My Project

[Honda_Boy]

wait hold up, it's called Alabama Chrome though.

[Honda_Boy]

Ha! A TennSpeed.net friend of mine shopped one pic of my car.

[Honda_Boy]

OK, an actual update to the car's progress. I have refitted the bumper today this time getting rid of one zip tie and no longer using side marker wire to hold up one side. I broke out 2 very pointy screws and grabbed a power drill and went to town. So now my bumper actually on right. Now my headlights look right and bumper looks right. It all fits close and tight instead of having huge gaps. I also added a carbon fiber lip to it. Unfortunately this lip has hit stuff many times and is cracked and busted up n a few places but it still looks fine. It looks so much better with the lip. It makes the side skirts less crappy looking. I'll post pics when I get them. I need to wash the car first. It's filthy. The bugs were out in full force tonight while me and my friend were cruisin some rural highways. Bug guts all over the front of my car. Had to stop at a gas station to clean my windshield.

HAHAHA!!!! he shopped it again. Check it.

Edited March 29, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[Honda_Boy]

Teaser pics of the new look. If I remember, I'll clean it and take some new pics tomorrow.

[Honda_Boy]

just as a expected, the trade ain't happenin. Excuse my french but the dude just suddenly started being a dick. He started calling me and everyone else on Tennspeed that responded to his FS/Trade thread retards for saying his car is only worth $3500. Which it is. He started thinking that car was worth $6500. He's way off base. KBB values an LS with his mileage at 2900 and a GSR at 3200. He has an LS with a GSR motor essentially making it a GSR. Add a coupla hundred on for mods and you have his value. My car is $2500 car. It has a $2000 motor in it. It has more than $2000 worth of after market or other parts. My car's value: a whopping $3500. He obviously doesn't realize that after market parts do not retain their value once put on a car. And what you spend on a car, you'll never get back.

[JDoors]

Another one bites the dust.

[Bubba Bob]

He obviously doesn't realize that after market parts do not retain their value once put on a car. And what you spend on a car, you'll never get back.

Seems to be a common problem... Quick, find the guy and get his head out of his @$$ before he suffocates.

[Honda_Boy]

also need to give this dude a glass stomach so he can see, cause his head is way to far up his @$$. I'm not dealin with a butt hole like him. He thinks just cause the car is "clean" it justifies the price. Ummm no. Not really. If my car was in perfect shape I still would only get like $3800 - $4200.

[Honda_Boy]

well screw gettin another car. Frickin screw it. This thing is gonna remain mine for along time and I am for damn sure gonna make it look good. I'm ordering a new bumper next and my manager and I are gonna do it right. The one that's on it is not even the same color and not properly clear coated. We are gonna make this hatchback shine like the frickin sun. It's gonna be worthy of the car show it's gonna be in in May.

P.S. I am so addicted to the Initial D 4th Stage Sound Track. Greatest driving music ever. It's like dance music or something. During the racing scenes this music was playing. Initial D is an anime about touge racing. The main character drives a car no one ever expects to win but he always manages to win every race. Man this music is addictive. Me and my bud love this stuff for some reason. Oddly enough it's all in English (yes English and not Engrish) despite the fact 4th Stage is only in Japanese (not in the states yet, only 1st and 2nd stage are).

[Honda_Boy]

Finally new pics. I wasn't able to wash my car the day I wanted to cause a friend of mine came over cause she wanted me to help her set up a theme on her laptop. After she left and I went to wash my car, I realized I didn't have any soap or a decent wash mitt cause my bro took all the washing stuff with him when he finally got his own house. So I had to go buy the stuff and didn't have the time before work.

I am lovin the lip. Even my dad likes it. My dad wants to see this car restored as badly as I do.

[JDoors]

The "lip," good.

The "skirts," bad. Don't know if I ever chimed in on the side-skirts -- They don't look right. Did somebody leave 'em out in the Sun too long? Especially now that you have a well-integrated spoiler it makes those wavy skirts look even more out of place.

[Honda_Boy]

Yeah, everyone on Tennspeed said the same thing about the skirts. They suck. They are for a body kit and fit very poorly. The guy that put all this crap on ths car couldn't drill a hole if his life depended on it. Even the lip doesn't fit the greatest. I'm buyin OEM skirts from the junkyard when I think about it. Eventually I will replace the front fenders and bumpers. When I do so that lip will fit correctly or will be replaced by a different lip (either a JDM SiR, JDM Type-R, or another ViS Spoon style carbon fiber lip like I have) cause the one I have is damaged. I'm thinking a carbon fiber hood further on down the road.

[JDoors]

What I would do:

A.) Replace those side skirts ASAP.

B.) Paint the lip body color (might visually hide the small amount of mis-fit).

C.) Insert some kind of grille material to hide the mechanicals peeping out, that looks hillbilly.

D.) Worry about all that other stuff.

Edited April 3, 2007 by JDoors

[Honda_Boy]

The lip is carbon fiber, you don't paint carbon fiber. If you want to paint it you buy a urethane lip. The grille was cut out and I may buy some Home Depot gutter guard and put it in the grille (so freakin ricey but gets the job done). I actually want to just buy another grille and paint it. I have one but all the mounts have been cut off so it's no good. It's just a decoration in my room now. I need to figure out how to remove the H badge without damaging it so I can use it in the new grille when I get one or I could just get the grille out of another car with a badge already on it.

Skirts may be gettin replaced soon. I'm a little short on cash but I may have a new job at Blockbuster very soon plus I get paid every friday anyway.

[JDoors]

It wasn't obvious the spoiler was carbon, my bad. Fuggetabout anything right now anyway and get established in your new job.

[Honda_Boy]

Honda_Boy's Honda Civic, now with JDM foglights.............Ok they are actually replicas but neither I nor my parents are spending $300-400 for a set of real JDM Raybrig foglights. The $120 Depo Replicas from Password JDM are just fine. Even the switch will fool a non EK Civic savvy person into believin it's OEM. They look great and both me a my friends that helped me install them think that they improve the look of the lip and the whole car in general.

Sweet.

[Bubba Bob]

Wow, that's one colorfull front end. Black, green(s) and yellow. Hehehe Looks good though.

Brithday Gift?

[Honda_Boy]

yeah, they were my main birthday gift. That and a set of tools, a roadside emergency kit, and the DVD of Cars. Then I went and bought some anime DVD's later in the day with my friend, then my parents, my friend, and I all ate at a Japanese restaurant. Fun day. Now I have a Best Buy gift car which my bro gave me today after I got done installin my fogs.

I had 2 friends of mine help. They did most of the wiring while I mounted the fogs. Ended up with 4 people in my driveway other than me by the time we got done. My 2 friends that were helpin me, then my friend from down the street and her sister. Then they left and my whole family was out lookin at the car so I had a total of 7 people other than me agreeing that my car looks way better.

[Honda_Boy]

And time for night time pics......in my back yard. Wish I knew someone with a DLSR and photography skills, and I wish I knew of a nice parking lot to do this at (that has lights of course)

[Honda_Boy]

HA despite being an utter pile of crap, my car got nominated for Ride of the Month (May) on TennSpeed.net. I nominated a guy from the next town over. Saw him out yesterday. I doubt I'll win but apparently one guy on there loves my car and is tellin people to check out my garage on the site. Cool!!

[JDoors]

Those foglights are SOOOOO perfect!

( ... Hoping you're not the type to blind everybody when there's no fog just because you want to look "cool" ... Or fall for the "it lights up the road" fallacy; sure, it lights up the road, right in front of the car, which is great and necessary in fog, but when it's NOT foggy you should be looking further down the road than foglights reach, so all you're accomplishing is annoying other drivers ... like me ... )

[Honda_Boy]

actually my visibility of the road was extremely poor at night (headlight housings in very bad shape) before these things. They are low so they don't blind anyone, I mean I passed a Lexus last night with bright yellow fogs too and they didn't blind me. In fact many cars have the fogs wired into the parking lights (out of the factory no less) and all them are friggin trucks and that is blinding in a low set Civic.

I'm not trying to be a butt hole it's just with the poor condition that my plastic headlights are in, these glass fogs really help me see on roads with no street lights. Actually come to think of it, many people in this town will drive with the headlights off and just the parking lights and foglights on in town.

Edited April 17, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

I've been 'round and 'round with this argument before.

Aside from it being potentially illegal (originally to limit blinding oncoming traffic -- depends on state laws, which I admit have largely been overidden by new Federal laws to accomodate "daytime running lights") it's actually promotes dangerous driving habits.

Fog lights light up immediately in front of the car with a wide-spread beam (so you can tell if you're still on the road when forward vision is obscured by fog -- that wide-spread beam is what causes it to bleed into oncoming traffic), often "yellow" in color to penetrate further (lower wavelength light hits fewer particles so there's less reflection).

You should be looking much further down the road at anything approaching road speeds. Seeing all that bright light in front of the car may fool you into watching, or even concentrating, immediately in front of the car, causing you to miss something further out (which may appear to be not lit up by comparison because the everything is brighter in front of the car).

By the time something is within range of fog lights it's practically too late to do anything but accident avoidance (which you are good at, but sudden maneuvers aren't always successful).

Having been 'round and 'round before I know I cannot make a convincing argument so ... enjoy 'em. They really do look great.

[Honda_Boy]

well like I said, many manufacturers wire the fogs straight into the parking lights now so you have no choice as to have them on or off. Half the time, these vehicles are big ole trucks or SUV's and they are blinding to little ole Hondas and Nissans. My fogs are really low to the ground and light up areas where my headlights should light up. Basically I have as much light now as my dad's Tacoma. Due to much of the crud on the headlight lens, the light doesn't get everywhere it's supposed to and the fogs fill in that area and then some. I'll admit yeah they are wide boy are they ever. But it's so low that it doesn't reach the windshields of other cars.

Again, 90% of the cars in this area that do have fogs, have me on at night and about 30% of them will have only the fogs and parking lights on in town. Again there was a Lexus last night that also had hyper yellow fog lights and they didn't bother me one bit. Regular pick up headlights are more annoying that fog lights. I have to keep my eyes on the side of the road while driving at night half the time.

[JDoors]

Hey, you reminded me of something. They have "lens polish" specifically made for the Lexan used for headlights. I first saw it on the web somewhere but have since seen it in the auto section of the local Mega-Mart (not its real name). It's supposed to return the lenses to "like new" clarity.