1997 Honda Civic HX
This is my wife's car. At the time we bought this car (Jan 1997) she was still just my girlfriend. After getting married our priorities changed quite a bit. I still do a lot to my car but she sort of lost interest in fixing up her car and focused on fixing up our house. There are quite a few good shots here so don't go away without checking them out!
Here is a picture of her standing next to her car (obviously!)
Here Dina is again waving to me. She was soooo happy that day. First day after buying the new car. Her's and actually mine also, very first BRAND new car.
I figured I better get a picture of the engine bay while it's still stock.
Here's a shot of the top shock mount in the rear. The rear was cake to lower since the carpet just folded back. I've done some other cars where you practically have to remove the back seat to remove the panel to gain access to the top bolts.
The same shot but from the bottom going up.
A couple weeks after buying the car I put in some cut springs that I had on the stock shocks. I think they were for a hatchback because they were WAY to soft and the car rode like shit.
Here is just another shot of her driving away. Notice the clear lenses. No icky orange!
Here's what my Tage-Techs look like for the rear. I'm going to put it in the car now. I found some stiffer springs for the rear and some Eibachs for the front (I couldn't find the rear Eibachs).
This picture's is kinda blurry but you can see where I used a zip tie to hold the spring in place. I drilled a hole in the top of the shock/spring cup and looped it through. Now when I raise the car to work on it the spring won't fall out of place from the spring being so short. It works well and haven't had any problems so far.
Here's a good shot of the adjustable spring perch while the shocks are on the car. The car rides MUCHO better. I would almost say it rides really good (almost like stock). Which is really good considering that this car is probably lowered 3.5-4.5" from stock
Here is a shot of the front suspension. As you can see the Tage Techs are in place already and I have taken the upper control arms out to modify them.
Well here is the finised product (for one at least). If you look closely you can see where I cut the ends off and had the extra metal welded in between. I did 1" on these. If those camber correction kits fix up to 1.25 degrees. I would say these control arms fix about 4-6 degrees of negative camber. The Civic still has a little negative camber but it's a LOT better than before and the tire wear is minimal.
We bought some GSR wheels from this dude that works at the "Mobile" gas station across the street. $220 because they are scratched up in a couple places and the tires were shot. $350 later they had a new set of BFG 50 series tires.
Boy what a difference. Still not as nice as some aftermarket 16" wheels but this car looks a whole lot better! Notice how far the camber is off still in the front? Try to image what it looked like before I added an inch to the Control arms.
This picture kinda sucks but here's a shot from the back. You can see we aced the "HX" emblem, you can just barely see the bottom of the Ultra Flow muffler, and you can see the dirty 4" Brospeed tip.
This picuture had some really bad backlighting. You may have to adjust the contrast on your screen to see the wire mesh grill I made. I picked up this cool looking wire at home depot for under $10! Then I just had the factory color silver put in a spray can and I painted it. It came out really good.
The car got a little noisy on the freeway when we went to the 50 series tires. So to fixed this I started by completely stripping the car down to the metal...
...then I completely covered the floor and walls with some sound deadening material I picked up from "Phoenix Trim". I got the double insulated (for more protection from the weather - hot or cold). It's got two layers (top and bottom) of heavy duty tin foil so that's why it looks like the space shuttle.
Here is another picture but of the front. Materials for everything was probably right under $100 and it made a pretty big difference. We can now hear the radio at a really low volume while at freeway speeds!
My buddy brent let me borrow his 17" Momo Arrows to put on the car and take a picture. What do you think?
Here is a close up. Pretty insane huh? And this isn't even moving the suspension adjustment. This is where the setting is for everyday driving. If she were to get 17" wheels I think we would have to definitely raise the car a little. Or just never turn!
Here is my custom intake. I used an empty camping propane tank and cut the ends off making it hollow. I removed the airbox. Slid the 2 5/8" tube into place, bought a cone filter, hose clamped and zip tied the thing together. Presto! Intake for under $50 and now the car also makes a nice growl at WOT.
The car and muffler is really dirty in this picture. It's a stainless steel Ultra-Flow (Dynomax) muffler and a 4" Brospeed tip. Maybe I'll wash it so everything's shiny and new looking and take another picture.
Here is a shot of the grill after I redid it cutting out all the factory mesh and mounting it from the back.
Here is a picture of the amp under the passenger seat. The power wire doesn't look to great. I plan to clean this up even more later.
Here is a shot from the rear after we put the Gewalt Mesh 17" wheels on. Had to raise the car up quite a bit to keep them from rubbing on the fenders but the car still looks pretty good, IMHO.
Here is a picture of her standing next to her car (obviously!)
Here Dina is again waving to me. She was soooo happy that day. First day after buying the new car. Her's and actually mine also, very first BRAND new car.
I figured I better get a picture of the engine bay while it's still stock.
Here's a shot of the top shock mount in the rear. The rear was cake to lower since the carpet just folded back. I've done some other cars where you practically have to remove the back seat to remove the panel to gain access to the top bolts.
The same shot but from the bottom going up.
A couple weeks after buying the car I put in some cut springs that I had on the stock shocks. I think they were for a hatchback because they were WAY to soft and the car rode like shit.
Here is just another shot of her driving away. Notice the clear lenses. No icky orange!
Here's what my Tage-Techs look like for the rear. I'm going to put it in the car now. I found some stiffer springs for the rear and some Eibachs for the front (I couldn't find the rear Eibachs).
This picture's is kinda blurry but you can see where I used a zip tie to hold the spring in place. I drilled a hole in the top of the shock/spring cup and looped it through. Now when I raise the car to work on it the spring won't fall out of place from the spring being so short. It works well and haven't had any problems so far.
Here's a good shot of the adjustable spring perch while the shocks are on the car. The car rides MUCHO better. I would almost say it rides really good (almost like stock). Which is really good considering that this car is probably lowered 3.5-4.5" from stock
Here is a shot of the front suspension. As you can see the Tage Techs are in place already and I have taken the upper control arms out to modify them.
Well here is the finised product (for one at least). If you look closely you can see where I cut the ends off and had the extra metal welded in between. I did 1" on these. If those camber correction kits fix up to 1.25 degrees. I would say these control arms fix about 4-6 degrees of negative camber. The Civic still has a little negative camber but it's a LOT better than before and the tire wear is minimal.
We bought some GSR wheels from this dude that works at the "Mobile" gas station across the street. $220 because they are scratched up in a couple places and the tires were shot. $350 later they had a new set of BFG 50 series tires.
Boy what a difference. Still not as nice as some aftermarket 16" wheels but this car looks a whole lot better! Notice how far the camber is off still in the front? Try to image what it looked like before I added an inch to the Control arms.
This picture kinda sucks but here's a shot from the back. You can see we aced the "HX" emblem, you can just barely see the bottom of the Ultra Flow muffler, and you can see the dirty 4" Brospeed tip.
This picuture had some really bad backlighting. You may have to adjust the contrast on your screen to see the wire mesh grill I made. I picked up this cool looking wire at home depot for under $10! Then I just had the factory color silver put in a spray can and I painted it. It came out really good.
The car got a little noisy on the freeway when we went to the 50 series tires. So to fixed this I started by completely stripping the car down to the metal...
...then I completely covered the floor and walls with some sound deadening material I picked up from "Phoenix Trim". I got the double insulated (for more protection from the weather - hot or cold). It's got two layers (top and bottom) of heavy duty tin foil so that's why it looks like the space shuttle.
Here is another picture but of the front. Materials for everything was probably right under $100 and it made a pretty big difference. We can now hear the radio at a really low volume while at freeway speeds!
My buddy brent let me borrow his 17" Momo Arrows to put on the car and take a picture. What do you think?
Here is a close up. Pretty insane huh? And this isn't even moving the suspension adjustment. This is where the setting is for everyday driving. If she were to get 17" wheels I think we would have to definitely raise the car a little. Or just never turn!
Here is my custom intake. I used an empty camping propane tank and cut the ends off making it hollow. I removed the airbox. Slid the 2 5/8" tube into place, bought a cone filter, hose clamped and zip tied the thing together. Presto! Intake for under $50 and now the car also makes a nice growl at WOT.
The car and muffler is really dirty in this picture. It's a stainless steel Ultra-Flow (Dynomax) muffler and a 4" Brospeed tip. Maybe I'll wash it so everything's shiny and new looking and take another picture.
Here is a shot of the grill after I redid it cutting out all the factory mesh and mounting it from the back.
Here is a picture of the amp under the passenger seat. The power wire doesn't look to great. I plan to clean this up even more later.
Here is a shot from the rear after we put the Gewalt Mesh 17" wheels on. Had to raise the car up quite a bit to keep them from rubbing on the fenders but the car still looks pretty good, IMHO.