Not quite sure where I'm going with this car, but my aim is something that will be comfortable enough for my daily commute while still being at home at the autocross or weekly car meets. But first, some background.
This is my first car. Borrowed from my parents for the duration of high school.
I plastidipped it before that was really a thing and took it to an autocross where the terrifying soft suspension earned it the name "Murdersofa"
Suspension mods and a tune and exhaust turned it into a half decent car, but I desperately wanted something that would be all mine, so I picked up a 1998 Honda Civic for $500.
I lowered it on lowering springs, de-riced it a fair bit, and ended up with a 35mpg fun little FWD daily. I was in it about $1500 when a Corvette wrecked into a Porsche, bumping the little Civic hard enough to cause enough damage to total it.
I got a $2k check from the insurance company, fixed up the Civic a bit, then traded it plus $1000 for this.
(it's the one in the back)
1991 with 145k miles on it and "no problems, runs great, tires just need balanced". $1000 later I realized I have been horribly lied to, but I'm sticking it out and enjoying the hell out of this little corner blaster.
The first thing I attacked were the tires. With the car finally up on a lift a quick visual inspection revealed the inner sidewall was so dry-rotted that I could peel parts of the rubber off with my fingers. Totally broke and desperate for the car to be safe enough for my daily 70mph commute I called every place in town until I found somewhere that actually had 14 inch tires in stock and got some cheap tires installed that are branded as both Cooper and Mastercraft, which I found odd. Either way, they're far better than the Firestone FR710s that were on it as far as cornering noise and grip.
The first thing I do to any new car is make the radio sound nice, so I popped in a Sony head unit to replace the broken Pioneer and took a look at the door speakers.
Oh. Well, ok then. I guess one of the dozen previous owners also thought the stock speakers were inadequate and got these quarter-inch-too-small Pioneers stuffed in with hot glue. I peeled off all the hot glue (easy, since it had come unstuck from the car anyways) and noticed "HONDA" was on the back of the magnet. I guess even getting rid of the Civic can't totally get me away from Honda, then. I used some long screws with washers to affix the OEM Honda JDMtiteyo speakers back into the car and left that alone.
A little solder and a JL audio amp and some 4 gauge wiring got me some "Puck" seat shakers which I put two in each seatback. Does a good enough job of fooling me into thinking I have a subwoofer and was super cheap.
The cat helped.
I did a bunch of boring maintenence stuff as the stock downpipe had a horrible exhaust leak that made driving with the top up impossible, and there was a bad miss at idle. New plugs, wires, the cheapest piece of shit manifold I could find on ebay (again, had no money and needed it fixed asap), a new O2 sensor, and a 'new' OEM catback that didn't rattle and things were much better in Miataville.
At this point it was getting down to near-freezing temperatures at night but still nice enough during the day to drive top-down. Unfortunately my idiot ass left the top down all night and when I woke up to 30 degree temperatures I tried to put it up, promptly destroying my rear window more than it already was. My solution was some harbor freight hardware and a piece of plastic from Hobby Lobby for $5. I might replace this with hard plastic once I determine if the top will still fold down with hard lexan instead of soft plastic in place. The girlfriend helped.
When I got the new tires mounted it pulled some of the black plastidip off of the stock Daisy wheels revealing a TERRIBLE white paintjob that only covered maybe 70% of each wheel. I got some metallic dark bronze Rustoleum and went to down on the wheels and the unpainted and very faded awful front lip.
My coworker helped.
I also got some LED switchback turn signals installed.
I'm super happy with these. Bright white (not blue!) light and super eye catching turn signal function. I have matching color temperature headlights that should be here saturday.
So here's where the car sits now:
Future plans:
Convert rest of exterior to LED, add some interior lighting since I commute to and from work in the dark, 1 inch wheel spacers because I love my Daisys but hate the fitment, possibly polish the wheel's lip to bare metal for a bit of contrast.
Eventually I would like to get a hardtop, some good coilovers, and a mild turbo. For now I'll just keep tinkering and keep track of it all in this thread.