Oooopppsss!

Just scrapped a little bit of the RHD side of the rear bumper. Now how the hell am I going to drive the car around with a sekon - han bucket seat + my brand new Bride Type FG rails?

I love the feel of driving around with my head only peeking out a bit. Ha! My pal's setup [ he's a Spoon freak btw! ], Spoon's Kevlar bucket seat + old skool Bride rails : only his head is seen, and it's parked right on the bottom of the door [ more specifically, where the door glass ends lar when you scroll the window down! ].

The main problem with driving around in this setup is : you hafta see forward, much forward than previously. This can be a bit risky especially when driving fast on public roads, not a prob when in the track.

Also a prob when reversing etc. Remedy : place a clip - on large curvature rear view mirror, replace side mirrors with Spoon items [ those are blue - tinted so won't glare ] and practice parking often, especially reverse park!

But to purchase a nice sekon - han bucket seat, at least RM 800.00, up to RM 1.5k for a nice CF one. Kevlars can reach RM 2k wooohhhh, used summore!

I'm going to try to replace the door locks by myself again tonight!

Fresh Update : March 2008

It's been such a long time. My poor Track Refugee have been sitting, collecting dirt, dust etc since September last year.

Then, fast forward to January 2008. I sent the Track Refugee to be repainted, all dents knocked out, replaced front left headlight, front bumper, the works. The cooling problem is now solved with the head skimmed, and a new 2nd hand radiator replaced.

All ancillary belts replaced, water pump hose replaced, fresh alignment job, aircond problem solved....the cost is quite long actually. Cost is around RM 3500++, not sure yet because my mechanic have yet to pass me the bill.

So, since about a week ago, I started driving the Track Refugee in short distances from the shop to check the feel of the car, especially the aircond and engine temperature. For this time, I'd say everything is ok.

Last Saturday night, I went for a really long drive. From the shop, I went to Bangsar [ from the Jalan Travers traffic light towards Bangsar, I revved the car up and it pushed to 180kph++ easily as I arrived near the Bangsar LRT station! :) ], then towards Taman Tun Dr Ismail. Aftewards, to Damansara Uptown, then Kelana Jaya, Sunway, Subang and finally Shah Alam.

Then I used the same route back to the shop. Result : chassis is bumpy! But I like it, a lot better than the previous suspension setup, which was too hard but, with really little sway when swinging from one fast corner to another. Now, the sway is slightly more pronounced, maybe due to the dampers now much stiffer than previous. Maybe a bigger rear ARB?

The car, with those Ohlins suspension kit, and those sticky AD-07's, made the car feeling slightly like a go - kart. Engine - wise, it's pretty yummy, with the exhaust spitting at high rev gear shifts, and spitting again when the rev drops to around the VTEC changeover point [ 4800 RPM ].

Sadly, there's some niggling squeking sound from the front left area of the car. Also, the old squeaking sounds from the rear panels and dashboard is still there [ hafta buy a 2nd hand good condition dash and fix it properly ].

Sound system is a bit problematic [ due to the stupid fuse again! ]. I've made up my mind to remove the sub and two amps at a later stage, then strip all the rear panels, cover with a good piece [ or pieced up? ] hard - wearing cloth / carpet trim, do a custom build rear box from MDF [ which I may want to tackle by myself! Hehehehe, I love DIY! ], wrap it up and bolt it to the car with some removable brackets!

Future plans are :
- Strip the rear panels + box, replace box with custom MDF box. Cover rear area with hard - wearing cloth / trim / carpeting. Place some sound deadening material around this area too.
- Relocate the battery to the rear with a battery relocation box / kit [ maybe custom aluminium? ], will try to fit it around / on the custom MDF box.
- Replace complete dashboard with a sekon - han EG6 / EG9 black dash.
- Replace the cupholders with a sekon - han EG6 / EG9 dual DIN black case [ oledi have it! ].
- Change all bushes with Hardrace hard rubber bushes.
- Change front camber, rear camber and rear toe with adjustable Hardrace items.
- Buy a brand new set of Defi 1 DIN meter cluster [ engine temperature, engine oil temperature, engine oil / fuel pressure ].
- Buy Mugen / Spoon etc fan switch and thermostat.

In my dreams :
- Complete vehicle knockdown [ remove all bumpers, fenders, bonnet, hatch, glass and all interior parts ] for a full repaint to super - sparkling - extra - metalflake graphite black.
- Custom 6 point rollcage that clears the dashboard and still allow passangers at the rear.
- Roof replacement with a sekon - han EG6 sunroof - fitted roof, with a working water escape hoses and rear wiper water spray.
- B16B block + EK9 4.785 FD gearbox, stroked up with B18CR internals, tuned with Crome.
- Toda 4-1 header.
- Buddy Club Spec II complete after cat exhaust system.
- Bride Zeta III CF / Kevlar driver seat with Takata's.
- Spoon Momo steering wheel.
- Complete EG6 yellow interior [ seats, door trims and long arm rest ].
- Spoon 4 piston front calipers with DC2R '99 rear brake kit.
- Fully adjustable dampers [ on budget, GAB SS Series. If really rich, Tein Mono Flex! ].
- Spoon CF front bonnet, front lip and rear spoiler.

Current Mod : Suspension

Here I have a set of Ohlins soft / hard adjustable dampers for Honda Civic EG. I bought this set of suspension from a good friend of mine about a year ago [ yes, about a year! ] and never got around to fit them, although I have access to regular mechanics who is more than able to do the job, heheh!

My friend who sold me this set, told me that the gap between the tyre and the fender, is roughly about two fingers deep. Just nice then. And the feel of the suspension, is not too rough. I hope it won't make my car go crashing badly when being driven on bad, pockmarked, rutted roads! I'd rather have a slightly bumpy suspension! I hope the dampers are still usable for another year or more, since that'll give me ample time to save up for a custom set of dampers from one of my SIC sifus!

I just gave 'em a quick wash with soapy water and dried them up with old rags. I really hope the workshop will be open tomorrow, so that they can fit my suspension in the morning, and I can drive the car to my favourite alignment shop [ which shop is posted in the posting below ], and fit those gummy AD-07s to my Work RS-Z wheels. Maybe I'll go for some spacers as well to push the wheels a bit, since the wheel's sizing is PCD 100 / 7 / +45 offset, and I'll buy some new blingin' long black wheel nuts too.

Current Mod : Tyres / Update

I have just purchased a fresh set of Yokohama Advan Neova AD-07 yesterday! Tyres are fresh, as stated on the date of manufacture : 1507! Bought the whole lot for RM 1100.00. Price just went up this week, from RM 260.00 a piece to RM 275.00. I hope my favourite alignment shop, Kin Alignment Sunway ( located at the famous Horsepower Street at Sunway ) will be open tomorrow evening.

Yeah! Stack of superbly grippy rubbers for my poor EG6 - wannabe!

The tyre tread up close and personal.

Current Mod : Tyres

My car is not moving for the past few days. This is because I just found out last Sunday, that both of my front tyres are worn so badly, until the steel belting of the tyres are fraying out! My other problem is financial - wise, as I have just spend about RM 1600++ already for the car [ road tax, insurance etc ]. Oh well, another week to go until I get my pay. For the time being, it's the buses and LRTs for me.

I've been using a set of Falken Azenis ST115 since September 2005 [ that long! No wonder the tyres are so worn out! ]. During these two years, I've taken my car for daily driving, long distance driving [ KL - Johor - SG trips ], and two track days as well. In my own opinion, these set of tyres is pretty good, and is not that bad for track days as well. Wet - weather performance is not bad also. But bear in mind, in rain or when the roads are wet, I drive a max of 80 kph only.

I've been scouring around and asking for opinions for these two set of tyres, Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R and Yokohama Advan Neova AD-07. A friend told me that the RE-01R performs quite well in the wet, and I believe him since he's running an over 300 horsepower Nissan Silvia S15. On to the AD-07s, a lot of my friends have used them and the general consensus is : so damn good in the dry, but you really have to drive slowly in the wet. Well, I don't mind driving slowly in the wet so I suppose it's pretty OK for me.

One thing on these AD-07s is that, all of them says that the performance of the tyre degenerates. Well, all tyres do that! But I don't get it on why this "degenerate" problem is said by everyone who used 'em though. I'll update on this when I get the chance to really ask one of my pals about it.

After calling a few tyre shops, sadly the RE-01Rs is out of the question, as it is a special order and it'll cost well over RM 400.00 per piece. But RE-01 [ or was it RE-001? ] is available though. Looks like I hafta stick to AD-07s instead. Best price for distance travelled [ from my place to the tyre shop ] that I got was RM 260.00 per piece, over at Hup Shun Sunway. That's good news as my favourite tyre alignment shop is located nearby Hup Shun too, which is Kin Alignment. Kin Alignment was introduced to me by one of my SIC sifus, Zane Loo. Extremely good work I'd say.

Well, let's hope I do get enough cash by tomoroow, as tomorrow is a Saturday!

List Of Current Mods Etc

Here's a list of what have been done to the car. I may have forgotten some of it though. Accurate until today, 24th August 2007.

Engine bay and Exhaust :
- 2nd hand B16A block [ initial B16A block was blown by my younger brother who downshifted the car from 5th to 4th while the car's speedometer was way beyond 180 kph. According to him, the speedometer was around the 6 - 7 o'clock, which might be around over 200 kph already ].
- 2nd hand radiator.
- 2nd hand 5 Zigen 4-2-1 header / extractor. Slightly better improvement in power delivery from around 5000++ RPMs up to almost 8000++ RPMs.
- 2nd hand unknown Japanese muffler with removable silencer.

Interior :
- 2nd hand Sparco Rev in superbly mint condition [ have already been sold off, now back to original SIR black and red chequered seat ].
- New complete Sparco side mount seat kit plus sliders [ sold off alongside the Sparco Rev ].
- New Sparco steering wheel.
- Cheapo ICE system which consists of Pioneer CD player, Malaysia - made Mohawk front speakers, 2 amps and a 10 inch sub [ I like it loud! ].

Chassis :
- 2nd hand Ohlins soft / hard adjustable suspension [ have yet to be fitted, due to one of it's front suspension's leaking ].
- 2nd hand Work RSZ-R wheels [ repainted to graphite black ].

Others :
- Car was repainted to Giallo Modena.

Get To Know The Subject

The subject of this blog is a JDM Honda Civic EG3, model year 1993 ( which this EG range of Hondas, nicknamed Sports Civic by Honda themselves ). I even got the copy of the car's parking slot at Japan while waiting for it's boat to Malaysia!

The heart of the car have already been transplanted with a rev - happy B16A. Bits and pieces of the interior have already been modernised to EG6 specifications as well, like the black dashboard, white cluster meter, black and red chequered seat covers and door trim, "fish tank" rear luggage box cover, et cetera.

I do not have the initial pictures of the car when I first got it ( April 2005 ) which was a fading red. The car came with Kosei 17 inch wheels ( ha ha ha! ) and some steering wheel ( I forgot the name ) but the dashboard got an ori Mugen emblem stuck on it though!

I suppose that is all for the intial get - to - know session for the car!