Project Turtle: Bluesteel93's Civic VX build

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by bluesteel93

Haha ya for sure man. And nope never driven an insight.

Ah a first for the both of us :O!

[OG VX]

Great progress of late! Thanks for keeping us updated.

Bay is looking great. Love the VC and NGK wire combo. Exactly what I want to do.

What battery is that?

Waiting to see what you and bro come up with for that Kammback. Nice teaser

[bluesteel93]

Thanks man! I'll have to double check what kind of battery that is next time I get a chance. I'm pretty excited for my kammback too. Can't wait till it's finished!

[bluesteel93]

Ordered some Tein S-tech lowering springs awhile ago and installed them yesterday. Baltothewolf decided to meet me at my brothers and helped me out with the install. Big thanks to him! This type of work always goes smoother with two people.

Here's a few before pics. Forgot to get some pics of the rear before the install, but I'm sure you get the idea.






And after.








I like the ride height a lot better now and it honestly feels just as comfortable as the stock springs.

Next on the list this morning was making a grill block and covers for the original fog light holes.



The plasma cutter makes things a little easier.










I like the raw aluminum look but I think I'm going to paint them black later this week. They seemed to work pretty good though on the drive home this evening. Got 65.93 mpg on the trip home with some minor stop and go traffic. On the same route last week I only got 57.6 mpg with a little more traffic. Hopefully next time I work on it I can finish up the kammback...

[Baltothewolf]

Wow that does look nice!! No problem on the help, it was a blast! Just remember to watch those temps, you can go from good mpg to needing a new engine really quickly! May I recommend an aftermarket temp gauge? It's what I did on my '95 Camry and it worked great until the gauge broke.

[Edit]: I'll warn you, a ticket for not having a front license plate is 250$. You can cut the license plate thin and bolt it to the grill block so it won't effect aero, and you won't have to risk a ticket.

Do you mind posting behind shots of how you mounted the grill block? I have been thinking of doing something similar to my insight.

[OG VX]

Nice nice nice x 100!

Have you considered wrapping the pieces with CF vinyl wrap off eBay? No paint chipping!

[bluesteel93]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Wow that does look nice!! No problem on the help, it was a blast! Just remember to watch those temps, you can go from good mpg to needing a new engine really quickly! May I recommend an aftermarket temp gauge? It's what I did on my '95 Camry and it worked great until the gauge broke.

[Edit]: I'll warn you, a ticket for not having a front license plate is 250$. You can cut the license plate thin and bolt it to the grill block so it won't effect aero, and you won't have to risk a ticket.

Do you mind posting behind shots of how you mounted the grill block? I have been thinking of doing something similar to my insight.

I probably will get a new water temp gauge in the future. Does anyone know how accurate the stock water temp gauge is on these civics? I know on some cars they pretty much just stay in the middle unless you're overheating. According to the gauge right now though the temps seem to be doing fine. We'll see how it does when it starts warming up. I can easily make a new center block that has a bigger opening if I have to now that I have an accurate template to go off of.

I'm not too worried about a front license plate ticket, but I was planning on putting it back on anyway.

I'll try to remember to take more pics of how I mounted the grill block when I take it off to paint it. Basically I just made some 1x2 inch L brackets from some spare sheet aluminum and screwed them to the factory grill. Then I screwed the grill block to the L brackets. Seems pretty durable and should hold up well. The side blocks I made are simply screwed into the plastic part of the middle horizontal fin using sheet metal screws. They seem plenty secure, but time will tell how they hold up.

[bluesteel93]

Originally Posted by OG VX

Nice nice nice x 100!

Have you considered wrapping the pieces with CF vinyl wrap off eBay? No paint chipping!

Hmm... Carbon fiber isn't really my style but maybe a black wrap? I like the no chipping factor. I was actually planning on trying out your duplicolor bumper paint on the grill block cause I was going to use it to touch up a couple trim items and my wiper arms anyway.

[OG VX]

Originally Posted by bluesteel93

Hmm... Carbon fiber isn't really my style but maybe a black wrap? I like the no chipping factor. I was actually planning on trying out your duplicolor bumper paint on the grill block cause I was going to use it to touch up a couple trim items and my wiper arms anyway.

Gotcha. Yeah, I think the wrap route will be better, because of the area and purpose of those blocks. They are bug magnests, for sure. The Duplicolor product looks great, but is not the most archival for high-wear surfaces. I usually end up re-painting the wiper arms each year, due to the abuse they take.

Nice drop. Car is looking great. Man, I need your plasma cutter!

[bluesteel93]

Originally Posted by OG VX

Gotcha. Yeah, I think the wrap route will be better, because of the area and purpose of those blocks. They are bug magnests, for sure. The Duplicolor product looks great, but is not the most archival for high-wear surfaces. I usually end up re-painting the wiper arms each year, due to the abuse they take.

Nice drop. Car is looking great. Man, I need your plasma cutter!

Thanks man! I already bought the duplicolor paint for the trim pieces, so I'll paint it with that for now. Depending on how it holds up though I may do the wrap in the future. I am getting a kammback, lip and side skirts in the future though so if I want to make them all match that would be quite a lot of wrap...