- Messages
- 1,093
Hello everyone and welcome to my EP3 Type R journal/restoration thread.
So before we get into it here is a bit of background on the cars I used to own. My first car was a 2001 Golf MK4 1.6i SE 5dr, I got it when I was 19 for around £1800 with 60k on the clock. The insurance for it at the time was £2500 . Was a great car but it had it's reliability issues which made me want to switch to Jap. At the age of 20 I bought my first Type R which was a 1999 Integra Type R DC2 in Milano Red. The car had just done 145,000 miles when I got it and was running like a champ! It was the UKDM version so not as fast or good looking as the JDM but I loved every bit of it, especially coming from a Golf! Halfway through owning it I decided to give it a proper rust treatment and a full respray, and then maintain it to a high standard using OEM parts. Here is a pic a few months before I sold it:
I then decided to sell the car and try something with RWD, so I bought a Eunos Roadster 1.8 (JDM MX5 basically) which had an LSD, decent coilovers and a nice catback. It was great fun, probably the most fun I've had in a car and it was so cheap to repair and replace parts it was unreal! I loved going out in the evenings with the roof down and heating blasting in my face for some spirited driving!
Pic below (excuse the primer lol)
The MX5 had it's downsides though, mainly age related as it was a 1992 car, so seeing the amount of cash I needed for the rust repair udnerneath was more than the car was worth, I sold it on (regrettably) and decided to make the stupid mistake of buying a newer car on Finance....
This is where my 2011 370Z GT Pack came along. It was a decent car to drive, much newer to anything I've driven before and had a lot fo tech, but it was boring. Maybe it was the lack of mods or the fact that the exhaust had 6 silencers! Yes 6! It was quieter than my neighbours 1.2 Corsa on startup ffs... Not only that but it drank petrol like crazy, a set of Michelins for it were £800, and insurance was not ideal either. Then again driving a 3.7l V6 at age of 21 around my area was not normal so yeah, even had an old lady ask if the car was even mine :lol:
Pic:
So after that I took a break from performance cars and drove a 1 litre Micra about as my daily mile muncher as I only commuted 5 miles a day to work. I decided to try out the german market again and bought an E46 M3 which was pretty mint and basically OEM. I kept with the scheme bar a few things such as a bit of carbon bits, exhaust and black grilles. The rest was all maintenance (brakes, tires, filters, oil and detailing).
Pics:
After that car, I had to be sensible as I started commuting to work properly (80 miles a day) so I bought a 2007 E60 535d M sport and spent a fortune on stuff I shouldn't have, it ended up being a Stage 2 368bhp motorway beast! Also it was one of the most optioned out 5 series I have seen for the year, it pretty much had everything bar a HUD.
Pics:
And then I sold that about 2 months ago and have continued to drive the trusty Micra! (I swear that car will not die.)
This was until last weekend, when I travelled up to Glasgow to pick up a well sorted 2004 EP3 in Nighthawk Black. Well I say well sorted, compared to the standard I like my cars in, it was sh*te. Paint swirls galore (sort of expected on a black car though), quite a bit of surface rust underneath, arches need doing as they are starting to bubble, front bumper was misaligned, gap under the headlights too, cloudy headlights with 1 bulb out.... and it goes on and on. BUT! it drove well. It had decent mods which complimented the handling nicely and after going through all the receipts it turns out that it was maintained well by a well known Motorsports garage called Automek. I knew that this will not be a "buy and drive" car and really it would need a bit of TLC, but what I didn't expect was a full on project haha.
Here is a picture from the advert:
Car specification:
2004 Honda Civic Type R EP3 - Facelift in Nighthawk Black
100,950 miles
Full Honda + Honda specialist service history
Has air conditioning that actually works! :lol:
It came with the following modifications:
Engine:
Tegiwa Carbon M intake + Tegiwa silicone hose
NGK Iridium Laser IX plugs
Powdercoated rocker cover
Carbon plug cover
Tegiwa battery holder
Brakes:
OEM Discs all around (1k old)
OEM Rear Pads (1k old)
Stoptech front pads (1k old)
HEL Braided Lines
Motul RBF600 Fluid
Wheels:
OEM 17 inch wheels in Anthracite (mainly in good condition with the odd paint chip)
Brand new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires
Suspension:
Eibach Camber arms and bolts
Hardrace droplinks
Tein Advanced Z coilovers
Progress 24mm polybushed ARB
FSRU by Automek
Exhaust:
Cobra Silenced B pipe
Toda Ti Backbox
Interior:
Some unbranded heavy weight gear knob, but it feels pretty good.
JDM style Broadway rectangular mirror (this went in the bin the minute I got home lol)
Exterior:
8000K HID kit (which looks far too blue for me and is going)
JDM wind deflectors
Rear side window tints
There might be other small bits I've missed but that's the majority of it. So upon getting it home, the first thing I couldn't wait to do is figure out why the hell the exhaust was droning around 70mph, as the Toda is meant to be super quiet compared to some of the others and sounded different from the videos I've seen. I took it to a local garage and inspected the underside to find out that the Cobra b pipe's silencer seems to have gone (or at least feels like it) as it make a tinny sound when I hit it, as if it has bits inside rattling about. If that is the case then an unsilenced b pipe explains the extra noise and will be going soon.
The next thing I noticed was the amount of rust underneath. Thankfully it is mostly surface rust but jesus there is some on pretty much every component I can see, so rust prevention and treatment is on the cards pretty soon as well (once I can book a ramp for an entire weekend ). Then I had a look at the brakes and all calipers bar the rear passenger one have been changed for new so that was nice, but the pads do not reflect 1k miles to me, so they will need changing. Discs are fine though and do reflect what it said on the ad.
From this point onwards it was clear that the car will need some loving to get up to scratch, but I was just happy that it drove so well, no crunches in gearbox while cold or hot in any gear, engine is very smooth and no oil consumption what so ever for the 600 miles I drove that day getting the car back, also the oil is very clear which is a good indication too. The guy has used HAMP filters with Fuschs Titan Race Pro S 5-40 so it's all good in that department.
This is it for now, more to follow as I write up the next paragraph
Thanks for reading this far!
Stoycho
So before we get into it here is a bit of background on the cars I used to own. My first car was a 2001 Golf MK4 1.6i SE 5dr, I got it when I was 19 for around £1800 with 60k on the clock. The insurance for it at the time was £2500 . Was a great car but it had it's reliability issues which made me want to switch to Jap. At the age of 20 I bought my first Type R which was a 1999 Integra Type R DC2 in Milano Red. The car had just done 145,000 miles when I got it and was running like a champ! It was the UKDM version so not as fast or good looking as the JDM but I loved every bit of it, especially coming from a Golf! Halfway through owning it I decided to give it a proper rust treatment and a full respray, and then maintain it to a high standard using OEM parts. Here is a pic a few months before I sold it:
I then decided to sell the car and try something with RWD, so I bought a Eunos Roadster 1.8 (JDM MX5 basically) which had an LSD, decent coilovers and a nice catback. It was great fun, probably the most fun I've had in a car and it was so cheap to repair and replace parts it was unreal! I loved going out in the evenings with the roof down and heating blasting in my face for some spirited driving!
Pic below (excuse the primer lol)
The MX5 had it's downsides though, mainly age related as it was a 1992 car, so seeing the amount of cash I needed for the rust repair udnerneath was more than the car was worth, I sold it on (regrettably) and decided to make the stupid mistake of buying a newer car on Finance....
This is where my 2011 370Z GT Pack came along. It was a decent car to drive, much newer to anything I've driven before and had a lot fo tech, but it was boring. Maybe it was the lack of mods or the fact that the exhaust had 6 silencers! Yes 6! It was quieter than my neighbours 1.2 Corsa on startup ffs... Not only that but it drank petrol like crazy, a set of Michelins for it were £800, and insurance was not ideal either. Then again driving a 3.7l V6 at age of 21 around my area was not normal so yeah, even had an old lady ask if the car was even mine :lol:
Pic:
So after that I took a break from performance cars and drove a 1 litre Micra about as my daily mile muncher as I only commuted 5 miles a day to work. I decided to try out the german market again and bought an E46 M3 which was pretty mint and basically OEM. I kept with the scheme bar a few things such as a bit of carbon bits, exhaust and black grilles. The rest was all maintenance (brakes, tires, filters, oil and detailing).
Pics:
After that car, I had to be sensible as I started commuting to work properly (80 miles a day) so I bought a 2007 E60 535d M sport and spent a fortune on stuff I shouldn't have, it ended up being a Stage 2 368bhp motorway beast! Also it was one of the most optioned out 5 series I have seen for the year, it pretty much had everything bar a HUD.
Pics:
And then I sold that about 2 months ago and have continued to drive the trusty Micra! (I swear that car will not die.)
This was until last weekend, when I travelled up to Glasgow to pick up a well sorted 2004 EP3 in Nighthawk Black. Well I say well sorted, compared to the standard I like my cars in, it was sh*te. Paint swirls galore (sort of expected on a black car though), quite a bit of surface rust underneath, arches need doing as they are starting to bubble, front bumper was misaligned, gap under the headlights too, cloudy headlights with 1 bulb out.... and it goes on and on. BUT! it drove well. It had decent mods which complimented the handling nicely and after going through all the receipts it turns out that it was maintained well by a well known Motorsports garage called Automek. I knew that this will not be a "buy and drive" car and really it would need a bit of TLC, but what I didn't expect was a full on project haha.
Here is a picture from the advert:
Car specification:
2004 Honda Civic Type R EP3 - Facelift in Nighthawk Black
100,950 miles
Full Honda + Honda specialist service history
Has air conditioning that actually works! :lol:
It came with the following modifications:
Engine:
Tegiwa Carbon M intake + Tegiwa silicone hose
NGK Iridium Laser IX plugs
Powdercoated rocker cover
Carbon plug cover
Tegiwa battery holder
Brakes:
OEM Discs all around (1k old)
OEM Rear Pads (1k old)
Stoptech front pads (1k old)
HEL Braided Lines
Motul RBF600 Fluid
Wheels:
OEM 17 inch wheels in Anthracite (mainly in good condition with the odd paint chip)
Brand new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires
Suspension:
Eibach Camber arms and bolts
Hardrace droplinks
Tein Advanced Z coilovers
Progress 24mm polybushed ARB
FSRU by Automek
Exhaust:
Cobra Silenced B pipe
Toda Ti Backbox
Interior:
Some unbranded heavy weight gear knob, but it feels pretty good.
JDM style Broadway rectangular mirror (this went in the bin the minute I got home lol)
Exterior:
8000K HID kit (which looks far too blue for me and is going)
JDM wind deflectors
Rear side window tints
There might be other small bits I've missed but that's the majority of it. So upon getting it home, the first thing I couldn't wait to do is figure out why the hell the exhaust was droning around 70mph, as the Toda is meant to be super quiet compared to some of the others and sounded different from the videos I've seen. I took it to a local garage and inspected the underside to find out that the Cobra b pipe's silencer seems to have gone (or at least feels like it) as it make a tinny sound when I hit it, as if it has bits inside rattling about. If that is the case then an unsilenced b pipe explains the extra noise and will be going soon.
The next thing I noticed was the amount of rust underneath. Thankfully it is mostly surface rust but jesus there is some on pretty much every component I can see, so rust prevention and treatment is on the cards pretty soon as well (once I can book a ramp for an entire weekend ). Then I had a look at the brakes and all calipers bar the rear passenger one have been changed for new so that was nice, but the pads do not reflect 1k miles to me, so they will need changing. Discs are fine though and do reflect what it said on the ad.
From this point onwards it was clear that the car will need some loving to get up to scratch, but I was just happy that it drove so well, no crunches in gearbox while cold or hot in any gear, engine is very smooth and no oil consumption what so ever for the 600 miles I drove that day getting the car back, also the oil is very clear which is a good indication too. The guy has used HAMP filters with Fuschs Titan Race Pro S 5-40 so it's all good in that department.
This is it for now, more to follow as I write up the next paragraph
Thanks for reading this far!
Stoycho
Last edited by a moderator: