- Messages
- 130
Spec List
Performance
- OEM Exedy Stage 1 clutch
- Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3's
- Project MU HC800 front pads / OEM rear pads
Exterior
- Wheels refurbed in Gunmetal Grey
- USDM sidelight kit
- 6k HID kit
- Amber sidelights
- Rear wiper delete
- Debadged
- Jazz washers
Interior
- Skunk2 weighted gearknob
- Black suede with red stitching gear gaitor
- Kenwood single din headunit
----------------------------------------------
Right guys...
I thought it was about time to post up a build thread. A bit of background on me, I have been lurking around the Honda forums (mainly Civiclife) since I was about 15 years old as I have had plenty of Honda's in the family from ek's, eg's, dc2, atr and a mb6. I started driving at the age of 17 and started off with a 1.4 astra, boy I do not like those ever since. Next, I moved up in the world and drove the 1.8 fk2 for about a year and half as this was a family car I shared.
Having turned 21 in October, I knew exactly what I wanted and I was adamant that I was getting an ep3 no matter what. Although I work in London and only really use the car occasionally in evenings and weekends, I didn't care if it was needed or practical, it just had to be done!
Anyways, I picked up a 2006 (55) plate nighthawks black premier edition from a performance car dealer up in High Wycombe. It comes with 93k on the clock full service history (stamped up to 60k and independent afterwards), Michelin PS3's all round and the usual premier edition perks. Other then that its pretty much standard. I will let the pictures say the rest:
Here's a few pics of when I bought it, left it at my uncles as I bought it on a Sunday night so couldnt get it insured, the dealer was luckily heading back to London so kindly dropped it off at my uncles.
Alongisde an UKDM spec DC2:
Not long after I took a quick trip to my local Honda, to pick up some touch up paint and saw the new FK2 CTR parked up, had to take a old vs new, obviously...
Heres where it starts to go slightly downhill. So exactly a week on, I come out to the car on a Sunday morning having driven it the previous evening to fill up my tyre pressures, I noticed this:
Not sure who done it or how it was caused but I have a feeling it may have been a neighbour who was attempting to reverse his car back into his driveaway and his mirror caused the dent/scrape in the panel and his bumper scraping along my rear lip, extremely annoyed about it but I guess its part of ownership.
Next I started the small mods, first thing was to change the gaitor to a nice suede one from eBay, great fitment at a bargain price.
As you can see in the first couple of pictures, the number plates are looking extremely sorry for themselves so got new plates in and debadged the civic bit.
Before:
After:
The steering wheel needed some attention, generally was quite dirty and there is some damage. I got a nice little trick that bought it up nicely removing that polished look, using some Magic Eraser from Tesco. Extremely happy with the outcome, dont have any before pictures but it made a huge difference! I will eventually look into a retrim or new wheel as some damage is bad.
I went over the stitching with a red Sharpie marker, no pics but it has nicely bought the red back up. I then picked up some Team heko deflectors, had these on for little while but then came across some trouble with the driver side auto function kicking in and catching it - at first i thought it was because the shape of the deflector was deformed so contacted seller and he sent out a new pair but the same problem. I didn't want to put stress on the motor so I have now removed them and probably will sell, but here's the car with them on after a wash:
Took the car for a nice little drive one weekend and heard a nasty pop/clunk from underneath centre of the car on hard acceleration/downshift twice so i took it to my local mechanic to have inspected. Turned out that the front lower engine mount was cracked and while under the car he also noted.... Another stroke of bad luck, a slight engine oil leak. It wasn't causing any losses on the dipstick or markings on the drive/road.
At this point I thought it was time for a trip to TGM, having heard a lot of good stuff about them and being the most local specialists, i thought i would have the car completely checked over by Tom and get them to carry out the work. My friend had just bought his first R32, so we came along with me to drop the car off, took a few quick station snaps before heading out:
So Tom got under the car and nothing out of the ordinary popped up, just small common stuff. The main thing was the front mount needed replacing and the leak would eventually get worse and contaminate the clutch so I opted to get it done asap rather then having to come back, do it all at once. Tom was great, top service and price! As the gearbox had to come out, it made sense to have the clutch changed (although it was done by the previous owner in August, it felt very springy and noisy so I had Tom test drive the car and he also suggest it makes sense to have done. I had a google of the clutch that was thrown in from a receipt at it was a no branded sports clutch, roughly 140 quid. After having a look at it, it had 6 springs on the pressure plate - not 4 like the Exedy/OEM ones which explained why there was a lot of whirring sound on decceleration).
While the car was there, I got valve clearances done as there was no history of it and my engine oil, gearbox oil and clutch fluid all changed. Again, the box oil was done in August but the oil used was Comma oil and I had bit of crunching into second on cold starts. Now the car drives beautifully! It slots into second so smoothly and it drives so well. I planned on getting a comp clutch lightened flywheel fitted but Tom said the standard one was in good condition and it is not worth the money for just 0.3kg less.
Next up, I planned to attack a few things over my christmas holidays such as put in my single din headunit I had lieing around, fit bosch front wipers, Skunk2 gearknob fitted, dewiper, change air and cabin filter, spark plugs and give it a thorough clean. Starting with the dewiper, it was just not coming off so I decided to hacksaw it.
The knob and unit (I love the weight of the skunk2, feels amazing when shifting, so effortless highly recommended):
Dewiper process:
Hacksawed:
For those who haven't yet attempted, start with removing the cover under the spoiler first:
Then the sides and the tailgate:
The motor removed:
And the end results.... I opted for the glass bung from eBay, personally prefer it to the rubber one.
Changed the pollen filter:
The old ones were filthy!
Air filter changed:
Next up before the wash, the lights were badly glazed so I opted to go over them with a machine using Meguiars Plast-R with the help of a friend, did not wet sand.
Before:
After:
Next it was time for the clean, snow foamed the car, rinsed, then used Zymol shampoo and rinsed again and used the Sonax Quick Detailer (I did not give it a wax or sealant as I was intending to take it to the bodyshop for the rear lip repair however I did not get round to it). Extremely impressed by the Sonax quick detailer, the car came up well and repels water nicely.
Dirty:
Foam:
And here you have it (before the detailer)....
After applying the detailer and RainX repellent on the glass.. good stuff!
Polished the tips using Autosol and wire wool:
Finished result:
Forgot to mention, I purchased some amber sidelights to run the USDM look for the meanwhile until I buy the actual kit. It may not be to everyones taste but it is slightly different and I like it.
I took a few shots with my friends R32 and C63 once we had finished..
Some better ones with the iPhone, excuse the same position of shots lol...
And that is all. Apologies all pictures are phone camera and some aren't great quality. I absolutely love the ep3 with it being my first personal car, honda and type R! My plans are to keep it standard for a while, so no big updates with performance as insurance was a struggle. I currently have a knocking sound from the front end, had it inspected and the track rod ends have play but I am not sure if that will cure it so will be looking into that soon. The spark plugs were not delivered in time but have now arrived so I will be doing those soon too.
Other plans are to eventually purchase some new mats (either red ones or genuine type r ones), new headlights as one of them has a crack in the projector, clean the interior, get the rear lip and dent sorted and enjoy it!
Eventually I would like to run some breathing mods and a kpro at some point, with a summer set of wheels and refurb the OEM ones with a FRSU lowered on Eibachs, once insurance permits.
Any comments welcome!
Performance
- OEM Exedy Stage 1 clutch
- Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3's
- Project MU HC800 front pads / OEM rear pads
Exterior
- Wheels refurbed in Gunmetal Grey
- USDM sidelight kit
- 6k HID kit
- Amber sidelights
- Rear wiper delete
- Debadged
- Jazz washers
Interior
- Skunk2 weighted gearknob
- Black suede with red stitching gear gaitor
- Kenwood single din headunit
----------------------------------------------
Right guys...
I thought it was about time to post up a build thread. A bit of background on me, I have been lurking around the Honda forums (mainly Civiclife) since I was about 15 years old as I have had plenty of Honda's in the family from ek's, eg's, dc2, atr and a mb6. I started driving at the age of 17 and started off with a 1.4 astra, boy I do not like those ever since. Next, I moved up in the world and drove the 1.8 fk2 for about a year and half as this was a family car I shared.
Having turned 21 in October, I knew exactly what I wanted and I was adamant that I was getting an ep3 no matter what. Although I work in London and only really use the car occasionally in evenings and weekends, I didn't care if it was needed or practical, it just had to be done!
Anyways, I picked up a 2006 (55) plate nighthawks black premier edition from a performance car dealer up in High Wycombe. It comes with 93k on the clock full service history (stamped up to 60k and independent afterwards), Michelin PS3's all round and the usual premier edition perks. Other then that its pretty much standard. I will let the pictures say the rest:
Here's a few pics of when I bought it, left it at my uncles as I bought it on a Sunday night so couldnt get it insured, the dealer was luckily heading back to London so kindly dropped it off at my uncles.
Alongisde an UKDM spec DC2:
Not long after I took a quick trip to my local Honda, to pick up some touch up paint and saw the new FK2 CTR parked up, had to take a old vs new, obviously...
Heres where it starts to go slightly downhill. So exactly a week on, I come out to the car on a Sunday morning having driven it the previous evening to fill up my tyre pressures, I noticed this:
Not sure who done it or how it was caused but I have a feeling it may have been a neighbour who was attempting to reverse his car back into his driveaway and his mirror caused the dent/scrape in the panel and his bumper scraping along my rear lip, extremely annoyed about it but I guess its part of ownership.
Next I started the small mods, first thing was to change the gaitor to a nice suede one from eBay, great fitment at a bargain price.
As you can see in the first couple of pictures, the number plates are looking extremely sorry for themselves so got new plates in and debadged the civic bit.
Before:
After:
The steering wheel needed some attention, generally was quite dirty and there is some damage. I got a nice little trick that bought it up nicely removing that polished look, using some Magic Eraser from Tesco. Extremely happy with the outcome, dont have any before pictures but it made a huge difference! I will eventually look into a retrim or new wheel as some damage is bad.
I went over the stitching with a red Sharpie marker, no pics but it has nicely bought the red back up. I then picked up some Team heko deflectors, had these on for little while but then came across some trouble with the driver side auto function kicking in and catching it - at first i thought it was because the shape of the deflector was deformed so contacted seller and he sent out a new pair but the same problem. I didn't want to put stress on the motor so I have now removed them and probably will sell, but here's the car with them on after a wash:
Took the car for a nice little drive one weekend and heard a nasty pop/clunk from underneath centre of the car on hard acceleration/downshift twice so i took it to my local mechanic to have inspected. Turned out that the front lower engine mount was cracked and while under the car he also noted.... Another stroke of bad luck, a slight engine oil leak. It wasn't causing any losses on the dipstick or markings on the drive/road.
At this point I thought it was time for a trip to TGM, having heard a lot of good stuff about them and being the most local specialists, i thought i would have the car completely checked over by Tom and get them to carry out the work. My friend had just bought his first R32, so we came along with me to drop the car off, took a few quick station snaps before heading out:
So Tom got under the car and nothing out of the ordinary popped up, just small common stuff. The main thing was the front mount needed replacing and the leak would eventually get worse and contaminate the clutch so I opted to get it done asap rather then having to come back, do it all at once. Tom was great, top service and price! As the gearbox had to come out, it made sense to have the clutch changed (although it was done by the previous owner in August, it felt very springy and noisy so I had Tom test drive the car and he also suggest it makes sense to have done. I had a google of the clutch that was thrown in from a receipt at it was a no branded sports clutch, roughly 140 quid. After having a look at it, it had 6 springs on the pressure plate - not 4 like the Exedy/OEM ones which explained why there was a lot of whirring sound on decceleration).
While the car was there, I got valve clearances done as there was no history of it and my engine oil, gearbox oil and clutch fluid all changed. Again, the box oil was done in August but the oil used was Comma oil and I had bit of crunching into second on cold starts. Now the car drives beautifully! It slots into second so smoothly and it drives so well. I planned on getting a comp clutch lightened flywheel fitted but Tom said the standard one was in good condition and it is not worth the money for just 0.3kg less.
Next up, I planned to attack a few things over my christmas holidays such as put in my single din headunit I had lieing around, fit bosch front wipers, Skunk2 gearknob fitted, dewiper, change air and cabin filter, spark plugs and give it a thorough clean. Starting with the dewiper, it was just not coming off so I decided to hacksaw it.
The knob and unit (I love the weight of the skunk2, feels amazing when shifting, so effortless highly recommended):
Dewiper process:
Hacksawed:
For those who haven't yet attempted, start with removing the cover under the spoiler first:
Then the sides and the tailgate:
The motor removed:
And the end results.... I opted for the glass bung from eBay, personally prefer it to the rubber one.
Changed the pollen filter:
The old ones were filthy!
Air filter changed:
Next up before the wash, the lights were badly glazed so I opted to go over them with a machine using Meguiars Plast-R with the help of a friend, did not wet sand.
Before:
After:
Next it was time for the clean, snow foamed the car, rinsed, then used Zymol shampoo and rinsed again and used the Sonax Quick Detailer (I did not give it a wax or sealant as I was intending to take it to the bodyshop for the rear lip repair however I did not get round to it). Extremely impressed by the Sonax quick detailer, the car came up well and repels water nicely.
Dirty:
Foam:
And here you have it (before the detailer)....
After applying the detailer and RainX repellent on the glass.. good stuff!
Polished the tips using Autosol and wire wool:
Finished result:
Forgot to mention, I purchased some amber sidelights to run the USDM look for the meanwhile until I buy the actual kit. It may not be to everyones taste but it is slightly different and I like it.
I took a few shots with my friends R32 and C63 once we had finished..
Some better ones with the iPhone, excuse the same position of shots lol...
And that is all. Apologies all pictures are phone camera and some aren't great quality. I absolutely love the ep3 with it being my first personal car, honda and type R! My plans are to keep it standard for a while, so no big updates with performance as insurance was a struggle. I currently have a knocking sound from the front end, had it inspected and the track rod ends have play but I am not sure if that will cure it so will be looking into that soon. The spark plugs were not delivered in time but have now arrived so I will be doing those soon too.
Other plans are to eventually purchase some new mats (either red ones or genuine type r ones), new headlights as one of them has a crack in the projector, clean the interior, get the rear lip and dent sorted and enjoy it!
Eventually I would like to run some breathing mods and a kpro at some point, with a summer set of wheels and refurb the OEM ones with a FRSU lowered on Eibachs, once insurance permits.
Any comments welcome!
Last edited by a moderator:
I know the insurance issues first hand, but hey it has enough go in standard form to have plenty of fun!
