Thrifty McGassaver this is your life!
 

Just posting up a "How-do" thread to introduce myself.

The name is Tom, the game is ecomodding, the ride is a 1994 Civic VX with over 336K miles on it now.

Some of you know me from another forum that deals with saving on gas consumption.

My plans are to help y'all setup and test your new forum as well as guide the hand of new members as the site grows into a world dominating power!

Just kidding, I promise to use my powers for the good of the world!
This forum shall be the tool to further the knowledgement of mankind.

Nice job noticing the two smilies I added myself today. :turtle: ftw. Look forward to have you around.

Hey Tom - welcome, welcome.

It's nice to have a VX guru around. I still kick myself every time I read yet another person has joined your fleet. But there's just no way I have time or room for 3 cars!

Thanks for the welcome.

My army of VX's grows stronger everyday, muahahahah!

How's development on the site going?

lol, between work, having a drink after work, making dinner for the family, having an issue with my Photoshop 7 program, and a pregnant wife.......it's going well. I might actually be able to resize all of my How-to pictures today so I can upload them and start posting them to the site.

TomO -

Welcome to EM! I think that with time, "Thrifty McGassaver" can make it's way into English slang.

CarloSW2

Thanks, but I doubt Thrifty McGassaver will become synonymous with VX ecomodding. The name TomO though is a different story, lol.

I can't wait until I get the rebuilt motor in this spring. I might try out a few tricks like cryo-treating the pistons, just for fun since it's cheap enough.

But the only thing on the docket for the near future is the Lean burn monitor kits and replacing the front wheel bearings that howl like a banshee as I cruise down the highway. They sing a song of decreased FE for me. :(

Lean burn kit? Sounds interesting.

The ForkenSwift and Thrifty should get together for a wheel bearing duet.

Just thought I'd throw together a brief, all encompassing post about the cosmetic and mechanical changes that I've done to my car over the three years I've had it...

When I first bought the car for $1500:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/1156/img2858m.jpg
Dirty Winter Mode
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2663/img2857h.jpg
Dented Driver's Door (hard to see but it's there)
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7590/img2856y.jpg
Driver's side Rear
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5857/img2855m.jpg
Dinged up tailgate
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9045/img2854d.jpg
Passenger Rear
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/371/img2851u.jpg
Passenger Front fender
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2038/img2852g.jpg
Whole Passenger side
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9895/img2853i.jpg
Closeup of the passenger door

I then swapped over parts from the 95 Si that I owned for just one week before I got this car. I swapped the tailgate, passenger door, passenger fender, and hood.

I later had rear quarter patch panels installed and painted the entire car Dark blue.

Then I went through a few phases with the exterior:
Denji Projectors, clear side lights and a modified grill insert from a 03-05 Eclipse:
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/frontgrill.jpg

Installed a block heater:
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/blockheater.jpg
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/blockheater1.jpg
Installed WeatherTech Window Visors and Spoon style mirrors:
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/209608776325.jpg
Experimented and made a Kammback for the car:
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/KammProfile.jpg
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/KammRear.jpg
It later came off for some redesigning.

Picked up some rare optional CRX HF wheels to rock for winter use (painted them bronze because the OEM white was covered with rust from the brake system)
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/OEMoptHFWheel.jpg

Made some side skirts and picked up some Enkei Conpe-8 rims for summer:
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/SideSkirt.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/749...ftyside.th.jpg

Picked up some OEM fog lights, and OEM front lip, made a belly pan, and found some TYC one piece headlights:
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/VXFront.jpg
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/VXFront2.jpg

Put a Spoon style front lip on and polished the paint and re-cleared the hood:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1...tyfront.th.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/6...yfront1.th.jpg

Swapped in a freshly rebuilt D15Z1 (stock VX) motor at 380,000miles:
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/7816/thriftyengine.jpg

Then I made a more aerodynamic front bumper for winter with a couple different versions of front air dams:
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/9318/aerofront.jpg
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4207/aeroleft.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6583/aeroright.jpg
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/5150/vxairdamday.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7356/winterlip1.jpg

So after three years, this is as it sits. I'm making one more version of a front air dam when the material arrives this week. Then it's just driving it through the winter and counting the days until spring when I can work on it again.

Now you know a little more about the work I've put into my VX. Any questions and comments are welcomed as long as they're positive. :)