J____ daily driver

My friend J____s work truck is an ancient Honda Civic DX 3 door hatchback. The car is actually in very good shape for its age. The paint is still good and it is a pleasure to drive in an ancient Honda sort of way. He has done very extensive repairs and mantenance and it should last for another 100k easy.

The suspension is similar to the 94 Integra that I 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:

• 48 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
• peeling purple tint
• leopard print seat cover
• a/c doesn't work..
• 13" steelies with plastic hubcaps
• amazing teal paint (no, it actually is in great shape!)

Mods/repairs:

• Timing belt, water pump, tensioner, cam seal, etc
• new axles
• new front ball joints
• new clutch
• light weight flywheel
• removed the "crimestopper" hack wiring job
• 15-40 transmission fluid
• fuel filter
• 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 very similar to the suspension on just about all hondas for a decade afterwards. 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.

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!