EK 2000 Build

[Steven1]

Hey guys,

This is my MY00 Civic, my first personally owned car that hasnt been owned by the family. :)

Specs are:

2000 EK1 Cxi
White
1.6 D16y4 Engine
5 Speed Manual
Only 94000 Genuine Km's

I got this car from a dealer and the last own was an older gentlemen who restored old Mustangs and 70's Commodores, So this car is in extremely good condition for its age :).
Definately know the dealer is confident when he is friends with the old owner and offers to give the personal phone number for any questions :P

So Im very happy with the quality of the car. Only issues are a tiny slight dent on the front car but barely noticable and the lack of a CD/ Ipod player.

Im off to Uni this year so money will be a little tighter but ill still be doing mods on the car, any ideas for cheap effective mods, im definately open to hearing them :)


As for the plans for the car;

New stereo ( which is a Pioneer DEh-9350SD sitting in my room going in soon )
Proper P plate holders ( waiting to go on )
Floormats
Gxi or similar cluster for tacho
Audio setup for improved sound over stock
Possiblely some wheel and suspension upgrades
Some body mods, maybe Ek9 grill and lip kit

Now for the Pictures:

http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/Civic_front-CopyCopy.jpg

http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/Civic_Rear-CopyCopy.jpg

http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/Civic_Bathurst1-CopyCopy.jpg

Ill put up more pics soon, including interior

Feel free to comment on the car/ post any ideas for mod ideas :)

Cheers,
Steven

[ekay1]

Wow, nice buy dude looks hella clean from the looks of it!

[vtecing]

Great starting base

[Steven1]

Yeah guys, Its a hell clean car, I was amazed at the cleanness that could come out of a 11/12 year old car!
Its Stock as a rock minus like this small rumbly exhaust, which isnt loud but better than stock :)
Hopefully Picking up some floor mats for it today!

Also, does anyone know where to source a quality cluster for swap? advice would be awesome

[doktarfischer]

Also, does anyone know where to source a quality cluster for swap? advice would be awesome

i would also love to hear about this.. :)

[Steven1]

Well if i find a good supplier or wreckers doktarfischer, ill be sure to let you know about it via a PM.. would love to see your car progress to.

Steven

[Niko]

nice car mate, but take the hub caps off, it'll make the car look a little bit better, well that IMO

[CivicRacer13]

very nice sounds like the things i did to mine :D

[Hellomotog]

i would also love to hear about this.. :)

Ebay about 100bucks

[Hellomotog]

Looks clean man. I got exactly the same car as you in black. Same ks and everything aha shud put some photos up. Ill show u what the type r lip and grille looks like. Ek9 headlights are a must

[doktarfischer]

Well if i find a good supplier or wreckers doktarfischer, ill be sure to let you know about it via a PM.. would love to see your car progress to.

Steven


sounds good ;) atm i dont have any big plans for my car



Looks clean man. I got exactly the same car as you in black. Same ks and everything aha shud put some photos up. Ill show u what the type r lip and grille looks like. Ek9 headlights are a must

any headlights other than stock are a must.. the standard ones are dangerously dim especially after 10 years of weather

[akira]

any headlights other than stock are a must.. the standard ones are dangerously dim especially after 10 years of weather

I think he meant ek9 headlights black housing ones not the actual bulb

but yeah good find!

[Steven1]

Looks clean man. I got exactly the same car as you in black. Same ks and everything aha shud put some photos up. Ill show u what the type r lip and grille looks like. Ek9 headlights are a must

Wow sounds like a nice civic mate, Id love to see the photos for a reference of how it would like on mine if i go down that path. :)


Also guys, What sort of options do I have for improved headlights as in the lights itself.. Like is there nice HID kits for that bright white light or what :P having good lighting is a must :)

[Niko]

Also guys, What sort of options do I have for improved headlights as in the lights itself.. Like is there nice HID kits for that bright white light or what :P having good lighting is a must :)

I've got 6000k HID's in mine and they are pretty bright, l woun't go over 6000k though

[Steven1]

Hey guys, i put in the stereo on Sunday morning before work, pictures will be up tonight :)

thinking about an oem ek9 grill for the civic, what's the opinions :) looks tougher

[Steven1]

Hey guys,

Well this is the work of the sunday before I started work for the day. I replaced the useless AM cassette player that came with the Honda with a nice Pioneer Ipod system. Thanks to dad for the extra set of hands to.

Ive been using the new radio for a couple days now and its a great investment, both in functionality and it looks the bit to with the white backlighting :) This is the first mod for the Civic and a good solid start.

Now for the Pictures:

BEFORE
http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/BeforeStereo-CopyCopy.jpg

AFTER
http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/AfterStereo-CopyCopy.jpg

(sorry for the dodgy after photo but you get the idea)

[jdmek]

nice headeck

[AusVTi-R]

if your ipod/mp3 isnt to big you can remove your ash tray and place it inside there (the cable fits nicely between the gap when shut). I also bought a black usb cable just to suit the interior, cos i prefer everything looking OEM as possible. Nice Head unit though ! keep it up

[Steven1]

Hey guys,

Sorry its been a while since ive posted anything on the forum about the car build.
At this current stage ive moved to uni and settled in. Ill most likely start to do some smaller mods to the car that are cheaper to do. Id love to put money down on large mods but its not really an option at the moment.

So ill either slowly work the sound system or work or strut bars, sways etc.. Just stuff to keep my head in the game but not much money.

Cheap mod ideas are always welcome.

Cheers,
Steven

[Peppy]

A few first suggestions, is if you find a GLI to take the dash (tacho) out of, grab the sway bar outta the front, it'll improve cornering a ton. The enlinks are important to get too. You'll need WD-40 to loosten the nuts on the enlinks, then ring spanners and a set of allen keys... I didn't pull my swaybar off when I changed them on mine, so I can't tell you exactly what you need to use for them, but if you're interested, I can get under mine and take a few snaps of important parts under there.

My three favourite mods that are fairly cheap:
Changing the parkers, interior lights and number plate lights to white LED bulbs. Looks so much cleaner and more... well, I dunno how to describe it... I just like it ;)
Changing the headlights from your stockie yellowish crap to a much whiter brighter light. Mine are "Narva Blue Power". Check with your favourite auto store for options.
Adding a footwell glow. I made my LED strips myself :D I kinda love them more because I made them AND they match the orange of my dash at night...

Have fun with your build, and let me know if you want any more ideas ;)

[Steven1]

Cheers for the ideas Peppy,
I appreciate the low cost mods for the car, sucks when money is low but you do what you have to do. im thinking of checking the wreckers around here and Sydney for some Gli and assorted bits. If i get strut and sway bars that would be awesome.

Id love to see some of the pics of your car and more ideas if your up to posting them.

Many thanks,
Steven

[Mikecivic78]

facelift (99-00) EK look nice

try to get a 2nd hand facelift EK9 grille and lip if you are after a clean look.

D series EK = very nice and reliable daily. Tune it for handling only, you'll love it.

[manonastick]

The handling on an ek cxi is actually pretty beast without any mods done to handling.
imagine how well it will perform with suspension mods.
paint the side trims + skirts to match your car colors. Looks way better that way. With white i think you should be able to get good results with home DIY jobs (Suck to be me and have a yellow EK, even a professional jobs you can see that mine isn't perfect =C). Go into your local auto store grab a can of color coded mixed paint, plastic primer + sandpaper and of to work.
Heres my ek
not perfect but i love it
http://members.iinet.net.au/~setanta/hccnsw/DSCN0110.jpg
Thanks for to setanta for taking this pic
You can also see my weird colored EK9 grill. . . that was my home diy job ;D

[Peppy]

When I get my new rims and licence back on monday, I'll take a stack of pics of my swaybar and everything associated (I think you'll need to replace your LCAs (Lower Control Arms), as CXI ones don't necessarily have the attachment for the swaybar). Do some searches, because I saw some DIY instructions for adding a swaybar to the EK1, if it didn't come with one.

My poor ride has had a bit of a rough life... his roof is all sunburned, and the bumpers have clearly been used for that a few times... bumping things... I'd have to admit, I've done it a few times, but hey, who on earth puts a parking sign right next to a driveway, right were it'll be in a blind spot? *that* one made me feel daft.

Anyhow, monday arvo I'll chuck some pics up of swaybar and stuff, and I'll try to get a night time shot of what it looks like with the LED bulbs.. pity I don't have a comparison shot.... Unless I go through my old stuff to see if the old bulbs are still there...

And for the last comment, call me Jacob.. Peppy is what I call my car. It was based on my first impressions of driving it, compared to the Daewoo Lanos I had before.. It was so much more responsive, snappier, and I was going to call it perky.. but that's a tad awkward to explain... Peppy worked well, and so he was christened.

Jacob

*edit*
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w403/Jacob_Paris/2012-03-10183253.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w403/Jacob_Paris/2012-03-10183216.jpg

The promised pics of the swaybar mounts and endlinks. If anything isn't clear from the pics, then I'll be happy to explain them thoroughly, but the best way to work out what that is, is to jump under your car and look around. Play spot the difference ;)

[Steven1]

Hey everybody,

Sorry for the long time between replys, uni work seems never ending and time gets away pretty fast.

Thanks for the photos Jacob,
I appreciate the effort in taking the photos of the swaybar and all the connections.

Im highly likely going to be doing up my headlights this week with better bulbs or a HID kit to improve the lighting in my driving. Im looking into 6000K for the nice white lighting.
Ill post up photos if it happens this weekend.

Cheers,
Steven

[grifty]

Please dont use a HID kit, it was designed for use with projector headlights, EK's do not have projector headlights. You will be blinding people in oncoming traffic.

If you insist on white Phillips makes globes which are white and come in H4.

[Steven1]

Thanks for the advice grifty,

Ill look into some Phillips bulbs in town tomorrow. Definately will improve the lighting for night driving :)

Cheers,
Steven

[Niko]

you can always direct the light so people dont go blind

[mugen_ctr]

Please dont use a HID kit, it was designed for use with projector headlights, EK's do not have projector headlights. You will be blinding people in oncoming traffic.

If you insist on white Phillips makes globes which are white and come in H4.

Miss info here, some cars did come out with HID non-projector head lamps, prime example is the Xenon head lights on R34 GTR

But with the case with Civic ek, just down to personal preference imo

[Dimmerz]

When I had a phillips HID kit in my R33, I found that 6000k was more blue than white, if you want white then I would stick to something around 4000k - 5000k.
Also, I found that because the headlights were standard halogen globe, the HID globes weren't really any better than standard halogen xenon globes you could get, not good enough to warrant the price of the HID kit anyways.
If you want HID lights, get the headlight housings with projectors to go with it, otherwise you're pretty much wasting most of the potential that the globes have.

Just my 2 cents, lol.

PS. If you don't have the projectors in your headlights, the light pretty much goes everywhere and you do piss off the people infront of you and the people driving on the other side of the road.
You can only do so much to the direction of the light but not a whole lot.

[Pepsinator]

I had HIDS in my r33 in standard housings and it blinded everyone but my friends told me the newer hids in high range cars. Audi ,bmw etc were worse than mine
So its all bullshit
Half the people who have driven past with high beams left them on so i didnt really care

[mugen_ctr]

When I had a phillips HID kit in my R33, I found that 6000k was more blue than white, if you want white then I would stick to something around 4000k - 5000k.
Also, I found that because the headlights were standard halogen globe, the HID globes weren't really any better than standard halogen xenon globes you could get, not good enough to warrant the price of the HID kit anyways.
If you want HID lights, get the headlight housings with projectors to go with it, otherwise you're pretty much wasting most of the potential that the globes have.

Just my 2 cents, lol.

PS. If you don't have the projectors in your headlights, the light pretty much goes everywhere and you do piss off the people infront of you and the people driving on the other side of the road.
You can only do so much to the direction of the light but not a whole lot.


I had HIDS in my r33 in standard housings and it blinded everyone but my friends told me the newer hids in high range cars. Audi ,bmw etc were worse than mine
So its all bullshit
Half the people who have driven past with high beams left them on so i didnt really care

If only u guys had the series 3 R33 GTR xenon projector head lights than u b balling lol

[Dimmerz]

No-one can justify $300+ per side for a headlight though, haha.
Plus a few of the R33's had AFS which means when cornering, the headlights moves slightly in that direction..
Wish I had that! Haha.

[Steven1]

Hey everybody,

Update on the headlights.
Ive put in some 5400K headlight bulbs and they definately are an improvement in the lighting that I can see at night.
They also give off a white headlight colour which adds a great look to my white civic.
Went with the updated bulbs to save some money and im happy with the results.
Photos of how it looks will be put up soon.

As to what happens next with the civic, we shall see. :)

[Steven1]

Sorry for the long period between posts of this car build.
Money has been a little tight due to univeristy and those sort of things.

Im on my university break now so I decided to do a little bit to the car.

-Washed the car and put some time into doing a little polish with some quick detailer.
-Removed the Dealer logo from the back of my car, makes the car look a ton cleaner!


Plans for the rest of the week:

-Clean the inside of the car and most likely remove the CXI logo.
-Get parts for 100k service and floor mats.
-Junkyard shop for some wrecks to get some parts for cheap mods.

Only some basics at the moment, hopefully will move onto some bigger mods in the near future such as some budget style suspension mods.
Plans for the long term are for a small turbo on the stock D series due to the lowish Km's on the engine, built from parts that i can collect and install the equipment myself :).

Many thanks,
Steven

[Steven1]

Hey everyone!

This is an update of what happened over the University break to the EK:

- There was a small spot of rust in the seal of the rear hatch window. So I had the glass cut out and then the rust was sanded back, repainted and had the window reset back where it belongs. Always good to stop rust before it gets worse so I took care of it ASAP.

Pictures of the rust itself:

http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/Window_rust.jpg

This is how big it is in respect to the window:

http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u473/Ek_Civic112/Window_rust2.jpg

- Dropped my car into my mechanic for the 100K service to do the timing belt and to replace the pulleys while he was at it to save on the labour in the long term. Then after I got the car back, I took care of the rest of the servicing myself with a new oil filter, 10w-40 oil and checked all the things I needed to.

-Bought floor mats, a few extra cleaning supplies and took off the dealership logo from the rear window.


Since the tax return came in and I will keep some of the money from it to spend on some mods for my car now that all the needed things are taken care of. Looking forward to doing some actually mods on the car to modify it my way :). Also going to Sydney on the weekend so who knows what ill find.

Comments as always are appreciated as always.
Steven

[Honda]

Hey everyone!

- There was a small spot of rust in the seal of the rear hatch window. So I had the glass cut out and then the rust was sanded back, repainted and had the window reset back where it belongs. Always good to stop rust before it gets worse so I took care of it ASAP.



Could i ask how much it cost to fix the rust (sand, repaint)? I think I need one of these soon near my rear wheel.

Nice project and good luck!

[Steven1]

Sure thing mate! The small bit of rust repair i got cost $ 100, then it was another $120 for the rear glass cutting and resetting.. I believe that a more visable spot like that near a rear wheel would require more prep work, painting and blending than what my repair was, so i couldnt give you a more precise amount mate.

Thanks for the good comment about the project :)

[mocchi]

how did you remove the window?

[Steven1]

@mocchi - Took it to Dubbo Windscreen Specialists when I was back home for the holidays and they did the cut/reset on the window for me.

[Anon22]

lol cleanest stock ek ive seen on the net

[Steven1]

Wow thanks for the compliments Anon22,
I try to look after it and keep it looking in good condition :)