speed that had over 400k on it, actuallly very similar car to the one shroom has, only it was black

 

Do something funny, get some spraypaint and paint it blue. Get those rims, weld some sheet on it, so it looks like plated rims, and paint 'em gold
Get some ugly hoodscope from an old truck or something, and put that on.
Nothing beats ugly cars
And write "p!mpm0b!|e" all over it with some gold spray.
Don't know if the last one will work in the states, but here in Denmark it sure would

 

My mechanic knows someone who has a civic hatch with 500k miles on it, runs like a dream ;p

I'm almost positive that tinting regulations only apply to driver side and passenger front windows as well as windshield, but does anyone know the running rate to have tint professionally done?