J____ daily driver

J____s daily driver as of 11/2006 is an ancient Honda Civic DX 3 door hatchback. The car is actually in very good shape for its age and this model is right by the top of the beater car food chain. The paint is still good and it is a pleasure to drive in an ancient Honda sort of way.

The suspension is similar to the 1992 Accord and 94 Integra that I've had, so driving it felt quite familiar. It was like driving a mixture between the hondas and my NA chassis Miata. Most of my Accord/Integra pages are applicable to this car in some way.

Note the F1 inspired "other side of the engine bay by the hot exhaust manifold" intake snorkel. Other highlights include the leaking silicon (i.e. sand) coated oil cap, the 16 gauge ground wire from the battery, the specially engineered 4 valve cover nuts, powder coated.. er corrosion coated battery terminals (now cleaned off), and lastly the protective "grime" coating to prevent damage to the precision engine bay components. The car has actually come a long way since this photo was taken.

Some of the civics other awesome highlights:

• 40 zillion mpg
• 2100 ish lbs
• multi-link front and multi-link trailing arm rear suspension
• no gauge lighting
• no power steering
• no airbags
• no abs
• drum brakes
• 3 different kinds of 185 series tires (not for long though)
• peeling purple tint
• leopard print seat cover
• a/c doesn't work.. yet
• 13" steelies with plastic hubcaps
• amazing teal paint (no, it actually is in great shape!)
• steers right worse than it steers left (probably alignment/tires)

Mods/repairs:

• removed the "crimestopper" hack wiring job
• 15-40 transmission fluid
• fuel filter
• new muffler
• valve adjustment
• valve cover gasket
• spark plugs
• belts
• cap + rotor
• Sealed the tail lights in with silicone to prevent water leaking into the trunk
• New rear speakers to replace the original see through models.

The front suspension on the EF chassis civic is almost identical to the suspension on the CB7 Accord. This photo is the front passenger side suspension. The cast iron lower control arm at the bottom of the photo, the ball joint and knuckle on the left. The radius rod is that link going to the right, and the shock is attached to that fork going over the axle. Out of sight is an upper A arm that connects to the top of the knuckle. A sturdy, simple, and super effective suspension layout.

Five bushings, an anti-roll bar link and its chassis bushing, a tie rod and two ball joints per side for a grand total of 14 bushings and 6 ball joints for the front suspension.

Looking forward from the drivers side suspension you can see the end of the radius rod and the front anti-roll bar/link. The tie rod and steering rack are visible at the top. I wanted to make a solid anti-rollbar end link like that for the accord using the prothane link I had. I was going to saw the four polyurethane sandwiching bushings in half and use washers to fill the rest of the space eliminating most of the bushing. I never got around to it though.

Most of the ball joint boots are bad same as my accord. You can also see the the steering knuckle and the control arm to shock bushing. You can get that control arm in forged aluminum for $$$.$$ or the two bushings for it from Prothane.

The security system installed some time in eons past. The "Crimestopper". I don't think there's a thief in the world that could get past that thing.

The first modification to the car starts off purely hardcore. No screwing around.

At night the eyes light up for that extra touch....touch of evil that is!