My '97 Civic Mods

[vskid3]

Finally got some coroplast yesterday. I have made smooth wheel covers with it so far. I'll probably do rear skirts and replace the cardboard grille block with a coroplast one next weekend. If I have enough left over, I would like to do a partial belly pan that will cover from behind the back tire to the rear bumper on the driver's side. There is a big empty space there, which on the other side is mostly taken up by the muffler.



My friends all think I'm a dork.

[winkosmosis]

Paint smiley faces on those covers

[California98Civic]

Your original wheels seem pretty good aerodynamically. They have holes, but they are small, and the surface is mostly flat. If you find the time, use your Ultra Gauge to A-B-A test this mod? Have you thought of deleting the passenger side mirror? My hunch from my experience would be that there might be bigger gains for you there.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Your original wheels seem pretty good aerodynamically. They have holes, but they are small, and the surface is mostly flat. If you find the time, use your Ultra Gauge to A-B-A test this mod? Have you thought of deleting the passenger side mirror? My hunch from my experience would be that there might be bigger gains for you there.

Are you talking about the ones in the picture in the garage? I haven't had those on since I bought the car from my parents, they rattled at low speeds and were annoying. Now that I think about it, I should have just kept them, covered the holes, and done something to stop the rattling.

Because I have to cut the zipties to remove them, they'll only be coming off when I have to remove the tires (I have wire cutters in the door pocket in case I need to remove them quickly). There aren't any good flat roads around here to test on, anyway. As long as mods don't hurt my mileage, they stay. The covers are going to get a coat of black spraypaint to make them less noticeable, my friends are embarrassed to be seen in it.

I would love to delete the passenger mirror, the mirrors on this generation of Civic seem to be especially large in relation to the car. All I need to do is find a way to mount a blindspot mirror in a way that it shows the same area that my current convex blindspot mirrors do.

I'll hopefully get the wheel skirts done this weekend, I really need to free up my back seat. I was going to do them from the bottom of the wheel well, but because the tire sticks out at the bottom, I'll probably just do them down to where the tire starts to get in the way.

[California98Civic]

Yeah, I guess I was talking about the caps in the old photo. I almost wish I had those. But I also think first generation Insight wheels would be awesome, as long as I can get them in 15's. These days too I am thinking about larger tires on the 15 wheels, for lower highway rpms. I suspect that might be much more valuable to me that the Insight wheels. For me, I want these mods to look factory--of as close as possible. I want to have to explain most of what and where I made changes. Are you going to ABA test these covers? I would recommend it. I made, installed, and removed front wheel spats because of negative impacts on FE. GOOD LUCK!

[vskid3]

I painted them with ultra-flat Krylon camouflage spraypaint, it looks a lot better now.

I got my oil changed at Jiffy Lube today. They had my air filter out to try to get me to buy a new one, I told them to just put it back. Then he said my power steering belt was missing, I told him it was in the trunk, he sarcastically said thats a good place for it. I did splurge for the high mileage oil, though, to see if it would help with it leak/burning oil (not sure which it is).

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by vskid3

I would love to delete the passenger mirror, the mirrors on this generation of Civic seem to be especially large in relation to the car. All I need to do is find a way to mount a blindspot mirror in a way that it shows the same area that my current convex blindspot mirrors do.

Instead of an in-car blind spot mirror on the passenger side, I use this instead.
Amazon.com: Broadway In Car Blue Tint Convex 300mm Rear View Mirror: Automotive

SOOOOO much more range of view compared to the stock rear view mirror.

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by vskid3

Because I have to cut the zipties to remove them, they'll only be coming off when I have to remove the tires (I have wire cutters in the door pocket in case I need to remove them quickly).

You can cut another "inner" hole the diameter of the lug nuts pattern. Slightly less aero, but this way you don't have to cut your zip ties all of the time. I do a lot my own maintenance on my car, so having easy access to the lug nuts saves a ton of time (and zip ties).

[California98Civic]

Wheel covers look cool now. Nice choice. On the mirrors... I have a convex mirror that I bought on Amazon that I mounted on the passenger side visor. Works fine. I think the trick is relearning how you use your mirrors. I always use the center and side mirrors now for judgments about what is beside and behind. I have no blind spots.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Maybe there are more efficient gearing ratios on my version of the DX motor.

Coupe and sedan share the same transmission, however, check out the final drive ratio in hatchbacks