Danronian

I started this thread and have been adding to it. The most recent is at the top and older stuff is at the bottom. This car is being "built" to be a gas sipping daily driver that looks good. I was planning on swapping in a z6 or LS motor, but when gas prices went over $3 a gallon, I decided to just restore the economy it came with from the factory. Below is it's story.


7/2009:

Sold the car to my friend, Matt (Loserkidwac on HT).

Before I did I installed a set of Koni Sports, and OEM Honda Access rain deflectors.



I bought a 2004 Acura TL.
Already I've put over 12k miles on this car (as of 2/1/2010), and I still love it!



Link to TL album:
/

3/6/08:

New headlights!

Denji projectors.







My stupid sticker collection which I just started:




Lowered it a little more today, but it was mostly to just even out the front, which was almost an inch off side-to-side for about 6 months now... ooops. Tomorrow I have some softer springs to throw in the rear. Going from 470 in/lb rate springs to 340s. Should feel a lot softer I think. After that, hopefully soon, I'll install some home-made/designed extended upper hats, then the front and back will be lowered about a half inch more.

Today I also noticed that my one lower ball joint has some play in it, and my axle doesn't seem to like to spin too nice on the one side from having a ripped boot for about 20 k miles now... so that is some maintenance I need to get to soon in addition to the warped front rotors and the spark plug wires which seem to be giving me a miss sometimes with my brand new plug wires. I hate having to buy stupid replacement parts...

So break-down should be like this for those parts...
Ball joints - $30/pr
Plug wires - $55 (OEM ones so they last 10 yrs, not 1 yrs like these POS advanceauto ones I have that all pulled apart)
Rotors - $50/pr
Pads - $25/set
Battery should be replaced soon since it has like 3 months left on it - $40

So it looks like about $220 of crap my car needs this year. Oh well. Car does have 252k on it, and never breaks, so it's money well spent for this 43 mpg non-highway car that only cost me $2k to begin with!


Newest update 3/5/08:

Added some OEM fogs, EG6 corners, air horns, rear mudflaps, rear agxs to replace the tokico hps, and just redyed some of the interior black as well as re-blacked-out the front bumper.

Some Denji headlights are coming soon, and I'll be getting some HIDs for those this summer. Also I want to get an OEM lip and bra for the car in the next month or so. Other than that the car is almost complete as to what I want it to be.







Update for 10/24/07:

I was in Colombia for a while, but the job there fell through, so now I'm back. I uncovered the car from its 4 months under the car cover, and thankfully it still runs drives the same. Recently I've become interested in driving to see what the max. mpg can be with this car, and on my first two tanks I got 48 then 45 mpg...much better than the 35-38 I was averaging.

I bought some del sol cheaps for pretty cheap a little while back, and just installed them. They weigh about HALF as much as the old civic seats, and don't hurt my back like the OEM ones. They also make it so you sit about an inch lower, which makes this econo-car feel a lot sportier (much more like my old integra).



In the search for better MPG, I also installed a experimental grill-block to keep the wind turbulence and unwanted cold-air out of my engine bay, which the OEM VX bumper came with one made out of plastic that sat behind the bumper grill. (Believe it or not, cold air does not help an engine get better MPG, though it does make more HP.) My next cheap engine plans for MPG include a sea-foam treatment, cleaning out the EGR, making sure the parts store gave me the correct plugs, and finding and installing the OEM intake/filter. I'm also going to install aluminum under the car to smooth out the airflow underneath it.

I added some halloween fun to the cardboard...



So far the car does seem a little quieter inside with the cardboard in place, and the temp gauge hasn't gotten any higher, so I think this is probably a good mod for getting better MPG.

Update for 6/17/07:

The car is now running like a champ. Not a single problem I can even complain about. Clutch grabs nice for having the upgraded/new Exedy stg1 disk, but not too stiff due to using the factory PP. Doesn't take any coolant, oil, or smoke, and still manages to get around the 40 mpg it has always provided me. It just had its maiden road-trip to OC MD this week, and the thing car loved it more than ever before.

Finally snapped some pics of it being complete and clean!









Some might notice the bungee around the battery...that's due to the battery that came with the car being too tall for the factory holder. When I come back and drive this car in two years, it'll need a new battery anyhow. The only thing I really need to fix on this car yet is the horn. It only has a single horn, and the thing sounds like a nearly dead bird. I actually bought one a while back for someone who ended up not needing it, I just need to find the damn thing.


Update for 6/5/07:

Well the swap is done, I just need to take some more pics. I realized I was going to actually install the motor/tranny myself, so I thought about it, and then just jacked the motor up on some cement blocks and boards, lowered the car down a little bit, raised the motor a little more with a jack, and it bolted right in. The only problem I had with getting the motor in was that the one lower ball joint, that I popped apart just a few days earlier, would NOT come apart. After mangling the living **** out of it, I then resorted to taking the two halves of the LCA apart, which gave me barely enough room to get the axle back in the spindle. Of course, the only reason I took the axle out of the spindle was so I could save the dry-rotted outer boot, and when I put it back in the spindle, it formed a little hole about the side of a pencil....great. Now I'll need to buy that axle if my luck fails and the entire thing rips (which it probably will).

I was too tired when actually installing the motor myself, and I didn't snap any pics. Too bad since it really was a sight me doing it myself...:lol:

The bitch-pinn cooperated soon as I showed it who's boss with the punch! I was very happy about that.

My car sat like this for two days:


Before:



Some pics of the shiney bay:


Fixed my burnt wire on this side:

Actual culprit: (it wore through at where it goes through the fender and melted the wire all the way to the fuse box....)





The old and the new (of course I spilled oil all over the new one when I installed the oil pan gasket):





Update for 5/31/07:

Took the motor out last night with the car raised up on jackstands and a jack under the motor and tranny. It went SO smoothly minus the shifter getting caught up after the motor was on the ground (I didn't have the punch I needed to get out the linkage pin.) The axle nuts came off with the impact gun (which is what I call a Honda miracle), and the lower ball jonts popped apart like they should.

I then took the motor apart to see that the clutch is practically new, so it almost sucks that I bought that stg 1 exedy clutch for $99 to replace it. I think I'll just shelve it and save it for when I turbo the car in a few years, though I think I might just use the exedy organic disk to make engagement a little bit stiffer.

The only bad surprise I found on getting the motor out is that the "downpipe" that comes off of the cat, underneath the motor, leaks at where it connect to the cat since it looks like one of the studs from the cat is completely rusted so it couldn't be tightned all the way. The car just started to make a little exhaust leak noise when it isn't warmed up, which I'm sure is coming from there. I think I might just heat the hell out of the bolt, and try to get it to tighten all the way...though I'm going to be very careful since I really don't want to have to replace that cat since I broke off a stud...that would suck to have to spend that $200 that I really don't have.

Some pics of the Engine pulled (well it was dropped)...





Dirty engine bay that is going to be power-washed till it's squeeky clean today. I was thinking of doing a wire tuck, but since I really don't want to mod this engine bay, I'm just going to fix the one burnt running light wire, and leave it at that.:



The torque mounts filled with some polyurathane goop to stiffen them up and fix the one that was ripped in two:




Update for 5/30/07:

Last night I installed the new gaskets for the valve cover, installed the CORRECT timing belt (not the same as a d15b or a z6...damn vtec-e being strange), and installed the oil pan gasket. The bottom end on the motor is pretty different looking since it has an oil pan windage tray, and a block girdle from the factory. The bottom end and top end of this motor look mint, so with all the new stuff on it, it should hopefully run perfectly.

Girdle:


Baffled oily pan:


I also did a compression test today on my current motor (241k miles), and it has amazing compression. 200-198-198-198 Since it does smoke, I'm now guessing that it isn't the rings, and that the head is just worn out from all of those miles. I was going to sell the head thinking it wasn't causing the smoking, but now I'm just going to stash it away for some day when I want to rebuild it and put it in another hatch to make another super-econo car for cheap.

I finally picked up a good throwout bearing today ($45...ouch) since the last one I bought that was supposed to be new, wasn't at all (from a homemadeturbo.com moderator). The one axle nut I haven't had off before just came off with the impact gun, so as long as I can get ahold of my friend tonight that has the punches I'll need to take apart the shift linkage, hopefully I'll get this lower mile swap installed tonight or tommorrow.

The car now rides SO much better thanks to the tokico blues installed in the back to replace the two blow agx struts that were there. The one strut is so blown that it was actually hot on the shaft due to it having no oil left in it... I cranked down the Maxspeed sleeves all the way down, but they really don't make the car that low. It does look good I think, and it rides smoother than it ever did, so I like it, but the height disappoints me.

Don't take my car the wrong way though, it doesn't handle, it's not fast, it just looks good I think. I know it's too low to help handling, and the 13 inch tires are God-awful for traction, but I like it.

Some pics:







As soon as the suspension was lowered down on the new rear struts, I drove the car 4 hours to Ocean City, Maryland for a free weekend at the beach. The car loved the drive and didn't take a drop of oil (since I didn't beat on it at all).

Pic at the beach: (I should actuallly take it near the sand next time.)



Update for 5/25/07:

Well I cleaned up the new longblock and realized the tranny that came with it is shot. I then found a different Cx tranny, with low miles, for $85 shipped to me. Not a bad deal. I ordered up a timing belt kit, water pump, engine seal kit, and an exedy stg 1 clutch for when it gets installed in about a week.

For the interior I fixed the door handle, glove box handle, got a non-ripped shift boot, installed a used skunk2 shifter, got some non-painted speaker covers, fixed the speakers so they all work, and threw in some mint OEM floormats. Other than the front seats being from a coupe, and will never match the back seat, the interior is very mint now. I figure once I come across some cheap Integra seats, I'll get them. Till then, these civic seats are 90% mint and barely used, so they'll do just fine. At least the colors match.

For the outside of the car I added a set of Ek sideskirts (took a few hours to mount, but they look good, and I couldn't find the EG sides anywhere), and some front mud flaps. I'm still looking for the rear mudflaps for a cheap price.

My two rear AGX struts are leaking, and the one is entirely blown, but I just got in a set of Tokico blues I found used but in great condition for $50 shipped. Today I'm going to install the rears and lower the car down to see how far it can really go (the sleeves are almost to the bottom already). The car rides great at this height, and only every scraped probably once going up a very steep driveway with another person and an entire swap in the back of the car. I figure I can lower it till it scrapes a little bit, and then I'll stop there. Though I never got an alignment, the car isn't wearing tires, which I'm not complaining about at all!

I also sprayed my muffler, brakes, wipers, cowl, and undercoated all of the wheelwells to make the car look less like it just came from Maaco. Future plans are small, since I'm not going to put any more money into this car, just gonna drive it now since it's at where I want it to be.

Next week I will install the lower mileage swap, fix my wiring for my front running light, clean up the engine bay, and soon I plan on blacking out the grills (oem style), respraying the bottom of the bumpers black (oem style too), and repsray the wheels their factory color since they paint is far too stained from brake dust to be able to be cleaned up nicely. I really also should buy a horn soon too since mine sounds like the road runner right now, and it really should be louder for this being such a small car.

On to the pictures!













Update (week after owning it):

Yesterday I changed the chocolate milk style coolant (and flushed it), installed new plugs/wires/cap (rotor soon, I got lazy), headunit but it still needs an antenna, shifter stabilizer bushings (but I now realize it needs a shifter since the "shifter bearing" is worn out), front bumper support that it was missing.

I also picked up a 100k mi motor that looks very clean inside and a tranny. The tranny looks like a different "age" compared to the motor, so I decided I'm going to try to figure out somehow if it actually is a Vx tranny or not before installing it.





Cleaned up the Oem style seats to replace the "old integra" seats that are in it now.



Hopefully today I'll get that rotor installed and my interior cleaned with civic seats in it.

:eek:


Lowered more!




First day update:

Lots of people hate this color, but I love it.

I had a 95 LS Integra I got for dirty cheap and sold for actually more than I bought it for about two years ago. I had it on Ksports at a time, but always kept it mostly OEM b/c I drive it often hours a day. I need money and am bored of my car, so I looked to find a civic.



I came across this 95 civic Vx. It has new bg33p paint (Maaco quality), Apexi WS2 exhaust, an armrest (nice!), and some Maxspeed coilovers on AGXs. It has a ****-ton of miles, 238k, but runs strong and doesn't smoke that much at all, only when you are really beating on it. I drove it home 3.5hrs at 70mph+ and it took no oil, so it's not really in that bad of shape for the miles.

Here's a few pics...











So far plans are..

Install the EG seats and take out the 80s integra seats that came in it.
Clean the engine bay and interior.
Replace rear shoes/one drum(gouged from some rust), rotors/pads, front tires.
Get car inspected and passed for emissions.
Do lots of maintence on the engine/tranny (timing belt, tune up stuff, some seals, alt belt, mount inserts, shifter bushings, tranny fluid change, and maybe a clutch change).
Black out the oversprayed parts of the car.
Amber corners to replace the ugly ones it has now, and probably some replacement OEM tails for the oversprayed ones it has now.
Lower it more (so far the back is lowered a little more than it was, I still need to lower the front brakes more) and call it done.
Maybe replace some suspension bushings and upgrade suspension components (to full coilovers of some type).

It gets amazing mileage already, so once it's tuned up, it should run even better and get even better mileage. I was thinking of swapping in a z6 or LS, but this motor has decent acceleration, and for all the driving I do, it has some great highway gears.


Modified by Danronian at 7:58 AM 6/5/2007


Modified by Danronian at 9:38 PM 6/16/2007


Modified by Danronian at 10:10 AM 10/24/2007


Modified by Danronian at 1:43 AM 3/5/2008


Modified by Danronian at 11:49 PM 3/6/2008

Mr.OB*GYN_Rhett

iTrader: (2)

i love teal! should be cool

Type X

looks nice.

FalkenSiR

vtec-e till i die

Danronian

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FalkenSiR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">vtec-e till i die</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes sir


...or till I want to go fast.

AfricanBush

Looks good. I should have saved the side skirts to put on my car i must not have been thinking

Chef Andre

iTrader: (1)

Good start

Danronian

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AfricanBush &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks good. I should have saved the side skirts to put on my car i must not have been thinking </TD></TR></TABLE>

They do look pretty nice. I was reading that these might have just worked w/o mods from coupe to coupe. I had to trim the fronts about 2 inches since mine is just a little hatchy.

But after a few hours, they are on and heavily secured with factory clips and about 6 huge rivets underneath the car on both sides. No sideskirt will fly off this car again!

Danronian

Replaced the rear struts tonight and lowered the Maxspeed coilovers all the way down...not that low though...sucks. The ride is superb now though, which I'm quite happy about. I looked close and those coilovers have "May '01" stamped on them and for being that old, they look real good still. Damn old part.

Danronian

The saga continues.

Markland Photo

nice progress
car looks very very clean

Danronian

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bulletspastsunset &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice progress
car looks very very clean</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's kinda a 20ft car. It looks amazing from 20ft, but as you get closer, the imperfections start to be more and more apparent. It really doesn't bother me though. It's just my daily driver/project that is lowered, get amazing gas mileage, and is fun to beat around on.


Thanks for the comment.


Pulled the motor last night, so update for that.

AfricanBush

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Danronian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Pulled the motor last night, so update for that. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Im pretty sure i got a car, so ill be looking for that motor soon unless something changes.

Danronian

Well I was going to sell it, but now I think the head is what is smoking, so I don't really want to now, since I think the entire thing needs a rebuild. I mean I wouldn't mind keeping it so I could maybe rebuild it in a few years, when my lower mile one is ready to go, but I don't think it's a motor that should be used without a rebuild.

Compression results of 200-198-198-198 and the fact that the engine smokes seems to point to the head being the culprit.

I know there was another guy selling one in NJ....ITR#...I can't remember his full SN, I posted in his FS thread a few times, but I think I deleted it out of my recent topics.

K-Bom05

sweet build up...

Danronian

Just need to snap some pics of it all together and clean today.

g2_teg_

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Danronian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Some pics of the shiney bay:
</TD></TR></TABLE>
whats up with the rust (?) near the passenger side mount? looks like something was welded up there and then removed?

Danronian

It was this little bracket for the factory intake. For some reason, it was only held on by one of the 3 rivets that were there from the factory, so I ripped that **** off. Some day I'll get around to touching it up so it doesn't look like such crap at that spot.

Danronian

This **** is complete.

AfricanBush

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Danronian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This **** is complete. </TD></TR></TABLE>

looks good. ill eventually get mine

Danronian

Awesome man. G/L with it.

jmaze

verry nice work! i bought my aztec green vx on 3/03/94. changed the color shaved the door handles in summer of 95. color has been changed again in 2000. but the vx motor ran fine without a rebuild until 230k now has 260k with a z6 bone stock. miss 60 mpg but love xtra little bit of power. many people dont realize the vx has a lot of parts no other civic came with. keep up the good work!!

Danronian

Sounds great man. I love the Vx motor...it's pretty fun and SO cheap to drive. I might switch mine out someday for the bigger sohc vtec motor, but I doubt, since the mileage is simply too good.

I'm in Miami, heading to Colombia tomorrow morning, so the car is sitting under a tarp for about the next two years.

Phoenix1

iTrader: (1)

Bump for a fellow Teal VX owner. I bought mine thinking she was a CX and then I noticed the shift light, lol. I absolutely love my car, she'll get 47 on the highway and 39 in the city. She is a little slow, but with gas at $3 a gallon, I don't care.

Did you notice your A/C compressor bracket and pinch forks (the forks on the bottom of the front struts) are aluminum? I thought that was cool.

Danronian

I really didn't notice the pinchforks, but then again, I dont think I ever had the front struts out since they weren't the blown ones. That is VERY cool. Sounds like a great part to hoard and sell on ebay... Lowering the weight of suspension parts is always a good idea, especially with how heavy those pinch forks usually are.

The shift light on mine doesn't work, but it does have the little white box for where it should be lighting up at. I was going to take off the dash bezel to see why it didn't work, but after trying to remove that bitch of a piece...I gave up quickly and figured the little light might get annoying at some point anyhow.

Good luck with your VX goodness.