Final Purchases Part 1 of 2

After a long long time without any activity on this blog I have an update and some progress with the car. Basically I have been saving up for a while now in order to afford some major parts for the project. My final major parts which I needed to purchase for the Civic before I start rebuilding it were:

• Sparco Evo Racing Seats (Black)
• Sparco Seat Side Mounts (Black Steel)
• Sparco 2014 6 Point Harnesses (Blue)
• Sparco 12 Point Bolt-in Roll Cage
• MOCAL Oil Catch Can (Brushed Aluminium)
• Titanium Exhaust Wrap
• Side Air Duct
• 2 x Slim Brake Ducts

My favourite looking part from all the bunch above is the MOCAL Oil Catch Can in Brushed Aluminium, this was really just to spruce up the rather drab looking engine bay really and give an outlet for the redundant oil breather pipe which I removed from the standard air intake hose.

Having made the trip to Demon Tweaks to pick up my parts I was quite excited once I arrived there for the first time. Also having never bought racing parts before I was eager to see them in the flesh and try parking my bum in them to see how well they held me in place compared to the standard seats I've had for years. I wasn't disappointed that's for sure, the Sparco Evo seats really held me in perfectly even with my small frame there wasn't much room for lateral movement. These will be mounted using the steel Sparco Side Mounts with some custom sub frames which will be welded in place.

With my exhaust manifold being quite rare and actually really decent it is looking a little tatty, so I thought I could protect it some and decrease the engine bay temperatures by wrapping it in some decent quality titanium exhaust wrap.

As for the vents I have 2 slim rectangular vents for each side of the front splitter which will direct air to each disc brake at the front. The other side intake will be mounted upside down on the adjustable carbon front splitter which will direct cold air to the APEXi cotton mesh air filter through the hole in the engine bay.

The other parts I mentioned above are on order so once they arrive I shall take some detailed shots of them and share as there isn't really any information about the Sparco 12 Point Roll Cage for a Honda Civic EG hatchback at all when I searched on Google.

See you for part 2 next year.

Getting ready for winter

So it's been age since I've posted anything on here. In all honest I've been so busy with my business and working towards buying parts for this project I haven't had time to post anything.

I can confirm that I am nearing the time when I will be making some big purchases to get this project completed and get the Civic back on the road for Spring 2014.

In the interim and winter season I will mostly be playing Forza 4 and awaiting the release of Forza 5 so I can tune my EG again and experiment with different settings and just generally fill the void for my VTEC withdrawal symptoms.

Here is my Forza 4 Civic tune which is pretty much how my actual EG will turn out in the end.

Stay tuned for some product updates and progress in the next couple of months.

Painted Exterior Parts & Door Skins

I received my door mirrors and boot spoiler back from my painter yesterday so I did a quick test fit to see how they looked on the car, they look a lot better now and follow the theme nicely with a mixture of flat black and the Granada Pearl together.

Another item I was working were the aluminium door skins to cover up the gaping holes left from removing the original fabric and plastic skins and the window electrics and mechanisms. I got these powder coated in satin black and made up from 2mm thick aluminium sheets and they were a lot cheaper than carbon fibre would've been.

Mishimoto X-Line Radiator and Slim Fan

My original radiator was looking rather scabby and tatty, I thought it might be about time to upgrade seeing as I'll be pushing the car harder for longer, the last thing I want is for it to start leaking whilst I'm out at the track or on a spirited drive in the countryside.

I spoke to Maz over at www.hond-r.com having wanted to originally buy a KOYO radiator which was only a dual core and £100 more expensive he said to give Mishimoto a try as it is a triple core and a lot less in price too. All the fixing and welding methods are the same and the quality is pretty much on par. I've heard good things about Mishimoto in the US too so I thought why not. I also purchased a slim fan as the thickness of the radiator has pretty much doubled overall so there won't be much room for the OEM one to sit behind without touching the gearbox housing.

I'll be fitting this later in the summer once the car is back on the road and running again, I'll give a verdict on how it performs in the hot summer days.

Comparing the sizes
 

Polycarbonate Windows - Fitting

So I got round to fitting the polycarbonate windows yesterday. I wanted to utilise the existing clips that held up the glass windows and fabricate my own bracket to hold up the new plastic windows. Using 3" bolts and some washers I was able to fabricate a bracket which attaches to the inner door skin and can be adjusted to push the window up or down and in or out so I could get a tight fit on the standard window seals.

I'll take some pics of the brackets once I've completed the fitting, the top part of the window is still loose as the window kit I purchased was flat and not formed so I may have to using window seal to stop the top of the window flapping around, or I may pop rivet it in place around the top frame for total security (so long as it doesn't crack).

Here are some preliminary photos of the drivers side window fitted.

Front Downforce

So I got round to completing the front aero parts and here is how they look at the moment. I'm very pleased with how they look and the fitting was very solid for the canards and side fins. I think it looks a little extreme but that doesn't bother me as it's function over fashion in this case. I suppose I will see how well it performs once I get it on the track which will hopefully be in July or August time.

I just need to attach the back of the splitter to the chassis underneath. I will get some shots underneath the car once I have it on the ramp.

Canards and Front Diffuser Fitting

Test fitting the front diffuser.

Trimmed to MSA specification of 50mm protrusion guideline.

Trimming the canards to the appropriate size and curve to match the bumper.

Painted the spark plug cover in matt black to go with the stealth theme, the blue ignition leads should look smart against the mono colours.

I'll have the final tidy shots of the completed front bumper by next week and some test fit shots on the car too.

Auto Craft Evolution Carbon Fibre Canard Set

Having deliberated for quite a while I decided to use a set of universal canards and side wings to fabricate on to my Civic. I know it is going to involve quite a bit of fabrication work but it will be worth it in the end.

Along with fitting my adjustable carbon fibre splitter I will have completed the down force for the front end.

I will post up some progress photos along the way when I start to fabricate the canards and splitter to fit snugly on the bumper of the EG6.

Interior Sound Deadening Removal and Painting Parts

Got some more updates, nothing that exciting but I like to share the progress anyway so I can keep a record for myself too of what I've done and when.

I got round to buying a decent heat gun and set to work on the sound deadening on the floor of the interior. Luckily I had a set of good scrapers to hand and me and the Mrs got stuck in.

After about 4-5 hours of intensive scraping we had cleared most of it off, some of the stuff came off in huge chunks thanks to a leak in the foot well which removed the adhesive from underneath and dried it out.

Here are some photos of before and after removal. It still needs tidying up but the majority of the sound deadening stuff was removed and in total it weighed 6kg's which is a substantial amount for a small car.

I also got round to preparing and painting the fog light covers and the spark plug cover. I chose to go with Satin Black for them to tie in with the stealth look I am going for.

I just need to paint the spark plug cover and the wing mirror bases Satin Black to match the rest of the theme. I've decided that the mirror covers and boot spoiler will be painted in body colour to keep a nice flow overall.

Completed Rocker Cover

Here are some photos of the rocker cover now finished. I applied a liberal amount of Autosol and used the wire brush to take off any rough parts and dull patches on the metal then I used some harsh sandpaper around 120 grit to add some brush and scratch marks diagonally across the metal.

It still needs a bit of work but overall I'm happy with how it turned out. Once the spark plug cover and the rest of the parts are fitted in the bay it should look smart.

Updated Rocker Cover/Engine Cover

Spring finally arrived so I set to work on the rocker cover of my B16A, the paint had started flaking off so I decided to help it along and completely remove it all and leave the bare aluminium exposed. I've seen that look on a few other cars and it works quite well, I'm going to try polish it up a lot more and then scratch in some diagonal lines for added effect and to make it look a little different rather than just the plane solid aluminium finish. I used a fair amount of Nitromors on it applying about 5 or 6 times and leaving for 20 minutes intervals while the paint started to bubble off, it took quite a bit of elbow grease to shift some of the paint, using a paint scraper and a tough wire brush did the trick though.

I will post up the progress on finishing it off very soon, I just need to purchase a Dremel type tool to get in the small gaps and polish up the dull parts of the aluminium.

Before

 During

New Suspension Parts

After much deliberation and research I decided on which suspension parts I am going to use on my EG6. Originally I wanted a set of Cusco Zero-2 coilovers, so after getting myself excited when I'd ordered them I was told they are discontinued now which was a bit of an upset, so I looked at the other alternatives which offers the amount of adjustments, I decided on TEIN Type Flex coilovers, again I was told these are also discontinued so I was not having much luck with my choices. I did some research in the UK and found that a local company stocked and sold TEIN Suspension products. I quickly ordered them from www.camskill.com after being informed they were in stock, they were very helpful and within 2 days of ordering the product they had arrived safely.

For the front and rear suspension parts I opted to go with the Skunk2 Pro front and rear adjustable camber arms, giving around 5 degrees of adjustment either way from 0. Having ordered the wrong rear lower control arms, not realising my suspension was different from the VTi EG6, the SiR runs the eye type rear suspension fitting coupling the lower control arm like the DC2 Integra has. I've always loved the look of the Function7 aluminium control arms so yet again I got a set of these and they are seriously impressive when you look at them up close.

Anyway here are some detailed pics of the items I've bought for the suspension.

TEIN Type Flex

Function7 Rear Lower Control Arms

Skunk2 Front & Rear Camber Kit