new guy looking for a little help with modifications
 

Hey guys and gals. I bought a 98 LX a few months back with 68,000 miles on it. It's bone stock the way it sits but I want to do some things to it. It has a cracked front and rear bumper so i want to get those fixed and repaint. First, I'd like to put a front and rear lip so those get painted as well. As for other exterior mods, I'll also be getting new tails and headlights. So that leads me to my first question:

Besides for the name brand and the price, what's the difference in headlights and tails from ebay as opposed to the real deal?

Also I found the tails I like on another forum. Is it okay to post the link to that picture so you guys can tell me what they are?

I'm not going for the "rice" look. Just something clean with subtle mods. After roaming around a few sites, this seems to be the one I'd fit in with the most.

This might sound like a dumb question, but I have a gray interior and I'm a much bigger fan of black. Does my model of civic come with a black interior that I could go searching the junkyard for pieces? I'd rather not paint pieces for fear of it looking like crap.

Thanks in advance and my name is James.

for bumpers i would look on ebay or if you can find some in your local junkyard, just make sure its from a 96-98 civic sedan. same for the lips you can order them off ebay cheap.
now for the headlights i suggest looking at the diy we have. you can take apart the headlights and paint the housing black and reglue it back together, as for the tail lights i would suggest a nice 50/50 tails like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-97...Q5fAccessories

yes they make black interior for your civic but good luck finding it. jst remember that the 2dr coupe/hatchback are different than your 4 door.

if you have any more questions or wanna share links post them and we can give advise.

Yupp and If you don't want to do the headlights yourself, you can always just buy these ones: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-97...Q5fAccessories

wow thanks guys. that's almost the exact set of headlights and tails I liked. I just couldn't justify spending 200+ for the real thing if the ebay version was just as good. on the headlights I liked the version without the amber corner a little better but that was basically the pair I was looking at. As for the tails, the ones I was looking at were like that except the colors were flip flopped. I normally don't like spoilers but I have a fascination with the one in the link below. It's not the first civic but the second one, about halfway down the page. It also has the tails I liked.

http://www.jdmuniverse.com/forums/ho...-spoliers.html

thanks again and I knew finding the interior would be hard, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't searching for something not real. lol

Yup those tails are nice too, and you can find them on ebay for cheap as well.

That spoiler is amazing, I love it. But it's going to be very expensive; it's made by Mugen. All there parts that aren't knockoffs are. Maybe you could find a replica on ebay or somewhere else for less money? Worth a shot.

thanks man. I saw that spoiler and was amazed. I'll try finding a replica somewhere but do you know where I could find the real thing?

are you saying you wanna spend around 500$ on a spoiler? go for a replica

I definitely don't want to buy the real thing, i'm just having a hard time finding either version

Those are for a 1999-00 Civic. You have to get the red clears that have clear on bottom and red on top, like this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-97...Q5fAccessories

It's because the 96-98 and 99-00 differ just a little bit.

The outside tail lights are exactly the same on all the years BUT the inside tail lights (the ones on the trunk) are NOT the same.

1996-98 tail lights
http://www.rear-car-spoilers.com/ima..._CIV96-4DR.jpg

1999-00 tail lights (notice the trunk tails have much more of an angle)
http://www.eliteautoworx.com/store/i...Spoiler-54.jpg

Now, if you're dead set on having the 99-00 red/clears, you CAN buy a 99-00 trunk lid. It will fit fine and then you can replace your 96-98 outer tails and 99-00 inner tails with the red/clears

Thanks superfly. I never noticed that subtle difference until you pointed it out. Thanks for the link on those lights too. Switching the trunk lid to get the different lights isn't part of the plan for now. perhaps a ways down the road