Thought i would do a progress blog on my car
i crashed my previous car just before xmas so was on the look out for a new car , i had several in mind but after narrowing it down decided an ek9 would be a good choice , unfortunatley the insurance didnt pay out as much as i had hoped and with xmas just around the corner i had to settle for something a bit cheaper, so got the next best thing a ek4 vti. Got if for a good price and has low miles with little owners.
I never really had much plans for the car from the offset however after a week or so i was begining to see that the 1997 model didnt really look that 'sporty' or set itself apart from the newer esi/lsi models, so something had to be done!
deciding on what to do was tough , i didnt want a boy racer civic bodykit and didnt want to just copy the ek9 so decided to try and merge some of the body aspects of the ek9 with the good bits of the vti.
First it went to the bodyshop to get all the black trim colour coded , this included the side skirts and the bump strips on the doors as well as the mudguards. When it came to the bumpers i didnt want to just colour code the bump strips on it so decided to do it properly and get them plastic welded and filed and resprayed.
At the same time i got the shop to fill in the recesses of the uk number plate front and back and got a set of jap style number plates. So it looked like this when i got it back.
Abit later i ordered the front ek9 lip and the back lip, got them sprayed up and fitted and make the car look alot better imo.
a month went by and then decided it was time to get rid of the flat spoiler and replace it with something that has abit more presence but not over the top , ek9 spolier it was then , at the same time the ek9 front grille was fitted. While it was in the bodyshop thought i may as well get the back de wypered to give it a more smooth look , this was more work than i thought with having to weld a plate in place and respray the full boot but think it was worth it in the end.
i then turned to lowering the car, i wanted the car to have a more aggresive stance and handle well but not look slammed to the floor kinda thing so went for a spaxx 45mm suspension kit with kryton spaxx shocks. the car looked alot better after lowering and handled so much better!! the bodyroll and overall heavy feeling when cornering hard was gone.
since the car was lowered i decided now to do a few weight saving mods , although the vti is 160hp standard it was just faster than my friends 120hp saxo vts and this was all down to weight. My car never came with air con so that was a start , i removed the spare wheel and all tools as well as the cardboard protector. removed the car matts and back head rests. i still have more to remove and will do just trying to get a good balance between power to weight and comfort
Next up i was starting to think about wheels , i wanted lightweight wheels to aid in the weight saving process. At first i looked at all the major brands , buddy club , rays etc and was not sure on what colour to get. In the end to get a new set of real japanese wheels with new tyres was costing too much. My friend has rota wheels on his scooby and i was impressed with them , i know alot of guys on here dont like them but tbh i cant fault them , they are light seem well built and a good bit cheaper and more readily avalible than jdm wheels and would buy them again.
This is how the car stands at the moment , any comments or suggestions welcome (be kind )
I have ordered a j's racing carbon intake which should arrive next week to give the car a bit of sound as its all stock at the moment
other future mods i think will be;
face lift rear lights
possibly back windows tinted
Edelbrock intake manifold
Meercat exhaust system
And not sure what else , any suggestions ?
Thanks for looking
i crashed my previous car just before xmas so was on the look out for a new car , i had several in mind but after narrowing it down decided an ek9 would be a good choice , unfortunatley the insurance didnt pay out as much as i had hoped and with xmas just around the corner i had to settle for something a bit cheaper, so got the next best thing a ek4 vti. Got if for a good price and has low miles with little owners.
I never really had much plans for the car from the offset however after a week or so i was begining to see that the 1997 model didnt really look that 'sporty' or set itself apart from the newer esi/lsi models, so something had to be done!
deciding on what to do was tough , i didnt want a boy racer civic bodykit and didnt want to just copy the ek9 so decided to try and merge some of the body aspects of the ek9 with the good bits of the vti.
First it went to the bodyshop to get all the black trim colour coded , this included the side skirts and the bump strips on the doors as well as the mudguards. When it came to the bumpers i didnt want to just colour code the bump strips on it so decided to do it properly and get them plastic welded and filed and resprayed.
At the same time i got the shop to fill in the recesses of the uk number plate front and back and got a set of jap style number plates. So it looked like this when i got it back.
Abit later i ordered the front ek9 lip and the back lip, got them sprayed up and fitted and make the car look alot better imo.
a month went by and then decided it was time to get rid of the flat spoiler and replace it with something that has abit more presence but not over the top , ek9 spolier it was then , at the same time the ek9 front grille was fitted. While it was in the bodyshop thought i may as well get the back de wypered to give it a more smooth look , this was more work than i thought with having to weld a plate in place and respray the full boot but think it was worth it in the end.
i then turned to lowering the car, i wanted the car to have a more aggresive stance and handle well but not look slammed to the floor kinda thing so went for a spaxx 45mm suspension kit with kryton spaxx shocks. the car looked alot better after lowering and handled so much better!! the bodyroll and overall heavy feeling when cornering hard was gone.
since the car was lowered i decided now to do a few weight saving mods , although the vti is 160hp standard it was just faster than my friends 120hp saxo vts and this was all down to weight. My car never came with air con so that was a start , i removed the spare wheel and all tools as well as the cardboard protector. removed the car matts and back head rests. i still have more to remove and will do just trying to get a good balance between power to weight and comfort
Next up i was starting to think about wheels , i wanted lightweight wheels to aid in the weight saving process. At first i looked at all the major brands , buddy club , rays etc and was not sure on what colour to get. In the end to get a new set of real japanese wheels with new tyres was costing too much. My friend has rota wheels on his scooby and i was impressed with them , i know alot of guys on here dont like them but tbh i cant fault them , they are light seem well built and a good bit cheaper and more readily avalible than jdm wheels and would buy them again.
This is how the car stands at the moment , any comments or suggestions welcome (be kind )
I have ordered a j's racing carbon intake which should arrive next week to give the car a bit of sound as its all stock at the moment
other future mods i think will be;
face lift rear lights
possibly back windows tinted
Edelbrock intake manifold
Meercat exhaust system
And not sure what else , any suggestions ?
Thanks for looking