Well this is it.. My first car: A slow 2000 non Vtec d16y7 Honda Civic DX. I got it off Craigslist for about half the price because the guy didn't know a rat's donkey about his car, so after realizing the damage you better believe he lowered the price. I bought it for $1600 (Which I think is still too pricey because the original price was $2500). I got it cheap because it was overheating and radiator fluid was bubbling in the overflow. When I saw the bubbles, my first thought was the head gasket. So without thinking, I buy a new gasket without even checking the pre-existing one. It shows up on my doorstep, and I get to work. I took off the head to only find a perfectly fine head gasket. So that was kind of a buzz kill. So I started putting the head back on, but when I put the head bolts back on, I remembered that they didn't seem to have a very tight or snug fit and were fairly easy to unscrew. So after renting a torque wrench and doing the research on the bolts, I got them to an almost perfect fit. So that took care of the bubbles. The overheating was due to the cooling fan not working. It didn't work because the sensor was bad, so that was pretty easy. I've also put new carpet in as well as redid the seats. It's in the paint and body shop right now and it's actually supposed to be ready to go in a couple of hours. So after a week and a half of waiting you better believe that I'm pretty excited about picking it back up. So yeah, I'll post pictures of what I got so far..


Literally the second day of having the car, I had to pull over at a bbq place in the middle of the night while I was driving it to let it cool down..


My first mod I ever did to it: A short ram


My dad surprised me with new tails. I had no choice but to put them on really.. I didn't really like them at first, but I've gotten used to them.


Painted the valve cover. I actually painted the rest of the head black later on.


The Valve all painted up in the engine bay.


Got some 17's for $250. I know, they're too big. But I'm planning on getting 16's in the near future.


Dropped by the shop earlier, and this is what I saw..

 

Auto?

Rule #1 with me... NEVER buy me car parts. Those tails got to go. I would suggest getting some 99-00 red/white tails.

Are the people painting the car not painting the bumper?

 

Yeah, it's an automatic unfortunately.

Yes, I made that clear to him most certainly. If you're going to buy something for my car, let me approve of it first..

And yes, they painted the bumper.

I got it back from the shop yesterday. The body probably looks the best it's looked in a while, because it was a pinata when I got it that's for sure. I'll post pics up soon.

 

DUDE!! Cool car and thread! Those tires and wheels look Italiano . worth some bucks. You are loco if you replace them. That generation of DX is getting rare, so hang onto it as long as you can. Tailights .... uh, acceptable, but not too bad. One more thing, keep the D16Y as anything will cause you more problems, I know.

 

I would love to hear how other motors would cause him problems.

 

Well, this is a few days late, so I apologize. I got a job as a lifeguard, so that's always a good time. Anyways, here's a little iPhone photo shoot we had. I also got a front lip that I got painted and then installed. I think it makes it look pretty sick. Here we go:





The rear bumper isn't one quite right, so I'll have to re-ajust that in a couple weeks once the paint's nice and cured.


Full body shot with some fancy little effects..


And that's pretty much it. It's definitely looking a lot better than it did when I bought it. Honestly, I don't know about lowering it. I know it would make it look so much better, but I live in South Texas, and the roads here suckkk. I would also probably have to put the stock wheels back on, or buy some 16". And that would be in addition to the estimated $500 it would take to buy the springs and shocks required to lower it. So far, I'm just looking towards leaving it at stock height where it is. After all, this is only my first car, so I should be driving this for about 2 or 3 years when I go to college, then I'll hopefully be able to get a newer car (Preferably a 8th gen SI). So I don't really wanna spend a whole lot of money more.

I also ordered some fog lights, as well as new headlights. But I'm not sure about the headlights considering how clean the ones I have on are now. And the ones installed are freaking OEM Stanley's, which I'm sure have a value to them.

 

AWESOME, AMAZING, WOW!!!!! That's a "Killer" car !!! You've done a great job with the "Come Back"