Update, after only 4 years

Erm, so it's been a little while to say the least. However, that doesn't mean the project has stopped. I have just been so caught up with my business and life that I haven't got around to doing much work on the car.

The car is now back on the road and running good. Below are a few photos I took of when I finished the last phase of work.

If any of you are still following this page and want to see the updates since 2014 then you can check them out on my Instagram account.

Final Purchases Part 2 of 2

Here are the final major parts I needed to purchase in order to get my Civic back on the road and to comply with race regulations in order to compete at the hill climb.

Now that I have everything together I just need to organise getting all of the products fitted and complicit with the regulations too. It's going to be a lot of hard work and graft now and will take a lot of careful planning to get the car complete in the next two months.

I'm hoping I won't have any issues with fitting the new products I've purchased as they've been sitting in my spare room awaiting the day I get in the garage.

Hasport Engine Mounts

I opted for these mounts for a couple of reasons, they are well known, look fantastic and they offer a range of bushes from street to full hardcore race stiffness. I opted for the 70A which are for racing and track duties.

What I didn't realise is that I had ordered a 3 bolt mount as opposed to the two bolt kit which my EG6 has. Fortunately I was able to source a DC2 engine bracket and convert mine from 2 to 3 bolts, which looks a lot more substantial anyway so all good.

OMP Curved Aluminium Pedal Set

 Sparco 6 Point Harnesses - Blue

Sparco 6 Point Bolt-in Roll Cage

This is only the back half of the cage as I was test fitting it to make sure all the anchor points match up. It will be going for painting this week and then ready for installation with the rest of the door frames and overhead bars behind the dashboard.

Only a couple more things left to purchase but these are only minor and menial products, by the next time I post on here I should have some progress shots of how the installation phase is going.

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.

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
 

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.

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.

Rear Wiper Removal

I bought the genuine Honda wiper blanking bung for the rear window glass so I could remove the wiper motor and wiper arm as I don't think I'll be needing it much on the track.

Here are the before and after pics, quite a nice cheap way to clean up the rear end and save a bit of weight.

Aerial Removal

Been a while since I touched my Civic, I had been bought an aerial blanking plate for Christmas and as the weather was quite nice today I got round to removing the old aerial and replacing the cover with a blank plate seeing as I have no audio equipment whatsoever in the car now.