Next Thursday, April 16, after an hour long presentation I will officially be done at St Clair (woo). Which means that I need to go out and get a real job, look into paying off debt, getting my own place…basically being an adult.

Obviously being on this forum means I am a fan of cars and I am trying to decide what type of project I want to have in the next few years. Right now I have my 97 Civic Sedan but it has to be a daily driver so I may not necessarily want to mess around with it too much. I have narrowed it down to a few choice but should you have something else please offer it up.

The budget for the first 2 options is around $2500 and deal with modding my civic, for this to work the car, first and foremost, needs to be reliable as it will still serve as a daily driver.

1. Buy a B18b and a GSR transmission. (Or a B18C if I can find one cheap enough). Put it on a stand, drop the bottom end, put in higher compression pistons and get bisimoto stage 2 cams. Tune and should be putting down 180-200HP at the wheels (prob not but I can dream)

2. Turbo D16. Purchase a D16 (Y7, Y8, or Z6) and build a turbo kit for it as well as a bisimoto stage 1 cam.Convert to OBD-1 and get it tuned. Again, 180-200WHP goal

3. Wait, save/aggressive debt payment, and then in a year or 2 buy something RWD or AWD and make it faster.


I realize option 3 is probably going to be the most rewarding (FWD ftl =( ) but it is also about 400% more expensive. So I am asking for your advice and experience on what you would do in my predicament.

 

I say option 4

4. Wait a few months, get a good job that pays well, then do some mild work to the civic. Wait another year or two, then buy something AWD or RWD and make it faster.

 

Fixed it for ya

 

that's what I was getting at with the good-paying job and the mild work (meaning don't try to fund a swap and full build until you're out of debt or close to it)

Get a job that pays well enough, and you can make your student loan payments, pay your bills/expenses, and have a little left over for the car each month. I'd also recommend you pay as much as possible on your student loan each month; personally, I plan on trying to pay 1.5x the minimum payment or double it each month if I can. The loans themselves aren't bad, it's the interest that gets you.