My Civic VX commuter car build

[jlk16188]

well its been 8 long months since I have taken this car off the road for body restoration. Between work, wife and 2 kids, finishing my master's degree, buying a new house and life in general this project hit the back burner but is finally seeing the light of day.

I sprayed paint on it Saturday and will focus on getting this VX back on the road ASAP.

I changed the color slightly, was Tahitian green (original OEM color from 1992) but I sprayed it Aztec green, slight difference but less blue and more green.

Stay tuned for more pictures outside of the garage

[OG VX]

NICE!!!!!! In for assembled pics

[jlk16188]

almost together

[Daox]

Looks great!

[jlk16188]

well i drove the car to work for the first time in 8 months today. Overall I am please. I stalled it out and ground a bunch of gears since I havent driven a 5 speed in so long but i still managed to average 48 MPG on my 55 mile commute, not bad considering the terrain and pretty consistent with my averages from last year

[jlk16188]

Well its been a long time since I have updated this thread.

In July of 2015 I ended up selling my Civic VX based on some lifestyle decisions which really boiled down to I am tired of tinkering on cars and being uncomfortable.

I had 3 cars for myself and wife to drive, all of which were 10+ years old requiring some sort of attention resulting in me wrenching at least 1 night a week but normally 2-3 nights plus a full day on the weekends to keep all three roadworthy, state inspected and reliable. So long story short this turned my wrenching from a hobby into a job which after 15+ years tinkering with cars wore me out.

So...I sold off both my daily driver cars to fellow forum members and bought myself a much more comfortable 2015 Accord which happens to be my very first new car.

Then I decided to spoil the wife and traded her 05 Odyssey in for a new people mover, 2016 Odyssey

Needless to say, I have been very happy spending much more time relaxing and with the family rather than on my back in the driveway.

So i have still been lurking around here for a while. I have been driving the Accord like i stole it getting a pretty measly 30 MPG average per tank until recently I started to change my habits back to the ecomodder mindset and have been averaging 35ish MPG average per tank with this CVT and big 18" wheels.

sorry for the long winded post but here are some pics

The civic vx the morning the new owner came to pick it up with its replacement in the background

Next is the new Accord and Odyssey just for kicks

[jlk16188]

In actuality after totaling up the cost for all replacement parts, registration and inspection and misc maintenance on my 3 used cars, I am actually spending less money annually by purchasing two new cars and financing both of them. Honda gave me a great rate of 0.9% financing on both new cars for 60 months resulting in low enough monthly payments to offset the cost of the decreased gas mileage making this deal almost break even.

So in the long run I am much more comfortable in the new cars, reliability is 1000x's better and my total annual expenditures for vehicles is about the same with the added bonus of no more deafening wind noise, unexpected breakdowns and no more 100's of hours spend wrenching

[darcane]

Originally Posted by jlk16188

In actuality after totaling up the cost for all replacement parts, registration and inspection and misc maintenance on my 3 used cars, I am actually spending less money annually by purchasing two new cars and financing both of them. Honda gave me a great rate of 0.9% financing on both new cars for 60 months resulting in low enough monthly payments to offset the cost of the decreased gas mileage making this deal almost break even.

So in the long run I am much more comfortable in the new cars, reliability is 1000x's better and my total annual expenditures for vehicles is about the same with the added bonus of no more deafening wind noise, unexpected breakdowns and no more 100's of hours spend wrenching

I'm in the same boat with my Civic. I like tinkering on my cars, but it's gone from being a hobby to a chore. I'm looking at replacing it with something new/reliable so tinkering can go back to being fun again (i.e. just the toys/fun projects rather than fixing what broke).