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EDIT: Updated starting with Post #6 with newer photos

Hello all.

I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself and my car.

I'm Canadian but living in the States now and going to university. I speak english and french fluently, and I am learning Japanese and Chinese. I am majoring in Computer Engineering.

I bought my little civic a year ago this week for $7500 from a dealership. Blue, 2 door, and according to CarFax, a-okay with 54k miles. It was top of the line EX except for the CD changer. Every other option though. I love it. 5speed too by the way.

I haven't really done too much to my car and I didn't buy it to be fast. I bought it to be comfortable, gas conscious, and not american made. I bought a canadian made civic because the VIN checks out, and I had to switch the speedometer over to have mph primarily.

About 5 months ago I had the windows tinted to 20%. I thought 20% would be darker than it is, but I was wrong. I wanted to not be able to see through them. Ricy yes, but I don't care. I know a minivan could beat my car, but when I get double to triple their gas mileage, it makes me warm inside!

I also installed a CarPC last spring. Works great. I have 300Gb's available to store all of my media and currently I use 200Gb's of it. I have every top 100 chart from 1960 to present. I have the complete discography of many of my favourite artists as well as my favorite movies and music videos from the 80's and 90's. GPS as well all on a 7" VGA resolution touchscreen which I put into a spare dash bezel. The PC itself has 1Gb of RAM, with a 1Ghz C3 processor equating to a total of only 11 watts of power being drawn total. Average P4 desktop processor uses roughly 120 watts by itself. It powers on with the car, and turns itself off after 30 seconds. Boots in 20seconds but usually in standby so instantaneous music. Using RoadRunner as a frontend with the Honda Logo spinning in the centre. And guess what... Only $750 total.

The only other forums I visit, are DigitalCar.co.uk, and MP3Car.com (And I am not an imfamous n00b basher) where I have 4000, and 1300 posts respectively. Same userID basically, "2k1Toaster" instead of "2k1_Toaster".

For the PC, I upgraded my battery to an Optima Yellow Top.

I also installed a remote start by myself. No alarm because they are pointless anyways. If you hear a car alarm go off in a parking lot, nobody rushes over to see if someone is breaking into it. You just say, "bloody car alarm. I hope they shut that infernal racket off soon." and walk away. So why bother. The alarm was the first thing I ever did to my car myself and I am proud!

That's about all that I have had done to the car.

Looks stock from the outside other than the darker than normal tint.

I am a computer guy, not a car guy, so I will be searching and lurking around here a while, and when I post it will sound rather n00bish, but I hope I can get some answers. If you guys need any PC help, let me know!

The only things that bother me about my car are the following:

• My driver seat's bushing's or whatever they are are broken/loose/missing or something and my seat "wobbles". That can't be safe! $400 to fix it, so I take my life in its hands and keep my $400.
• There are strange markings on my windshield that I didn't notice until after I bought the car. Loving eyes overlooked it when purchasing! It is like scratches but about 1mm wide and in a swirling up motion. As if the wiper blades did it but in the wrong spot for that to have happened. Hard to explain but never goes away. Noticable from the inside only, and only if you look "at" the windshield instead of through it. Can't tell when driving.
• Parts are expensive. I overloaded my alternator... twice... so that was $300 from a mechanic the first time, and $600 from the Honda Dealership the second time. The dealership will replace the alternator free for the life of the car as long as I own it no questions asked now though. They better for that amount of dough!
• Not leather interior, but planning on getting some nice upphoulstery done within the next few years. Not cheap slipons, I mean actually redoing the seats. I haven't decided yet to do either black or that tannish/beige colour that the dash is in. My dash is 2 toned as I am sure yours is too! Black and tannish beige. I can have it done for $1200 for front seats, back bench, ceiling, and the little trim pieces on the doors.
• Headlights are not as bright as I like. I am used to "lexus lights" in my mother's car and that is my next investment. But I am currently looking to get lights that do the whole swivel action too. When I start the RX330, the lights go down, then up, and then rest in the middle. When they go up a hill, they adjust. Also around corners, they adjust. I am looking for something like this. Anyone know if they make it for our little civics?

And that's it!

Sorry for the long post, but gotta make a good first impression right!?

And here are the only pictures I have of my car. (I am not big on pictures!)

Mine is the one all the way in the back. The blue one. The riced out CRX is my friend's. Shaved doors (never understood that ), big rims, no bumper, primer blue! The white nissan thing is my boss' piece o' crap.


My car has XP!


What my radio looks like:

EDIT: Not anymore. It looks better!

 
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hello what kind of radio is that?

 
Rep Power: 247

It is actually a Full computer. It boots into XP and everything!

For radio it is a HQCT tuner on USB as well as a Sirius Sat Radio tuner on USB. The screen is 7" VGA Touchscreen meaning as crystal sharp as all desktop monitors with a resolution of 1024x768.

The software it runs is called "RoadRunner". And of course the Honda logo in the middle spins, and I can change the skin or look of the player with a press of a button to anything I want. It is pretty cool.

 
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Welcome...Keep it clean don't rice it out.

I wish i had a indash computer in my car very nice

 
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Well the only things I want to do to my car right now are get HIDs (4300K retrofitted) which I am currently reading up on. I want the full effect of sharp cutoff and the blueish hue around it because of the reflectors, not because of a high temp or a film covering the bulb. That defeats the purpose of HIDs! Going to be costly, time consuming, and a good learning experience.

The other thing is get some rims. I actually like the look of my hubcaps, and I like the look of the stock rims on the new civics, so I might just go that route.

 
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Well I havent really updated anything here for a while, but my car looks better than ever now, and I realized I hadn't posted here. Anyways, a member from another forum who is aboiut an 1hr away from me helped me out with my screen fabrication (GoHybrid from mp3car) so when I say we, that is who I am talking about!

Inbetween the first pics, and the pics below, I tried to make it look better with a metra kit around it, and well it turned out horrible. That was because I have no tools at my house, so I was going the no-bondo route.

We decided to screw the whole no-paint no-fuss because it was more fuss than it would have been worth. We were going to use "Allumite" but, went the Bondo, sand, prime, paint way. And all within 6 hours. Wow. This guy is a genious. A real good fabricator.

EDIT: 6hrs with Dinner!

First we took out all the rubber Plasti-Dip crap I had shoved in there, and then we made it look like an alien with some masking tape:







And you gotta live how a honda just comes apart when needed! And the best part is that everything fit right back together too! Didn't loose any of those stupid metal clips, so I was proud.



Got some light sanding action going on here:







Then we gooped some bondo poo on it. Not bondo brand though. It starts with an E, and is supposedly better than the brand stuff:

EDIT: The stuff that starts with an E is called "Evercoat" and it is a fiberglass reinforced body filler





It hardened in like 5 minutes to the point of sanding.

Then we peeled off the painters tape (before it completely hardened to keep the straight lines opposed to messy lines as if it hardened all the way):

 
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Then we remasked it with a bit of an edge showing on the monitor casing:



Then after much sanding:







And this point there were still some gaps, but it was only the first coat of bondo:

 
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This is more sanding after a second coat of Bondo has been applied, but this time with some added resin so that it is a lot thinner. It takes longer to cure, but still is pretty fast. This is the final bondo coat:






















Ready for primer-ing:



Primered:





Here you can see some of the little dusty particles that have accumulated on the primered surface. There was quite a bid of sanding today! Also he said the atomizer on the paint sprayer was too small for such thick primer, so it dried before hitting the piece, resulting in these little things.

 
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After sanding the primer lightly:







Painted and put in:



The rest are kinda blurry and I will get some good ones in the daylight hopefully tomorrow along with a carwash!

 
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Ok, well I still have not actually done the HID's or the wheels I talked about earlier, but I have been very very busy.

I and a friend started a new product line called "Fusion" (link in sig), and it basically allows control of anything electronic via a computer. So in the home, you can turn lights, your tv, your AC/Heater, on and everything like that. In the car, if you have a CarPC like myself, you can basically upgrade everything to like what a luxury brand has. It just came out of beta testing so I do not yet have it in my car, as I am programming the software on the bench but when I do I'll let you guys know. With the temperature sensors, I can keep the cabin at a stable temp, with the ultrasonic sensors, I can get parking sensors, as well as tighten seatbelts right before a crash even touches the bumper (like the new lexus' and such), I can control anything electronic such as headlights, fog lights, trunk release (if electronic is added for our civics), air conditioning, fan speed, heated seats if I go that route, all from my touchscreen, and even through my phone or the internet. So it is pretty nifty.

I am however doing some reading on HID's. I found out that the "auto-leveling" feature as shown on a RX300 or RX330 is just called a "leveling motor" and those can be integrated into retro installs. So when I do mine, that is what I will do. I may just use a RX300/RX330 bulb housing and everything. I am still reading up on this, and I did see some semi-recent threads about someone selling his retros using those, so I assume it can be done. His however were single, I want bi-xenon. I am not sure how feasable that is.

As for wheels, I still am torn between stock rims, and aftermarket ones. If I go aftermarket, it would be a standard 5 spoke, nothing flashy (read no chrome), but perhaps a silver-ish colour but not shiny. I dunno.

Any suggestions are appreciated.