My CRX History
I wrote this for another forum, and I thought I'd share.
I bought the car from my cousin Jenn in May 2001. She had the car for about 5 years and kept it in dependable stock condition, save for the stereo. It was a decent 1991 CRX dx with the optional automatic transmission and driver's door damage from a parking lot collision. I didn't mind, I was happy just to have a car.
I drove the car in its stock form back and forth to work and school, before I realized the huge potential this car had. I started slow, the first things I added were an APC intake, clear corners and a set of $15 fog lights. I also added color to much of the interior because paint is cheap. It's grown on me, so I'm not changing it. In February 2002 I had saved enough to have the car's bodywork smoothed out at a local Maaco, and they talked me into repainting the whole car. That summer I worked full-time and collected enough cash to finally start some real modifications. I picked up a set of wheels from Tire Rack, I got my car lowered at a local performance shop, and I added a DC Sports exhaust. At this point my car was garnering some attention as a "clean" CRX, and I enjoyed the looks.
I went to college that autumn, and my budget went flat out the window. I could barely afford to keep up on insurance, so I didn't get much done that year. In summer 2003 I went to my first big meet, N9 in Niagara Falls. I picked up a set of brand new blue floormats, and my dumb self put them directly in the car. I also found an armrest on ebay and installed it. I felt like my car was becoming a comfortable place to be, but it was still slow, and I longed to shift for myself.
I was working at my local Honda dealer at the time, and an older gentleman traded a very clean, very stock 1988 CRX HF in for a new car. This was August 2003. My job was recuperating trade-ins for the used car lot, so I spent a lot of time getting to know this rex. I wanted it BAD, and so I struck a deal with the sales manager. $1200 later, it was mine.
The honeymoon didn't last long though. Just 2 weeks into being a dual-rex owner, it was sold.I had parked and was walking into a Wal-Mart store when a man called out to me. He saw this pristine 88 HF and wanted it. I told him it wasn't for sale, but he offered $4500 and I said yes on the spot. The next day we were signing papers at the DMV. I never even had to put gas in that car. I wished for a while that I had sold my automatic CRX instead, but reality has a way of being permanent, and I moved on.
I went back to school in the fall and my budget went back to zero. I quickly tired of the repetitive school schedule without pay, and I made a hasty decision to join the army. In January 2004, I was off to training and my car was off to storage. It was October before I got it back. I splurged on Momo parts for the interior at that point, along with some strut braces, new speakers and other miscellaneous stuff.
I then tried saving money for bigger and better things, but throughout 2005 I found myself blowing money on things like HDTVs and strip clubs, and my car made little progress. In June of that year I was cut off by a fool in an Astro van and hit a curb at 45mph, but it was a one-vehicle incident so his insurance wouldn't pay anything, and my insurance had a deductible of $1000, so I fixed the damage on my own dime. While my car was in the body shop I added an SiR spoiler.
I wanted to start saving for an engine swap, but my seats were quickly deteriorating and that had to be taken care of. I found a set of Si seats in good shape, and I wanted something special to be done with them. I got a vision to do them up in blue & white to exemplify my interior, and I got the idea to have them heated too. Unfortunately, local upholstery shops wouldn't get the fabrics I wanted, so I resorted to the internet for blue alcantara and white synthetic leather. When I got the fabric I desired there was only one guy in the region that would even tackle the project, and he took 2 agonizing months to assemble my custom seats. When it was done though, I was ecstatic.
Christmas came and went again, and I found myself no closer to having any power under the hood. In 2006 I decided that I wanted to go full steam ahead with making my car look and feel like an SiR. I contacted HMotors and ordered a JDM front end conversion, and had it shipped to a friend's body shop. We put it on and started talking about paint, because I wasn't about to drive around with a mis-matched, unpainted front end.
My Maaco paint job from 4 years earlier was falling apart, and my car was starting to rust in spots. After looking over everything, I had a laundry list of imperfections and upgrades that I wanted done while my car was in for paint. I had the antenna, rear washer nozzle and hood emblem shaved, rust was repaired in 4 places, and a driver's door skin was ordered from Honda. Apparently Maaco did a poor job of repairing the door, and trying to fix their mistake wasn't worth it. I just agreed with the body guy. The SiR front end needed some love, and we discovered that the rear bumper support was rusted to almost nothing, so we ordered one of those from Honda as well. When it was all said and done, I had a $2800 bill for body work, parts and paint. So much for an engine swap, but at least my car was looking incredible.
I moved to Atlanta in June 2006, and not knowing too many people in the area allowed me to start putting money away again. I worked on some little (but expensive) details that summer, like the VT cluster and a Valentine One radar detector, but I really wanted a better engine, and a real transmission. In October I called HMotors again and ordered a JDM Integra XSi swap. It was shipped to John Ward's shop in Florida, then known as ICON Auto, and I started amassing a collection of parts needed to do the swap right.
In January 2007 I made the trip to John's workshop to finally get a real powertrain. We did the swap in about 3 days and I was an extremely happy man.
In early April I was driving through downtown Atlanta at about midnight, and I must have been tired because I failed to stop and rear-ended a BMW. My car slid under his, so he got only paint-transfer while my car was faceplanted. The owner saw that his car was largely undamaged and decided he didn't want to deal with any of it. I started apologizing and he just told me to go home.
I started the process of repair, and within 3 weeks I had assembled everything I needed to put my car back together and retain the JDM front end. I replaced the front bulkhead and bought a hood, adjustable glass headlights and a new bumper. While I was searching for those parts I also stumbled on an insane deal for a JDM glass roof. It wasn't really on my radar, but for just $310 plus shipping I had to have it. I also got tired of my old wheels and picked up some Rotas.
I then got surprise orders to go to Kuwait for 3 months. I had to let my car sit while I went to the desert. When I got back in July, I was eager to get the glass roof installed. I had plenty of time to research what was involved when I was overseas and I couldn't wait. Perhaps I was too eager though. When removing the glass from the roof, it cracked clean across, and I was devastated.
I should have cut my losses at that point, but I was determined to have a transparent ceiling and so I searched the internet for another. I quickly found one in Connecticut for $1000 shipped. Steep, but I had to have it. In the meantime, extra cash from my deployment was burning a hole in my pocket, and I felt the urge to upgrade my audio. I couldn't restrict myself to a simple upgrade either, I needed something special. I called Crutchfield and ordered Alpine's newest in-dash touchscreen receiver, which just so happened to be compatible with Alpine's navigation and bluetooth modules. I couldn't resist.
By August I had the glass roof installed.
In September I took my car to get the front end re-sprayed, and decided to stay more OEM with it. I kept the Honda logo on the hood this time around, and the bottom of the bumper remained black.
At that point I was getting bored with my car's performance, and I had been dreaming of turbo. I started planning it out, and realized I would need to be able to stop too. Another trip to John Ward's wonderful workshop was in order, but now he's calling it Panducky. :P I ordered parts for a complete brake overhaul and went for a drive.
I'm not sure how my pockets weren't empty yet, but I immediately planned a trip to re-visit Panducky to be fitted with a turbo, and the result is what you see of my car today.
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UPROOT Photography FTW 
Originally Posted by Oz10
