Honda-Fan's Silver Machine

Honda-Fan

Honda-Fan

Well-Known Member
Messages
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2,864
Location
Dallas, Texas
Vehicle Model
Civic LX
Body Style
Coupe
Hey everybody-- it's been a while since I've posted, and that's mainly due to my life being a rollercoaster as it comes to work/life balance during 2017-2018. The last thing I attempted were TruHart coils, but actually decided against it after realizing how garbage the roads were on my regular commute. Long story short got a new job in Autumn of last year, and things have been great; I've gone from having 6 debts down to just one-- and I actually get to go home after work now.

So, here's my current build--

2013 Civic LX 2D (FG3)
15x6.5 BBS RG Gold w/ Machine Lip (c. 1989) *Ordered from UP-GARAGE
Open-End Italian lugs from Discount Tire
Buncha Ricey stickers (not shown) -- Peeking RX-78 from Never-content.jp is my favorite.
30% Tint (w/ Ecogreen)
Tsudo Catback exhaust from Speed Element
'JDM Pink' Reverse light overlays
Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood W/ Aerocatch 'Carbon Look' Hood Pins.
Revesol 'Hydro-Dip Carbon' Style Steering Wheel
A custom Tsurikawa from the depths of the Interwebs.

I used to have an HIC rear visor, but the extreme heat here made it peel off in my driveway

*I had to have these wheels' center bores widened by about 4.5mm to fit at the local CNC shop-- they're OEM Mazda RX-7 FC3S equipment. The RS is the flagship for BBS, but the RG are almost identical and forged, too. You can't see them in this, but they have little BBS red decals on the inner lip, too.

..I get revved at a lot now.

IMG_20190817_112310.jpg
 
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Added the reverse light overlays today-- didn't do as bad I thought I'd do. I got one tiny set of wrinkles in the driver side corner, but they're so unnoticeable I have to really search to find them. They're transparent 'JDM Pink'.

I'm not sorry about my ricey stickers.

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Looks good :thumbsup: Don't ruin the picture with blocking the plate like that. Make it a bit better and use white at least ;)
 
It's been a minute!

Added a little since I've been away:

I tracked down some center cap assemblies for my wheels and sprayed them with Grimmspeed's BBS Gold. They match up quite nicely! Yes, my tires need dressing.

IMG_20190914_104042.jpg

Today, I began install of my Tsudo catback. Is it really loud? To me, I'd say no... if you leave the silencer in :D. One thing that you might have to do if you have a coupe is to wrap your subframe pieces with some titanium header weave if your exhaust rests atop it. I also saw how absolutely trashed my undercarriage is from Texas debris. I don't think I had one plate or plastic piece that wasn't cratered by some who-knows-what. I'd take a full pic of the car, but it's extra dirty right now. :/

@bootyluvr Thanks! I'll use white next time :D


MVIMG_20191012_120011.jpg
 
nice exhaust that's on my list after I start tuning. What kind of tires are those? I do what I call tire tuning which is simply put on the best tires I can find, tires are cheap compared to a screw up car in a light pole.
 
@sunofwolf Thanks! The tires that I have are a curiosity that I've come across-- they're Westlake RP18s. They're distributed by Tire Co., and they're pretty inexpensive (Full set for around $200 USD). They aren't performance tires, but they will last a while if you're just commuting a lot. I've had them for a year, and they've lost very little tread. I originally gave them a shot because they're on the Toyota Corolla AE86 that's reviewed on YouTube by Regular Car Reviews.

As an aside, Westlakes are easily identifiable with 'W' shaped treads on the outer sides. :)
 
sounds like a set of china tires I had-worst tires ever, at any curve go over cliff rated last place out of 20 tires. they wear like iron and have zero grip too- absolute junk rated and unsafe at any speed. Made by a china cement company I later found out:badger:
 
@sunofwolf They may be from the same manufacturer, then! Tire Co. seems to be some sort of big parent company to a lot of Chinese brand tires.

Maybe I can upgrade in the Spring; Is there a good OEM fitment tire that I should run?
 
Honda-Fan said:
@sunofwolf They may be from the same manufacturer, then! Tire Co. seems to be some sort of big parent company to a lot of Chinese brand tires.

Maybe I can upgrade in the Spring; Is there a good OEM fitment tire that I should run?
Click to expand...
Those tires are just fine for what you got. They seem to have good ratings. There is absolutely no reason to put an expensive high perfomance tire on a LX it truly is not worth the extra money for a tire that last 1/4 the time to just drive to work and home.
 
@mySIck I like my Westlakes a lot -- and I agree, I'm just driving from garage to garage for the most part.

Tiny update because I have to tell somebody-- I was the victim of a R I C E R F L Y B Y.

I had a small rattle in my muffler ( Which was remedied by removing some of the under-bumper plastic to make more jiggle room ) and during the initial troubleshooting, I took out my Tsudo's silencer piece. As an excuse to drive around and test for more rattles, I went to get some cut-rate Chinese food at the local joint. After procuring my Orange Chicken and rice, behold, out of nowhere-- a completely black 8th Gen Civic Sedan! :eek: This thing was greasy lookin'! It had limo tint, and some plasti-dipped black rims on low-pros! The exhaust note was the classic 'Honda rasp' that comes from removing parts of the stock exhaust; You're probably hearing it in your head right now. This sedan floored it past my low-gear rumbling self and planted right in front of me, to rev more. I humored this car by revving back -- and it disappeared again into the night.

I promptly put the silencer back in.
 
Still dirty, but here--

InkedIMG_20191012_124808_LI.jpg

So, now that I'm a member of the Tsudo Squad, here's what you'll need to be wary of should you install one yourself:

1) It sounds very nice, don't worry about rasp at all-- it's all bass.
2) This pipe, especially the newer 4-piece variant runs a little long. As the pipe heats up, it will expand and press the hangers against your frame and heat shields. This will cause various rattles. You have two-ish options at this point:

a) Cushion the hangers with some sort of heat resistant squishamacallit
b) Have the muffler pros cut a little off of the straight pipe to relax the tolerances so you can live rattle-free
c-ish) If you're of Heraclean lineage, you can also just bend your heat-shields back some.

3) As mentioned above, wrap your OEM subframe bar with exhaust header wrap. It sits really close to the pipe no matter what, so wrapping it protects both items.
4) Lastly, think hard before removing that silencer. It's hard to go back once you do.
 
mySIck said:
Those tires are just fine for what you got. They seem to have good ratings. There is absolutely no reason to put an expensive high perfomance tire on a LX it truly is not worth the extra money for a tire that last 1/4 the time to just drive to work and home.
Click to expand...
Just because a car is not fast doesn't mean you don't need fancy tires, my 2001 neon now has Nocia AS 215 45 17-daylight racing wheels,
and they do wonders for a car with only 132HP but it weighs just less than 2600pds, has a somewhat weak auto so you just drive slow, I like to dance around potholes-you actually have to do this or the car won't be working too long. old size was a 14" ug.
My Michelin AS 3+ have transformed it into a back road monster on the honda si.
 
@sunofwolf With the Tsudo included, I think my car is somewhere around the 2,700 mark -- probably somewhere in the 2710's with the much lighter BBS wheels. The LX is supposed to have 140 ponies at the crank, and chances are I'm missing a handful since it's been a few years. So I'll say 135HP to be safe. Apples to Apples, having more grip sounds like it would be great for my setup, but dog-burnit would it be short lived-- the roads here aren't very good outside of larger cities. I'm not against a stickier set for Autocross or something, but I'd get another set of wheels for that, too.

@bauer311 @bootyluvr Thanks! :-)
 
sunofwolf said:
Just because a car is not fast doesn't mean you don't need fancy tires, my 2001 neon now has Nocia AS 215 45 17-daylight racing wheels,
and they do wonders for a car with only 132HP but it weighs just less than 2600pds, has a somewhat weak auto so you just drive slow, I like to dance around potholes-you actually have to do this or the car won't be working too long. old size was a 14" ug.
My Michelin AS 3+ have transformed it into a back road monster on the honda si.
Click to expand...

And if he calls the Michelin plant in Charlotte NC he can get the Super sports they are only $42,000.
 
Those bbs wheels look so damn good! Nice LX! I was thinking of lowering as well but I’m going against it as my commute has awful roads!
 
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