Father and Son Build

[spyder91290]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some advice on an upcoming "project" i have been looking forward to for a while. I have been a member on IA for a good while, ad looking at all the bad-ass cars on here, have always had dreams of owning a bad-ass car myself. Well, I'm 21 now, but i was 17 when i bought my first car- 3rd gen Accord- not exactly bad-ass. But, nonetheless, it got me where i needed 2 go, and i love driving the car (it almost has 300k original miles).

Anyways, I have recently picked up a better job, and i have always wanted 2 do a father-son project car. My Pops is a little down on himself for not being as good with cars as he used to be, and honestly, i need to learn about cars so i don't always have to go to Dad without a clue of whats wrong when i have car problems. My uncle has a garage with a car lift and all the necessary things to do a lot of the heavy lifting, so i'm not much worried about that.

However, i'm posting this asking for advice. Right now, i don't have much of a budget (this isn't something i'm planning on doing in one weekend), but i do plan on buying all parts needed.

I was hoping 2 get a 94 or 95 Civic shell, and kinda just build it from the ground up. I want speed, but i don't need a turbo or anything like that (I drive a stock 89 Accord- you cant get much slower lol). So if anyone could give me a suggestion on a few things:

1. What kind of engine should i go for? I want a Vtec engine, but it doesnt have to be.
2. What kind of transmission?
3. If you have any suggestion for a better shell, or something that would work better. I'm looking to not spend much more than 1200-1500 for the shell.
4. Basically, i just need some help. Any thing is appreciated.

I have always loved cars, but have never had the ability to work on them, just because i was always busy doing other things when my dad worked on them. I appreciate any help given, and i would like to start this maybe in the summer, if anyone has a shell available by then. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thanks again for any help.

[Sinfix_15]

cheaper, more available, better aftermarket support, easier to work on. Better crowd of people. You'll have a lot more fun at NMRA and fun ford than you will with the douchebag import crowds. plus............ Do you want the finale of your father son car build to be you doing an ebrake burnout in your front wheel drive civic?

[Austin?]

Stang is a good pick for a build car but what ever you do don't start with a Nissan 240. Lol

[jtaylor61]

well you said your dad is down on himself for not being as good with cars as he used to be, and that may present a problem for what you are trying to do. in order to get "speed" out of a 92-95 civic(they are the same no need to limit your search to just 94-95) there are only a few routes to go. boost a d series( gonna be the easiest/cheapest motor to find, and can be really fun when boosted), find a shell with a b16a1 or a2 or b18c1 c3 or c5(these maybe a good bit out of the price range ur looking for), or lastly arguably the most popular route, do a swap! but thats where your problem comes in, yes there are conversion harnesses and whatnot but doing a swap always includes wiring wirk of some kind, which can be a bit tricky on hondas and one misplaced or missing wire can cause a HUUUUUGE problem and just end up making you hate the car lol, which is def not good for a father son build. anyways if you and your dad are not sure about your abilities to correctly wire up a swap and or diagnose electrical issues, then i def wouldnt recommend that. Ive owned a few turbo'd d16z6 civics(1.6 sohc vtec) and they were a blast! in fact im currently in the process of boosting my del sol and i cant wait to drive it when its done. IMO id go d series and just throw like 7 pounds of boost at it, it would stay reliable and it would be faster than your accord but not too fast. and you can do that on a relatively low budget if you do your research and piece together the build(including motor internals and turbo kit). plus theres nothing like the sound of a blowoff under your hood lol. hope this helps!!

cheaper, more available, better aftermarket support, easier to work on. Better crowd of people. You'll have a lot more fun at NMRA and fun ford than you will with the douchebag import crowds. plus............ Do you want the finale of your father son car build to be you doing an ebrake burnout in your front wheel drive civic?

bro why do you have to hate on civics? there are definitely plenty of them available, theres plenty of aftermarket support, they can be difficult to work on yes but not if you do your research and learn exactly what you need to do. and as far as better crowd of people and them being "douchebags", maybe you just think that becasue you hate on the "import crowds" which doesnt make sense to me because you have a pic of a 240 on ur signiture.........im assuming that is urs and if im not mistaken that would make you part of the import crowd, right? btw that 240 is clean as hell, respect for that. all im saying is if the kid wants to build a civic then let him dont bash on his dreams cuz u like mustangs more. ya they are easier to make power with, but that doesnt mean you cant make power with a civic, ive built v8s and fours and to be honest i was much more proud of the 300whp four than i ever was of any v8s. oh and as far as the "ebrake burnout in your front wheel drive civic" comment, thats just nonsense ive driven and ridden in civics that couldnt get traction for shit in first, or second for that matter, without the ebrake......just sayin no need to bash civics cuz ur not a fan, especially when what ur saying isnt 100 % true

[jtaylor61]

oh and spyder, no matter what you choose to do, get an ex/si 5spd transmission(shorter gears=better acceleration). or if u go b18 get gsr or type r matching tranny, but like i said those will prob be outta ur price range. and just search craigslist. there are hella shells and even full cars that are cheap as hell on there with blown gaskets and everything else which would be perfect for a build, even some with swaps already that just need to be rebuilt. good luck with the build! hope you and pops have a blast!

[CSquared]

Cool man. I don't have much advice on cars but my dad and i bought and race a 1986 celica supra. I do most of the work and he does most of the funding ha but its worked out nicely thus far.

Def recommend some scca solo 2 if your dad is up for it. We have a blast taking turns beating the #### out of it.

We were looking at fox bodys and even the more bubbly generation after that, due to the aftermarket like someobe else mentioned, but i am unfortunately a supra guy and came across this thing for $1000 bucks.

[Sinfix_15]

well you said your dad is down on himself for not being as good with cars as he used to be, and that may present a problem for what you are trying to do. in order to get "speed" out of a 92-95 civic(they are the same no need to limit your search to just 94-95) there are only a few routes to go. boost a d series( gonna be the easiest/cheapest motor to find, and can be really fun when boosted), find a shell with a b16a1 or a2 or b18c1 c3 or c5(these maybe a good bit out of the price range ur looking for), or lastly arguably the most popular route, do a swap! but thats where your problem comes in, yes there are conversion harnesses and whatnot but doing a swap always includes wiring wirk of some kind, which can be a bit tricky on hondas and one misplaced or missing wire can cause a HUUUUUGE problem and just end up making you hate the car lol, which is def not good for a father son build. anyways if you and your dad are not sure about your abilities to correctly wire up a swap and or diagnose electrical issues, then i def wouldnt recommend that. Ive owned a few turbo'd d16z6 civics(1.6 sohc vtec) and they were a blast! in fact im currently in the process of boosting my del sol and i cant wait to drive it when its done. IMO id go d series and just throw like 7 pounds of boost at it, it would stay reliable and it would be faster than your accord but not too fast. and you can do that on a relatively low budget if you do your research and piece together the build(including motor internals and turbo kit). plus theres nothing like the sound of a blowoff under your hood lol. hope this helps!!





bro why do you have to hate on civics? there are definitely plenty of them available, theres plenty of aftermarket support, they can be difficult to work on yes but not if you do your research and learn exactly what you need to do. and as far as better crowd of people and them being "douchebags", maybe you just think that becasue you hate on the "import crowds" which doesnt make sense to me because you have a pic of a 240 on ur signiture.........im assuming that is urs and if im not mistaken that would make you part of the import crowd, right? btw that 240 is clean as hell, respect for that. all im saying is if the kid wants to build a civic then let him dont bash on his dreams cuz u like mustangs more. ya they are easier to make power with, but that doesnt mean you cant make power with a civic, ive built v8s and fours and to be honest i was much more proud of the 300whp four than i ever was of any v8s. oh and as far as the "ebrake burnout in your front wheel drive civic" comment, thats just nonsense ive driven and ridden in civics that couldnt get traction for shit in first, or second for that matter, without the ebrake......just sayin no need to bash civics cuz ur not a fan, especially when what ur saying isnt 100 % true

Im sorry sir, i just seem to be from a different generation. Had my father of asked me to build an economy car with him, id probably be working for PITA right now, id probably have 13 pastel colored polo shirts in my closet and id probably be dating a guy named Roger. I like civics...... but a civic is an economy car..... one that is going to offer very little reward for the effort put into it. I've drove fwd cars that spun anywhere in nearly any gear....... and it was still lame as shit. I too have built 400+ whp 4 cylinders..... and for the money and effort spent.... i could have had built an 800hp wheel standing 9 second mustang..... i know this... because ive had those too. You cant compare the nostalgia of a Mustang or any other significant muscle car to a civic. There's a reason that when you flip on an action movie (aside from fast and furious) that the hero isnt chasing the bad guy in a honda civic....................... there's a reason James Bond doesnt drive a honda civic......... did you see any honda civics in transformers? do they have a movie called gone in 60mpg? no... they dont. At the end of the day, a mustang is a mustang... and a civic is a civic.

btw...... the 240 below....... i got it because i wanted an import, but wanted something that still looked like my favorite car, the foxbody coupe.

[Western.]

Im sorry sir, i just seem to be from a different generation. Had my father of asked me to build an economy car with him, id probably be working for PITA right now, id probably have 13 pastel colored polo shirts in my closet and id probably be dating a guy named Roger. I like civics...... but a civic is an economy car..... one that is going to offer very little reward for the effort put into it. I've drove fwd cars that spun anywhere in nearly any gear....... and it was still lame as shit. I too have built 400+ whp 4 cylinders..... and for the money and effort spent.... i could have had built an 800hp wheel standing 9 second mustang..... i know this... because ive had those too. You cant compare the nostalgia of a Mustang or any other significant muscle car to a civic. There's a reason that when you flip on an action movie (aside from fast and furious) that the hero isnt chasing the bad guy in a honda civic....................... there's a reason James Bond doesnt drive a honda civic......... did you see any honda civics in transformers? do they have a movie called gone in 60mpg? no... they dont. At the end of the day, a mustang is a mustang... and a civic is a civic.

btw...... the 240 below....... i got it because i wanted an import, but wanted something that still looked like my favorite car, the foxbody coupe.

Let the man do what he wants. If he wants to build a civic, let him build a civic. Heck, if he wants do something absurd like boost a scion xB or a Honda Element, let him do that. You really don't have to voice your hate all the time for a specific type of car. There's car's that I really don't like, but Im not vocal about it.

At the end of the day, a mustang is a mustang... and a civic is a civic.

Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there was any mention of an identity crisis in this argument. I also don't think people with civics think they have a mustang, or vice versa.:good job:

there's a reason James Bond doesnt drive a honda civic

He doesn't drive a mustang either. The reason is in what he drives, not what he doesn't drive.

OP- Good luck with the build. You can go with whatever shell you want. You could even hit up the junk yards and see what they've got. Or just keep your eye out for a really sweet deal

[Drummerboy]

It's all about wat you plan to do. If you just want to go fast for cheap, build a V8, because that's going to be the easiest thing to do. If you want to go fast and handle for cheap (but probably more time), get a honda.

Of course, I say get a prelude, but i'm a bit biased.

[Sinfix_15]

Let the man do what he wants. If he wants to build a civic, let him build a civic. Heck, if he wants do something absurd like boost a scion xB or a Honda Element, let him do that. You really don't have to voice your hate all the time for a specific type of car. There's car's that I really don't like, but Im not vocal about it.



Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there was any mention of an identity crisis in this argument. I also don't think people with civics think they have a mustang, or vice versa.:good job:


He doesn't drive a mustang either. The reason is in what he drives, not what he doesn't drive.

OP- Good luck with the build. You can go with whatever shell you want. You could even hit up the junk yards and see what they've got. Or just keep your eye out for a really sweet deal

Doing a father son civic build is like saying you want to get your kids into sports and handing him a ping pong paddle. Sure..... if that brings you two together..... more power to you. I'll hand my son a football.

[BenjaminJunu]

You will be more than happy with a honda civic with a b16a2 swap. That is the motor from a 1999-2000 honda civic si.
For this swap you want to find the b16 transmission. This is a short geared transmission.
When you are looking for the motor try to find the complete turn key swap. Motor, transmission, mounts, ecu, linkage, wire harness, intake manifold and all the sensors, alternator, distributer, & exe. This will save you a lot of trouble and headache.
since the car is obd1 and the motor is obd2 you will either need to convert the car to obd2 or convert the motor to obd1.
It is much easier to convert the motor to obd1 because you can use the wire harness that come with the car (as long as the car came factory with vtec) but you will need to find a obd1 ecu. The ecu that you can use is a p30.
Before you go into buying parts and swapping you need to do a lot of research to find out EVERYTHING that you need/need to do.
You can find the shell for cheaper than your price range it just depends on how clean you want the shell to be.
I recommend getting on honda-tech.com and searching on there because you can find everything you need there. you just have to look for it.
good luck with your project and have fun.

[BenjaminJunu]

this is all you need.
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1998336