Hi Everyone.
Having always been a "Nissan guy" I never would have pictured myself putting up a build thread on a Honda forum
Previous cars have been an R34 Skyline, S15 Silvia & even a short stint in a VW Scirocco R.....until I realised that fancy new cars suck & old 90's cars are awesome. That's how I ended up owning a Honda.
Being in my late 20's, I decided it was time to start being "responsible" & not go back to constantly breaking, wallet emptying SR20's.
A friend suggested a Civic as they're obviously cheap to buy, cheap to maintain & still good fun (he's also had Civics & an S2K before so maybe he was a little biased haha)
I ended up finding and purchasing this in March last year:
99 EM1, in what was pretty awesome condition for it's age.
So I'm going to skip ahead here to avoid the worlds longest first post & do my best to compress the past 12 months.
First off, the poor EM1 ended up in an accident & written off
But this is also when the bug to hit the track started.
I kept the wreck of the EM1 & then bought this a few days later:
99 EK1, conveniently in the same colour.
The strip-down of the crashed EM1 started almost immediately.
As you can see in this photo I'd already started modding it - I'll add a mod list to the second post.
It wasn't long until we got to this point:
Stripped the head down as we had to replace the lost motion assembly (was rattling away in the EM1)
aaaaand reassembled.
fitted it with:
Skunk2 LMA
Skunk2 Billet cam seal
Skunk2 Thermal intake manifold gasket
Skunk2 Exhaust manfiold gasket
Exedy HD Clutch
Exedy Lightened Flywheel
Braided Clutch Line
Hardrace Engine/Transmission Mounts
B&M Short shifter
Energy Suspension shifter bushes
Every other gasket/seal on the engine was replaced with OEM Honda, as well as a new timing belt, water pump, drive belts etc.
Painted a bunch of brackets, painted the rocker cover Midnight Purple in homage to my Nissan roots :P
There's probably a bunch of stuff we did that I have forgotton, but you get the idea!
Then soon enough surgery began!
That's Nik in that photo, he's the mechanical GENIUS behind everything with this car
Stripped the inside as we were relocating the battery & fuse box, I wanted to use as much of the EM1 interior as possible (much better condition) & also we had to switch over the power windows & looms etc
I won't bore you with all the details, B-swaps in Civics are nothing new haha
Finished product after the swap:
After all that I didn't do much to the car for a few months, as the cost of everything added up quick!
The swap happened around August last year, In October I went up to Winton with some friends as one of them was doing his first track day in his Chaser.
This got me motivated again as I so badly want to get out there!
The next target was to make the March Nugnats day, again I just ended up being a spectator of a few friends as I had a wild summer & also moved house, lost motivation for the Civic etc etc Insert more excuses.
Got super motivated from once again being a spectator.
I've had an ASR rear brace in my cupboard for a long time, so purchased Hardrace links & bushes f&r, just need new FLCA's as I didn't grab them off the EM1 (had no idea they were different!)
Also had my guards prematurely taken care of by Ashneel at 612.
& that's basically where I'm at now.
Just the big ticket items of Coilovers, wheels & tyres to go mainly.
Will be looking at fitting the car out with the rest of the hardrace arms, purely for the bushing replacement that comes with it more than anything.
Hopefully see some of you guys at the next Nugnat or EXE day.....IF I finally make it haha!
Having always been a "Nissan guy" I never would have pictured myself putting up a build thread on a Honda forum
Previous cars have been an R34 Skyline, S15 Silvia & even a short stint in a VW Scirocco R.....until I realised that fancy new cars suck & old 90's cars are awesome. That's how I ended up owning a Honda.
Being in my late 20's, I decided it was time to start being "responsible" & not go back to constantly breaking, wallet emptying SR20's.
A friend suggested a Civic as they're obviously cheap to buy, cheap to maintain & still good fun (he's also had Civics & an S2K before so maybe he was a little biased haha)
I ended up finding and purchasing this in March last year:
99 EM1, in what was pretty awesome condition for it's age.
So I'm going to skip ahead here to avoid the worlds longest first post & do my best to compress the past 12 months.
First off, the poor EM1 ended up in an accident & written off
But this is also when the bug to hit the track started.I kept the wreck of the EM1 & then bought this a few days later:
99 EK1, conveniently in the same colour.
The strip-down of the crashed EM1 started almost immediately.
As you can see in this photo I'd already started modding it - I'll add a mod list to the second post.
It wasn't long until we got to this point:
Stripped the head down as we had to replace the lost motion assembly (was rattling away in the EM1)
aaaaand reassembled.
fitted it with:
Skunk2 LMA
Skunk2 Billet cam seal
Skunk2 Thermal intake manifold gasket
Skunk2 Exhaust manfiold gasket
Exedy HD Clutch
Exedy Lightened Flywheel
Braided Clutch Line
Hardrace Engine/Transmission Mounts
B&M Short shifter
Energy Suspension shifter bushes
Every other gasket/seal on the engine was replaced with OEM Honda, as well as a new timing belt, water pump, drive belts etc.
Painted a bunch of brackets, painted the rocker cover Midnight Purple in homage to my Nissan roots :P
There's probably a bunch of stuff we did that I have forgotton, but you get the idea!
Then soon enough surgery began!
That's Nik in that photo, he's the mechanical GENIUS behind everything with this car
Stripped the inside as we were relocating the battery & fuse box, I wanted to use as much of the EM1 interior as possible (much better condition) & also we had to switch over the power windows & looms etc
I won't bore you with all the details, B-swaps in Civics are nothing new haha
Finished product after the swap:
After all that I didn't do much to the car for a few months, as the cost of everything added up quick!
The swap happened around August last year, In October I went up to Winton with some friends as one of them was doing his first track day in his Chaser.
This got me motivated again as I so badly want to get out there!
The next target was to make the March Nugnats day, again I just ended up being a spectator of a few friends as I had a wild summer & also moved house, lost motivation for the Civic etc etc Insert more excuses.
Got super motivated from once again being a spectator.
I've had an ASR rear brace in my cupboard for a long time, so purchased Hardrace links & bushes f&r, just need new FLCA's as I didn't grab them off the EM1 (had no idea they were different!)
Also had my guards prematurely taken care of by Ashneel at 612.
& that's basically where I'm at now.
Just the big ticket items of Coilovers, wheels & tyres to go mainly.
Will be looking at fitting the car out with the rest of the hardrace arms, purely for the bushing replacement that comes with it more than anything.
Hopefully see some of you guys at the next Nugnat or EXE day.....IF I finally make it haha!
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