Here is a question from a newbie. I just baught my son his first honda 2003 EX we want to trick it out and are looking at many mods. For the wheels, we are looking at the Lexani LX-7's 18x7.5. Before we decide on chrome or black w/chrome lip, we were wondering what the populous thought would be as far as car paint and wheel color.

The car is either going to be silver or black. The wheels are either going to be full chrome or black with chrome lip. So the choice are:

paint/wheel

Silver on black
Silver on chrome
Black on black
Black on chrome

Weigh in please - - no hating - constructive will be nice

you should poll this, you'd probably get much more definitive answers.

but I would go black on black out of those.

I would also only go up to 16", the ride quality will be much better...

please no chrome, especially with silver. Those wheels aren't even light, if you're going to pay nearly $500 per wheel they should be lightweight. The heavier the wheel the harder the car will be to stop. This company makes wheels that hover between 25lbs to 35lbs for 18inchs which is absolutely disgusting. With wheels this heavy you are going to have premature brake wear, and could potentially cause an accident due to the increased time needed to stop. I'm not even going to start on the poor ride quality, the car is going to look like a 4x4 and ride like a carriage.
Please search the wheel thread to get ideas and if you are hell bent on spending that kind of money on wheels check out volk racing, ssr wheels, and work wheels. At least if you go chrome with those people can't hate on you.

yea, don't get 18s. i've got 17s and its not exactly a smooth ride at all. i've got silver rims against a black car. i think that looks good, but not chrome. and by "tricking it out" you're going to attract alot of attention from cops. don't go with the flashy body kits and whatnot either, i mean its the kids first car. body kits + lots of different things on the road means broken bodykit or at least messed up paint.

I'd go with a charchoal/ gunmetal color paint job on the car. Thats what color im gonna get when i get my body kit. It is dark, looks better than black, doesnt stick out like silver, and is less noticeable to cops

thanks for the imput. I was'nt planning to drop it and thought that the 18's would toughen it up. He got 17's, but his deal was sour. ended up getting bent rims. cheap wheels and no longer avail. So can't even get replacement.

Like the Lexani's, but the safety issue and brake wear is not somthing I want my son to have to deal with.

Suggestions on 16's that are tight these days?

ohh he already got a body kit, waiting to decide on wheels and paint before puting on. My concern (dads concern) is how much will the kit end up dropping the front end / rear end. The kit he got was from AIT - http://www.andysautosport.com/honda/...r00070606.html Now input on this.

thanks

sigh, well, thats really ricey. i wouldn't take it to a car meet or anything because it will most likely just get called rice over and over and made fun of. especially if theres no real performace. (i/h/e) would make "rice" worse. and that body kit will probably hang quite low, be ready for a lot of scraping and bottoming out, even on fairly shallow driveway transistions.

oh, and watch out for parking spot curb things. they can really mess stuff up.

heres to my ignorance. whats rice? his friends r gonna laugh at him? Even without a drop kit it will lower it that much?

Unfortunatly there is alot of "im a cool JDM kids" on this site that will tell you drop it on 16"s with a lip kit and put sidemarkers on so you look like everybody else if you got the money i say eff everbody else DO WHAT YOU WANT. That kit will lower your car alot so idont rec. a drop if you get it "Rice is classified as stupid unnecessary mods that are flashy and also include a persons driving style" Its wierd that a body kit is rice however a lip kit is not (both are completly useless) sorry for going off subject and finally 17's are not a bad wheel choice i've had 17's for almost 9 years on the same 01 civic and was dropped for 7 of those years and the ride is, was, and still is fine. Just dont go cheap on the suspension. On a lighter note i have some loaded springs (w/struts) for sale that'll drop your car 2.5 and still offer a nice ride on 17's

check out Drag DR-16 rims in black there very nice IMO. Ive got a black 97 sedan and im planning to put those on my car. just thought id throw that out there.

i can only speak from experience on the bodykit issue. i have the xenon kit and have had it for 4 or 5 years now, scraping and bottoming out is the biggest issue by far. i dont say body kits are rice and lip kits are not. but i do say the really flashy body kits combined with a "fart cannon" is definately rice. especially if you believe that it makes your car fast and brag to everyone else that it is so. im interested to see where this goes though.

I just started a thread in the general forum for it as to not thread jack and not directing the bodykit/lipkit thing at you just in the general import world

yea, i mean, pretty much im not a fan of the "mad jdm yo". but w/e it is, if it looks good, it looks good. i just recommend not going with the flashy body kit. it's tough to clean and gets caught on stuff.

I can tell you are a thoughtful and concerned father. I say just support your son with what he wants to do as far as his car goes. But i would keep in mind safety and realize that it is his first car and that it will most likely get torn up. As long as the mods are kept tasteful and modest he won't be made fun of... but hey that is part of growing up and his tastes will change as he gets older. So i say grab a couple of import mags, search around the forum for build threads etc... and maybe go to some local import meets to get some ideas of what is out there and the possibilities. Just remember its a daily driver not a show car so try to keep things practical. Also bolt on performance mods don't do much for the d17 so don't expect much out of bolt ons.

thanks for all the input. does the size of the wheel affect the clearance? I know it coupld affect the turning radius if too big; but if you had 16's as opposed to 15's dors it affect the clearance?

Bck to original question? Black on Black or Silver on Chrome

black on black!

black on black. silver on chrome is gross.

well, as long as you use a lower profile tire, the overall diameter of the tire/wheel will remain relatively unchanged. even so, the turning radius of the car really is not affected by the total diameter. the only thing to worry about is rubbing.

i just got the exact same car as my first and i put on some asa ar1s i didnt really do anything else to it besides exhaust intake and aftermarket taillights and a spoiler but i dont wanna put any body kits or anything on it but take it for what you will this is mine.
honestly dont really do much performance mods...it took me a bit but i finally came to accept that im not gonna make an EX civic fast, despite vtec y0

chrome lexani on a civic lol. at least get 20's . definitely not my style but if i was going big i would go VIP style polished aluminium.

your civic ex can be fast w/o "vtec yo". boost is one way and swap is another.

that's true, but I kinda came to the conclusion that turboing my D17 wouldn't really be worth it considering it would cost almost as much as it would to swap in a K20(i'm sure there are some things I can do to make it cheaper, but I don't really have those kinda options since im 17 and don't really have all that much knowledge about that kind of stuff...most i can do at the moment is just the bolt ons like exhaust intake and changing my oil & tranny fluid..lol). And then I can spend 7 grand on a K20 but then I think I may as well have just gotten an si...
i don't know, I'm pretty sure what I'm going to do is just wait a couple years and get an si when insurance won't rape me. it would be awesome to go around in an ex with a boosted k20 and such but i don't really have all that money since I don't exactly have a real job

fixed

a very healthy thought process, but a little too long...

just save up like $3000-$4000 and buy a B18C GSR or Type-R motor and put it in yourself. I you do enough research and study your car enough you will realize it is not as complicated as you think. just dont think so hard and get a service manual.

So what your saying is you don't think you can afford to boost the d17, so ur going to save up, buy a k20a2 and boost that later on?... Just boost the D. You can boost it for half of the cost of a K, just look around.

You have so many threads going it's getting confusing. Try to keep everything together because your really covering 1 topic with about 6-7 threads. Return that body kit, get 17s and lower the car. Done

Werd

I have a 94 Black ex, I just put black American Racing rims on it and I'm loving the black on black look, very stealth

black/black
black/gunmetal
silver/gunmetal

not a fan of chrome or silver/black