Well, I hate to say this but.... I am reconsidering paint and just getting the motor stuff done.

Arguments for Paint:
Been riding around like this almost 2 years.
The damage in the rear driver side isn't getting any better.
I am personally sick of looking at it half the time.

Arguments for motor build:
If I get into an accident, I can pull this and swap it into another Civic. Accident after paint, I am SOL for this car.
Fresh motor with 0 miles, instead of the one which has ~190,000 currently.
I have most all the money ready to go ($~2500), instead of just barely enough for all of the body work and paint I want.
Ummmmm....supercharged high compression D16z6 spraying meth?...

Originally, I was all for the paint, then my G/f brought up the point of me spending the $2500 on the car and then crashing (or someone hitting me....you get the idea). The motor can always be swapped into a different car. The fresh painted body would be ruined.

Thoughts?

If I go for the motor, expect to see this happen semi-quickly. Well, fairly quickly once I find a motor.

 

Hmmm thats a tough one. I personally am OCD, so I absolutely don't even want to drive it when its not looking normal. But, if you can deal with it, your girlfriend has a strong and legitimate point.

 

Dang thats a tought decision.
Why not grab a few cans of duplicolor and paint them to match lol

But yeah like Lewy2k said, she does have a point..

 

Ur gf is wise...lol

 

spray paint jobs CAN be done to look like a professional job.... if you take your time and do it right. However, silver is a very hard color to spray evenly and have it look good in the end.

I say build the motor, but then again, I don't mind driving around in a half painted beater all that much. Plus, if your motor is built and you're still rocking black panels, they won't expect it to be so damn fast!

 

I will most likely be working to find a motor ASAP and begin tearing it down, ordering bearings, sending the block and crank to a machine shop for boring/honing/balancing.

This summer, I will at least clean up the rust in the driver rear wheel well, sand/paint the front end (rattle canning!)

New plans:
1. Find motor (complete as possible - I will sell off parts I don't need)
2. Tear down
3. Bring to Machine shop
4. Order remaining parts needed (bearings, fuel stuff, exhaust manifold, new clutch/flywheel, HG, S/C belt, etc. etc. etc.)
4. Once done at machine shop, assemble bottom end
5. Assemble head and install onto short block / check clearances etc.
6. Swap out JRSC onto new motor
7. Install transmission onto new motor (looking at a complete motor for $500 right now with an extra head etc.)
8. Install wiring harness onto motor
9. Pull old motor and everything out of the engine bay, sand and paint
10. Install everything, create quick base tune, drive to exhaust shop to re-make exhaust in 2.5" piping.

Since this is my daily, I would like to have everything ready to go when the time comes. Hoping to have everything situated and done by the end of the summer.

 

I'm more interested in the power than the paint

 

Got the ASR subframe brace, 24mm sway bar, and spherical endlinks installed on Thursday night. woo hoo!





The installation was pretty straight forward and went smoothly once I realized that ASR updated their design on "new" kits from the past year or so and was able to figure out which parts of the installation guide on their site to ignore. I hate it when manufacturers update products, which changes installation procedures, but never updates anything. Especially well known manufacturers like ASR!

Taking turns is much more fun now Turns I normally wouldn't trust my car to take at 20mph, I can now easily breeze through going much faster. Obviously, I am not driving around driving like a crazy person or anything, but the spirited drives through windy roads is a lot more fun. Just have to get better tires now, but that won't happen for awhile.

EDIT - Yay!!! 3,000th post!

 

Nice progress! Always nice to see more parts on the coupe... Why such a big sway bar?

 

why NOT? I mean, since he got a undercarriage brace too, he's not going to hurt anything...