'95 Civic DX Sedan

[ben98gs]

Copied this from some other forums that I have been tracking my "project" on. I am going for a clean looking car that also gets good gas mileage. Some mods are "comfort" mods, but most have fuel economy in mind at least somewhat.

[ben98gs]

Call it what you want, but this is a post dedicated to my new daily driver "project". Since I sold my turbo Regal, I need something to work on between the parts accumulation on the '68 Montego. Also, since I cannot quit tinkering with things, I decided to try and go the opposite route most go (aka power) and mod the car to get better fuel economy. Make fun if you wish, I can handle it, but it is what I chose to do for this car.

Car is a '95 Honda Civic DX Sedan.

Car as I picked it up from a friend of a co-worker for $800 with ~144,xxx miles. He had owned it and kept all the maintenance records since he bought it with ~7,000 miles (what he is looking at in the pictures). Has some minor rust, but really not horrible.




After it was home for a while, I decided to "fix" the rust. Since I am hopefully moving soon I really did not want to get into patch panels and what not so just decided to grind down the rust and bondo it for now. I know it will not STOP the rust, but should be a cheap fix for a while.

After grinding away the rust on the passenger side (worst of the two sides):




Filling and smoothing (second layer):




Used the Dupli-Color touch up spray cans that you find at Autozone/Auto part stores. Color match perfect. Did not do any final sanding so the panel is somewhat rough, but can only really tell if you rub across it. Even at 5 feet away you really cannot see it.

[ben98gs]

Since I made the car look pretty decent the rusty wheels started to really stand out. I started looking for a set of Honda VX wheels (the lightest stock Honda wheel, weigh less than 9lbs each) and found a set for pretty cheap.



Currently working on this, but since the wheels had some curb rash and were not really cared for very well, I decided to recondition them. Call me a ricer, but for some reason I always liked the look of a white car with white wheels, so off I went (currently have 2 done, 2 more to go):



I had a spare motor left over from the '93 Civic I got when I sold the Regal (has since been sold) that had a messed up keyway on the crank. Traded it for a gauge cluster with a tachometer and $20. Finally got around to install the tach on Tuesday (gotta love a MT car that does not come with a tach, but notice the cluster that went in is for an AT car... Why would you need the tach in an AT car but not an MT?)

[ben98gs]

The center console around the parking brake was just basically a cover. They had an actual center console with storage compartment/armrest but my brown interior is somewhat "uncommon" and hard to find. Junkyard happened to have one in great shape.



Other reason I went to the junkyard was my car did not have any rear speakers. Had been looking online for the rear speaker grills in the tan, but was having no luck. But found ONE set at the junkyard.



The Civic's (or better optioned ones) came with a clock. Mine did not have one, but while i was at the junkyard I picked one up. It's the small things in life I get a kick out of...

[ben98gs]

The ricer in me is showing :loser::taped::shh: ....

I put on some amber corner lights...

I got done reconditioning the wheels and getting the tires mounted to the rims. Did not turn out too bad, if I do say so myself. Still have to do the centercaps though.

Also bought and installed new pillar trims on the driverside doors (was missing the back one when I bought the car and figured the front would look old compared to a brand new one next to it).

Note the new exhaust tip in this first picture (exhaust was rusted out and broke when I nailed a pothole one day so I had to replace the cat-back so figured might as well put a tip on that looked better than a pipe the size of a quarter... lol )

[ben98gs]

Looks like I scored a CX transmission for $80. Hope to pick it up on Monday.

Should drop final drive from 4.058 down to 3.250... Hoping to easily start hitting 50+ mpg after install (was at 45.6 when I filled up today).

[ben98gs]

Got my MPGuino/fuel mileage computer hooked up. Still have to hook up the buttons so that I can actually calibrate it (a little off right now as it says I averaged over 100 mpg on my way to work... ) Custom install in the gauge cluster turned out pretty good.







MG is the instantaneous MPG
GH is the gallons per hour of fuel
S is the current speed
C is the current trip MPG average

There are many other things it can display, but have to have the buttons hooked up to scroll through them. Might take more pictures when I get those hooked up hopefully tonight.

[ben98gs]

Got the rest of my MPGuino hooked up (the switches) and started to calibrate it. Once calibrated (which takes a few tanks), it should be within 1% accuracy.

Here are some pictures of the final install:

[pgfpro]

Looks like at nice project. Nice work all the way around.

[Nick.E.Beans]

Love this! I'm a big Honda devotee - friends of mine and I all drive them, and I've persuaded many to buy Hondas who previously drove other cars.

My 98 Hatchback has 267,000 miles and without the roof rack on the car I manage 40-45 mpg depending on my driving. That, with its rock solid reliability, ease and low cost of maintenance, I really couldn't ask for a better car. A rear sway bar, steel braided brake lines and some interior touches make it a really fun car to drive!

Love the white VX wheels, you should do the H's in the centercaps Milano red. I used the touch up paint pen from the autoparts store for my HX wheels.

Good luck with your project, I'll be checking back for updates.