Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Well I may as well start a build thread! ill start off with the simple current pictures. Please keep posted! I am always looking to do the next mod that I can afford, and what I can do myself!


THE STORY:

Well this car has been in my family since new, we bought her fresh of the lot in 2002, when I was just a baby at 12 years old and knoew NOTHING about cars, and had no interest them either. Little did I know that in 2010 when the car turned 8, It would be turned over and given to me. I did not wait long before taking off with this car, and absolutely falling in love. I love HONDA, I am a huge fan, I have no interest in getting rid of my car, and every intention in customizing it and making it my own. It will take time because of funds, I am sure many can relate, but I'm here for the long haul.


PLANS:

The plans for this car in the future, are lowering it (Already in the process), Paint (plan on either doing it myself piece by piece, or saving up and having a shop do it.) I really enjoy doing things myself, and if it is not perfect, when done fairly well I am pleased. RIMS!!! i plan on getting rims, nothing special, either a simple race style rim, or maybe even a really good shape of SI rims. I want black though. Tint the windows. nuff said about that. and ya. whatever else comes to mind. I am open to any suggestions, criticism, and comments, so please do not hold back!


Mods as of: JULY 21/2011

Tinted Tailights
Removed "civic" badge
added puioneer MVH-P8200 Stereo
Painted front grill Black
painted Badges Black
painted Hub Caps black, and Honda 'H' Silver
headlight Makeover (Blacked out housing, and saved one from water!!)
Purchased lowering springs (eibach)
Purchased Tokico Blues
Scrubbed some things under the hood
Painted engine cover and Sparkplug covers (Rust Coat Fire Red)

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Post your pictures up this way.
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...post-pics.html

So what are your plans for the ride?

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Perfect, i will use photobucket from now on thanks!


OK, so today i went at the hubs caps. yes, unfortunately i currently cannot afford rims so here we are getting creative!

here's some pics, lemme know what you guys think! These were the stock silver hubs that came with the car way back in 2002> they were in rough shape, with curb rash, and paint flaking off all the edges. I gave them an intense sanding, and a black paint job. After painting them black, i taped off the Honda logo in the middle of the cap, and using VASELINE edged the outside to be more accurate. Painted the logo silver, removed tape, wiped off painted vaseline, and thus we have painted hub caps!


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Plans for the car:

- install the new suspension when it comes in
- New headlights (passenger side is cracked and fills with water)
- RIMS (when i can afford)
- Body Job (also when i can afford)

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Those are possibly the NICEST hubcaps I have EVER seen! Good job man :tup: very clean!

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Thanks Shift-E, I will not lie sanding them and painting the Logo silver took A LOT more time and effort than bargained for. But I was hoping to have the nicest hub caps on the streets :P thanks again for the positive feedback!

custom hub caps = :rockon:

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Those hubs look amazing man. I was thinking that instead of buying new rims i might just paint mind black, not sure yet :P

But i'm also liking the tails, i WAS hoping to do it this weekend but never found time, so soon i hope. But it's on my list of stuff to do.

Btw, tint those windows ;) and Im not sure about you but i'd plan to get a spoiler on there, thats just me though, i think our civic coupes look 100 times better with spoilers

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

tint is for sure in the future plans, I am not overly crazy about the honda stock spoiler, I don't really like how they sit, but I have thought about getting a smaller spoiler. I really like how the spoilers are on the 2010 civics. Almost just a lip. I also recommend tinting the taillights, it was fun, and I love the look.


PS- have the afternoon off, fun in the sun, lets paint some badges. Currently painting the badges up. black for the rest of the car

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Yeah, i'm goin to pop out my H emblems soon and spray them black, then i'll do the vtec emblem that i bought and i'm also removing my si emblem. I don't like the look of it, it's kinda small. I want one of the 8th gen red si logo's i might get that done :P

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I could not agree more with you about the si badges. They almost look like an aftermarket badge people just stick on. A nicer 8th gen would be great.

I painted some badges today, and my grill actually (just my stock grill) I just kind of felt like it. So heres some pictures of it! give me some feedback guys. Thanks!

ALSO - I painted the "civic" badge and cannot decided where i should place it, truck lid? but I like it clean looking, anywhere else you guys find appropriate?


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Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I like the black grill

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

You know what the grille looks really nice.

What paint did you use for the grill and the emblems? I'm definitely picking some up tomorrow!

And about the civic badge, i'm planning on just taking mine off. I bought an i-vtec emblem that i'm planning on sticking somewhere but i don't know where.

http://img01.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/..._620x10000.jpg

Mindbomber told me that our civics have vtec-e not i-vtec but i'm still going to put it on anyways, no ones going to know what kind of vtec i have anyways, i didn't know there was anything other than i-vtec lol

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Hmmm... Vtec came before i-vtec and I wouldn't be putting an i-vtec sticker or logo on your car unless you have i-vtec because your basically advertising you have a k20 and you don't (my apologies if you do). That's ricariffic lol :) But anyway, it's your car do whaddyawant. Unfortunatly our piece of shit cars don't have i-vtec, or vtec... They have e-vtec which is no tec IMO. :) Economy FTL.

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Well my car isn't v-tec at all, so take what you can boys.

I painted the grill and badges with my trusty Rust Coat glossy black. I would not recommended using this for the grill, it looks good, but would look better if I had used an actual car paint, which you can pick up easy at CTire. It did turn out nice for a quick after thought I had while doing the badges. I really like how the paint did on the badges though.

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Yeah i thought it was i-vtec or no vtec i didn't know there were different kinds when i bought it. More of an impulse buy really. $2 free shipping so i said what the heck. I don't even know where i'd put it. I figured when i bought it that i might not put it on but it was $2 so i didn't care lol

Yeah i might go pickup a can of Dupli-Color Nighthawk Black Pearl because i really like the colour of the black civics. When i paint my tails, eyebrows and grille we should meet! How far are you from kanata? Me and shift-e would probably come out or something

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I am only 20 minutes out of kanata, we go in on the regular to the centrum. I'm down to meet up and talk civics for an hour or so lol

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I love meeting civic owners :D

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I love hondas in general :P

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Had the new sway links put in today, rear left (shown) was completely broken, knuckle had left the socket. Replaced all 4 to be fair!

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AND

my struts came in yesterday. Here's some pics of the cheapest struts you can find on the internet.. I think.

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NOW I am just waiting on Canada Post to suck it up and get back to work so i can receive my lowering springs... :yell:

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Ohhhh no not Low Tech shocks... I hope you plan on installing these yourself because you can expect to get maximum 3 months of life out of them :( Read the reviews on them they are crappy shocks. Hopefully they last for you keep us posted on how they are.

http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?p=2577678

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I sure hope you didnt spend a lot of cash on those shocks:S Tokico Blues would have been a much much much better alternative. Haha yeah sucks that Canada Post is on strike:(

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

I know I know.. and yes they will be put it by my friend and I, not paying a shop to put them in.. I tried to find reviews on them and couldnt find anything bad, I also am aware they cannot be good for the price... they were 200 shipped.. and that's the cost of like 1 and a half of anything else.. so i went for it.

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

3 months... really?

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

HEADLIGHT MAKEOVER --- FROM FULLY CONDENSED TO BLACK HOUSING :)


ok so today I took the headlights out, opened them up, painted the housing black, re sealed them with a bunch of CAULKING ( thank you very much kenny for the correction :P) , resealed the crack that has been letting water in, and did a headlight restore treatment on the outside with my buddy. They came out great for almost 10 year old headlights! I love it! questions and comment please! heres a montage of pictures..

FROM:

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TADA!!!

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I am very pleased with the outcome, I am really happy with them.

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Wow, they were in seriously bad condition before. Damn. Cleaned up nicely though :tup: very nice :)

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

damn your old ones were terrible! Mine had a little big of fog, i could have just cleaned it up and blacked out my stock before i did my retro but i figured i would keep my oem ones and buy ebay black housed ones incase i ever wanted to go back to stock. But the reflectors are crap on ebay ones. so unless i was retrofitting i would just keep the stock. Good job on the headlights they look great!

Also a question for you:

I was going to black my tails today but i spent too much time trying to figure out how to tape off the reverse lights and it got dark so i'm planning on doing them tomorrow, i just wanted to know if you painted over your reverse or taped them off, and if u taped them off what did you do to get the shape of the reverse lights?

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Thanks DS, it took a while but it was really fun to do..

AS for the tails, I did not tape off my reverse, I painted right over them, you cans till see it great, and I did not want to have one small section smooth stock plactic. (When I painted them with VHT it gave it a SLIGHT orange peel texture, which I also do not mind. It is very slight) So, I simply painted the entire Tails.

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Alright well as long as you still get good light from the reverse thats all that matters thanks!

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

No problem!


OK, so, I SOLD those stupid LoTek struts for $300 today to a guy in ottawa. I paid $282 with duty and everything so i came out on top. I am going to wait a couple weeks and just go for some Tokico blues, I do not want bad suspension on my car. I want something that is going to last. So LoTek is out.

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

Lowering springs came in today! just need to purchase my Tokico blues, and get everything put together.

heres pics, because I know everyone likes pictures

Re: Lopes101: 2002 civic DX coupe
 

How much you pay for springs and the tokicos??