clean civic mate ..
Wanted an Ep too, but was already in love with the Ek,and my bother dint liek Ep

Hope you end up with a K20A

Thought it was about time I updated this thread.
So as you will have seen I got hold of a NHB spoiler for £40 last Christmas, a few marks here and there, but in overall decent condition. I would have preferred it to be silver, but unfortunately none seemed to be coming up for sale at reasonable prices around the time I was searching.

A couple of hours of careful hacksawing, intensive filing and many test fits, I was happy with the result.



My next task was to freshen up the interior a touch. Not much was done here to be honest.
I purchased an aux-in adapter for the OEM stereo from Connects2. I was hoping it would be easy to fit, and it was. The issue however, was removing the centre console. It looked like someone had tried (and failed) to do so on a previous occasion. One of the clips on the gear gator surround was partly snapped, and the surround itself was cracked from behind (though not through the silver surface finish). Just trying to remove this without completely snapping it was a half hour job alone.

Then came to removing the screws securing the cage into the car. Things got even worse - stripped screw threads made it basically impossible to get the screws out. Much cursing later and delicate usage of pliers saw the centre console removed at last. From there on in it was easy to hook up.

I removed the centre cubby-hole plastics and made a small hole in the front, and fed the aux cable through. So now I have an aux cable under the centre cup holders - super stealthy and very clean Having access to hundreds of hours of MP3s is a massive improvement.

While I was fiddling around with the centre console, I also took the opportunity to install a new gear knob. I wasn't sure about the heavy steel skunk2 ones, so went for a lighter (though still relatively weighty) aluminium one - has a really good feel to it:



As you will also see, I took the opportunity to give her a really good clean and polish, inside and out, especially in all the areas that would normally be impossible to reach under the plastics.

A fair few months passed after this, and not much happened. I then came across a set of ClimAir wind deflectors for £30 quid, virtually new, not a mark on them - so I snapped them up. Here's a few photos of her pretty much as she currently sits.





I was wanting to keep the whole look super clean, but there were a few things bothering me. Firstly, some paintwork damage here and there, which for now I'm living with. Secondly, the yellow, weather-worn front headlights - they were in a bad way. In search of a more permanent solution, I sanded them back, then re-lacquered them.



All wrapped up - overspray wasn't going to catch me out
I've since given it a polish and removed all the orange peel and is now super shiny. I don't have any pictures yet - I'll put some up when I've done the other headlight, which wasn't is as bad a condition.

Future plans: Mugen spoiler and some splitter air ducts for sure (stay tuned for more).
I've also got a black Benen rear tow hook waiting to go on, and plans to get the wheels re-done in a dark metallic grey with a hint of bronze. Hopefully I can combine that with some metallic 'spoon' blue callipers to leave me with the following effect:



Anyway, too many pictures, so going to have to spread this update across several posts.

So then I picked these up, and fitted the scoops almost straight away.



I need to get some proper pictures of them - they really do set things off nicely. More on this stuff later.

So a few more small things happened, including refurbing my other headlight, which came out superbly well.
My sport badge was faded and had web-like cracks running all over it, so I decided to remove it. Some sticky stuff remover and 5 minutes of scraping with a plastic card and it was off - not a trace that it was ever on.


You might also notice that the bumper isn't on straight in the above picture. It's been like this with a big gap ever since I've got it and it's been really annoying me. So I set about loosening the bumper bolts to hopefully realign it. This did nothing I realised it would just have to come off to get it sorted.


Having got it off this far, the problem became clear.
1) It wasn't sat in the kinda metal clip that's meant to hold it. This had been bent right down out of the way.
2) The fixings on the inside of the arch had clearly been bent by a bump. Looked like someone had just reversed into something, so the bumper couldn't physically fit properly. It was this that was pulling it out of shape. Some hammering and careful filing later, everything was back in place. Bumper fits like a treat now


No gaps at all And the car's now nice and symmetrical from the back.

Check the next post for spoiler fitting, and a few other little bits of paintwork, stone chips and rust sorting

So a few things have happened over the last two weekends. Paint work restoration has begun in places, and I finally got round to test fitting the new spoiler. Hopefully I'll get it sprayed soon.

Step 1. Arch rust. There was some flaking on both rear arches, and some visible rust. It was quite clear that damp got in under the paint and stayed there. The problem was only going to get worse. Like all the defects on the car, they were there when I bought her. So off came they sideskirt with what looked like 11 years worth of muck and grime too.


I got to work with the files and coarse sand paper, with occasional wire brushing (my brush was too big to get in to use it properly, so sand paper was the preferred choice). Gradually the brown turned to shiny metal. To make sure I hadn't missed anything I applied a generous helping of Kurust to convert any remaining rust particles and hopefully help prevent future issues.


And then came the paint. Anti-rust primer, followed by halfords Satin Silver and then clear lacquer. Plenty of coats to protect from inevitable stone wear and damp that a wheel well will experience.


The rear portion of the sideskirt was also in a pretty bad way, with badly crazed cracked and flaking lacquer.


I then accidentally started sanding it This revealed primer.. followed by more silver under this. The skirt had been repaired (badly) before.


A hell of a lot of sanding later and the skirt was looking worse than ever. I was worried now. What had I got myself into? I tried to stay calm, and primered with many coats to give me something to sand into before the base. The primer made a world of difference, so the base coats began, again followed by clear. I impressed myself with the final result



There was a similar story on the rear splitter and bumper. Unsure how the results would turn out, I decided to focus only on the splitter for now. I could come back and do the bumper later.




It doesn't look so shiny here, but this is pre-polish. Having now polished it up, it looks so much better. You can barely see the colour differences at all, and only when you look really really close up. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out I'll get some proper photos up at some point, but for now you'll have to make do with what you can see below.

The mugen spoiler came next. I was expecting it to be tough to fit with it being a fibre glass rep, however this fitment was more off than I had anticipated. My first focus was to get it flush on the rear window. This took maybe 2-3 hours of sanding by hand.




It really looks the part, even if I do say so myself. But then came the more daunting task of eliminating panel gap and getting it to sit flush with the roof line. Another 6 hours followed, and I'm almost there, just a few more bits to go. Then I plan on cracking out the body filler and cling film to eliminate the small gap. I'm determined to have the best fitting rep out there

I also found some old door seal stuff that fits this gap perfectly, and really tidies it up


So more of that to come soon, and I'll hopefully have it sprayed in the next couple of weeks

Damn, shes looking quite good now. I know I joke a lot about this being the most boring generation of Civics (when it comes to looks) but that also helps every little mod stand out more than it would on a wilder looking base car. I promise to start doing stuff to my 'new' cr-v as soon as possible.