Velox Introduction

[Velox]

Hi there,

I am Velox. I'm new to this site and to owning a Civic. I just bought my first new car and am extremely happy with it. It's a 2013 Honda Civic EX coupe in Polished Metal Metallic with black interior. It has a 5 speed manual transmission and I absolutely love driving it. I've owned it for about a month and have racked up about 2,300 miles.



I have added Plasti-dip to the front and rear Honda logo as well as the Civic badge. I would do this to the wheels, but I really like the appearance of the EX wheels so I'm not going to touch them.





I also just got done with my LED installation. I used a 4 piece expandable LED kit from LED Glow and wired it to my fuse box so they turn on and off when going in and out of Accessory mode. They are a multicolor LED kit so they can be a range of colors, but I will likely leave them on blue because I like blue + black and the blue looks great with the default blue theme of the EX.

Front foot wells.


Rear foot wells.


No flash.


I don't intend to touch the engine or drive train at any point because I don't visit any tracks and usually drive on the tamer side (compared to car enthusiasts - I still drive way too aggressively if you ask my mother )

Future modifications include the hard wiring of my radar detector (Beltronics Vector 995) and my Garmin GPS to get the wires out of sight. I enjoy driving and modifying cars but don't have intentions to race so my modifications and interests usually remain in cosmetic or ergonomic modifications.

I'm glad I found this forum, it's filled with great guides and information that I'll be picking through over the next few years. I don't intend to sell my car for a while, so I'll likely be visiting this forum quite a bit! Although, I don't have much knowledge that isn't already posted somewhere so I doubt I'll be posting too much - I'll leave the answering of questions to the more experienced car people.

Thanks,
Velox

 

[webby]

Great intro - welcome to the site. Is the gps held in place by a suction cup? Car looks great so far

 

[Dar-Dar]

Welcome! The car looks pretty good so far.

 

[austin1636]

welcome to the site

 

[Velox]

Great intro - welcome to the site. Is the gps held in place by a suction cup? Car looks great so far

Yes, it's held on with the windshield suction cup mount that came with the GPS device. However, the suction cup won't stick to the dash material by itself so there is a double sided sticky pad underneath it.

 

[bad fishy]

Welcome! Nice ride...

 

[Brooksie365]

Welcome! Liking the blue lights! The part where you said not tame enough to my mother that's was funny!!!

 

[Nix]

Lookin good so far. Welcome to the forum "swift." Latin eh?

 

[squiggy]

Welcome.

Even if you don't want to get into modding the mechanical side of things, I would highly suggest a short shifter/adapter of some sort and some base bushings. Makes driving a manual so much more enjoyable!

 

[nat3d]

welcome love the 13 dude

 

[Blimpcity]

Another Buckeye! Car looks great! Welcome to the site!

 

[xo_adel]

Nice choice my civic is polished metal too .. but why didn't you go for the si?

 

[Nix]

You can totally get the Jackson Racing Supercharger for this car. And with the manual you can fit the intercooler and push an extra 100hp. Really nice since you can set the cut points and maintain your mileage!

35-40mpg and enough hidden to keep up with a stock si? Not a bad way to go.

 

[Velox]

"swift." Latin eh?

I thought it was a catchy name

Another Buckeye!

O-H...

Nice choice my civic is polished metal too .. but why didn't you go for the si?

I chose the EX for many reasons. The main being my price point. Also, I'd personally rather have a new car with the newest safety and tech stuff than a slightly older car with more power but lacking some of the new tech things. I plan to buy a more aggressive car in the future, but this is wonderful for my purposes for now.

You can totally get the Jackson Racing Supercharger for this car. And with the manual you can fit the intercooler and push an extra 100hp. Really nice since you can set the cut points and maintain your mileage!

35-40mpg and enough hidden to keep up with a stock si? Not a bad way to go.

I think I'd buy a different car rather than start pouring money into this one, especially since I don't want to void my warranty.

I drove from Southern Florida to Ohio (about 1,200 miles) a few days ago and my trip computer said I got 35.9mpg for the trip. Honestly, I was expecting a bit more since the EPA rates the manual civic at 36mpg and that rating is usually a bit low when driven for long trips. I'm going to change the oil to see if the "Honda break-in oil" was hindering fuel economy.

 

[Blimpcity]

O-H...

I-O!!!

 

[fritz]

welcome, your car looks great! I love the glow of your blue leds and the blacked out emblems. I tried plastidip for my emblems as well but it keept coming out with bubbles in it. any tips?

 

[Velox]

welcome, your car looks great! I love the glow of your blue leds and the blacked out emblems. I tried plastidip for my emblems as well but it keept coming out with bubbles in it. any tips?

General rules of Plasti-Dip
1) Thoroughly clean the surface before painting
2) Shake Plasti-Dip bottle for a while - it takes more shaking than a spray paint rattle can to get a smooth application
3) Apply in very thin coats from 8-12" away from the surface. You need about 3-5 coats of the material to properly cover the surface. Allow each layer to fully dry before adding another coat. This takes 20-30 minutes per coat depending on the temperature and humidity.

Bubbles could be visible due to too heavy of coats or spraying too close to the surface. Try using thinner coats for better results. Also, make sure you're in the shade on a dry-ish day with mild temperatures (60-80 degrees Fahrenheit) to get the best results.

I've only applied Plasti-Dip to cars twice now, but other hobbies of mine have me using it a lot. Other people may disagree with this advice, but this is what I've found to be most helpful from my experience.

 

[fritz]

General rules of Plasti-Dip
1) Thoroughly clean the surface before painting
2) Shake Plasti-Dip bottle for a while - it takes more shaking than a spray paint rattle can to get a smooth application
3) Apply in very thin coats from 8-12" away from the surface. You need about 3-5 coats of the material to properly cover the surface. Allow each layer to fully dry before adding another coat. This takes 20-30 minutes per coat depending on the temperature and humidity.

Bubbles could be visible due to too heavy of coats or spraying too close to the surface. Try using thinner coats for better results. Also, make sure you're in the shade on a dry-ish day with mild temperatures (60-80 degrees Fahrenheit) to get the best results.

I've only applied Plasti-Dip to cars twice now, but other hobbies of mine have me using it a lot. Other people may disagree with this advice, but this is what I've found to be most helpful from my experience.

thanks I will def try again. one more question did you tape off the inside of the H or just spary the whole thing?

 

[Velox]

thanks I will def try again. one more question did you tape off the inside of the H or just spary the whole thing?

Nope, I didn't tape off the inside. I just sprayed the whole area and peeled out the inside. This is where having 4-5 coats matters. If you have one or two big coats and try to peel some away, it won't work properly and you could peel all of it off. With 4-5 coats, you can peel off the inside and it will break on the seam from the emblem and look super clean.

This picture is exactly how I taped it:

 

[Monk]

Velox
"I drove from Southern Florida to Ohio (about 1,200 miles) a few days ago and my trip computer said I got 35.9mpg for the trip. Honestly, I was expecting a bit more since the EPA rates the manual civic at 36mpg and that rating is usually a bit low when driven for long trips. I'm going to change the oil to see if the "Honda break-in oil" was hindering fuel economy."
WELCOME !
Don't start trying to fix the mpg, it's all in the driving. Unless you filled up next to the interstate and drove without having to do any stop/starting/etc. you're going to lose some of the mpg. But you can maximize your mpg by trying to stay in cruise control and using Econ on open roads, and when you get to a hill hit the econ off button to clime in cruise control, then turn the Econ back on at the top of the hill. try to keep your foot off the gas peddle, you can move the speed up and down with the +/- buttons, also you can take it out of CC when going down a hill where you want to drift faster(no peddle). It's kind of fun to master it, and gives you something to do on the straight roads. I have on quite a few occasions gotten 40 to 43 mpg on the road, and mines an automatic(my 1st automatic in over 50 years).

A cheap fix to your driving pleasure would be to buy a "Progress" 22mm rear sway bar, about $180. Easy to install, or cheap to have installed. I have a 2012 EX Coupe....... enjoy.