Cosmic Grey 2005 EP3 Civic Type R

Craig82 · Aug 24, 2019

Next job off the list, replacement front H badge. When I bought the car, the original badge had a stone chip in it and had gone a manky brown colour. Got round to getting a replacement badge and set about changing it.

First up, grill removed:

I took the opportunity to clean the bumper underneath where the grill sits while it was off.

On a separate note, on removing the black plastic slam panel cover, this revealed some surface rust. I rubbed it down, used Hamerite Kurust on it and painted it, followed by a coat of wax.

Right, old badge vs brand new one:

Lovely stone chip/crack on the left of the H!

Also gave the plastic cover the Autoglym treatment:

Most of the plastic clips holding the grill/cover in place were past their best, so I ordered some more.

Grill with new badge refitted, along with the treated/painted/polished slam panel:

And finally, grill fully fitted with brand new clips:

Much better

Craig82 · Sep 13, 2019

Time for an update!

First up, decided the fob casing and buttons were past their best, and found a new casing on ebay for a few quid. Bought and swapped over:

Little things make all the difference and all that.

Next up, I turned my attention to the rear sub-frame and the anti roll bar. Both of which were looking a bit crap.

I bought a brand new genuine Honda 22mm rear antiroll bar from Tegiwa (Thanks

), and proceeded to remove the 14 year old one from my car. The drop links were only replaced last year, but still required plus gas to persuade them to let go of the arb!

Anyway, old arb off, and compared with my new one:

I also wire brushed, kurust, primed, painted and lacquered the arb brackets:

Prior to fitting the new arb, I wire brushed, kurust the rear sub-frame and waxoyled it, and the lower control arms.

New arb fitted, along with all copper slipped bolts:

As you'd expect from a genuine Honda product, perfect fit. I also bought myself a set of new NGK Laser Irdium spark plugs. Fitting them tomorrow.

That's it for now.

SK-R · Sep 19, 2019

Good stuff, keep up the progress

ewaaj · Sep 20, 2019

The JDM anti-roll bar makes a big difference, car felt so much better when I had done this mod.

Craig82 · Sep 20, 2019

SK-R said:
Good stuff, keep up the progress

Thanks mate, got some more bits and pieces coming up, mainly maintenance and MOT.

ewaaj said:
The JDM anti-roll bar makes a big difference, car felt so much better when I had done this mod.

It's a weird one, turn in seems better and feels a lot flatter at the rear through the corners, but not sure if this is in my head or not :lol:

Craig82 · Oct 26, 2019

I changed my spark plugs for new NGK Laser Iridiums. No idea when they were last changed, as there is no evidence of them being changed in my paperwork for the car, so could be original!

Old ones out, looking worn:

And compared to the new NGKs:

Definitely seen better days! I also cleaned up the spark plug cover while it was off:

Also, with the MOT looming, I thought I'd start gathering some more service items to do at the same time. The rear brake pipes were an advisory from a previous MOT so I wanted to get those sorted prior, along with some fresh Motul RBF600 brake fluid.

Between Tegiwa and Opie Oils, I ordered this lot:

So along with MOT:

-Engine oil and filter change
-Radiator coolant change
-Brake fluid change and new rear brake lines
-Gearbox oil change

All done, and new rear brake lines fitted:

I've since waxoyled them to protect them and turn them black to blend in. I also removed the crusty rear brake disc covers:

The car has since been in for its MOT, straight pass with no advisories

Next job on the list is replacing the front bumper undertray/splash guard, as half of mine is missing. Quick scout on ebay and I purchased this:

Along with a brand new set of clips to fit it. That's all for now

LGT19 · Oct 28, 2019

nice work dude!

jakabi · Oct 30, 2019

Coming along nicely fella, wish I was brave enough (and had the time) to take on an EP3

I'll be tackling some more rusty bits on mine in the new year.

Craig82 · Oct 31, 2019

jakabi said:
Coming along nicely fella, wish I was brave enough (and had the time) to take on an EP3 I'll be tackling some more rusty bits on mine in the new year.

Thanks mate, I still have a few odd bits and pieces still to do on it. Tackling rust on these cars will come about at some point, given they're all 13-18 years old! Nice to have it done for peace of mind though.

Mine only comes out of the garage one day a week, as that's when I need to use it, not because it's a garage queen or anything, but should go a long way to preserve it. It's just such a fun/fantastic cheap daily to mess about with.

More bits to come

Craig82 · Nov 17, 2019

Quick update to bring the thread up to date!

Got my oil sandwich plate and oil temp sensor fitted:

I've also routed the sender wire routed into the cabin and it's just coiled up in the glovebox at the moment untill I get time to finish off the install of the Stack gauge.

The front undertray has now been changed for the good condition one. Old one off and compared to the new one:

The old one had about 2 knackered clips and a tie wrap holding it on

New one fully fitted with new clips:

Car still looking clean underneath considering it's nearly 15 years old!

Next I turned my attention to the rear lights and numberplate lights. I was never keen on the 'Fried egg' look of the rear indicators, so swapped them out for chrome bulbs to tidy them up. Before:

After:

I also removed the rear filament type number plate lights, cleaned the housings and metalwork behind them and fitted new LEDs:

I bought a new Sony headunit to replace the factory one, and noticed that 2 out of the 3 buttons under the stereo were not lit, so I figured I'd replace all the center console bulbs with LEDs. The finished article, Sony stereo, which sounds so much better than the old factory unit:

and the new center console LEDs:

And that's where we're at at the moment. More to come

sunday_driver · Nov 17, 2019

Craig82 said:
D

I really like this photo!

Nice attention to detail with the changes

Craig82 · Nov 18, 2019

sunday_driver said:
I really like this photo!

Nice attention to detail with the changes

Thanks mate, i'm a firm believer in 'it's the little things that make all the difference'.

That pic is of the car in its natural habitat, the garage! :lol:

Craig82 · Dec 8, 2019

When I had all the rear sills/arches welded up, it was noticed that the rubber seals between the side skirt and the bodywork were missing. It seems common for them to go crusty and come away from the skirts. I had some 20mm neoprene strip kicking around, so.....

I removed the skirts, and then noticed that a handful of the clips had seen better days, and most of the rubber seals missing. I bought a brand new set of clips and rubber gaskets off eBay.

Side skirt removed, cleaned, neoprene strip applied and all new clips, aside from the larger top back corner and black push clip, as these were different types, so I robbed a couple of rubber gaskets from some of the spare new clips and used them on these ones:

Prior to refitting the skirts, the sills behind them were cleaned and polished.

Next up, was finishing off the Stack gauge installation. I have never been keen on the silver center dash, but wanted to keep mine mint, so I bought a spare set of centre dash panels.

I got the dremel out and made the cigarette lighter socket big enough to fit the 52mm Stack gauge. Once that was all test fitted, and mini loom made up, I prepped and painted both panels gloss black and lacquered them.

I had to dremel the corner off the back of the top half of the dash panel to allow clearance of the gauge:

And got the lot fitted this morning, all working perfectly:

Not a massive fan of pods etc, and think this keeps in with the oem theme

That's it for now.

Ricki1985 · Dec 9, 2019

Great work, looking nice, if you don’t mind could you let me know the link off eBay for the side skirt clips as I need some new ones too. Thanks in advance,

Craig82 · Dec 9, 2019

Ricki1985 said:
Great work, looking nice, if you don’t mind could you let me know the link off eBay for the side skirt clips as I need some new ones too. Thanks in advance,

Thanks mate :smt023

As for the clips, these are the ones I bought:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20x-Hond...Moulding-Rocker-Cover-Trim-Clips/291532258944

I bought a 10 and a 20 pack.

Nidge76 · Dec 9, 2019

Looking great.

Can I ask how you removed the side skirts?

I had a bit of a go at mine earlier this year but they were so stuck I wasn't sure if I was trying to remove them correctly.

I was worried I was going to break something.

I still need to remove my rear arch liners as well so I dread to think what's behind it all!

Sent from my moto e(6) plus using Tapatalk

Craig82 · Dec 9, 2019

Nidge76 said:
Looking great.

Can I ask how you removed the side skirts?

I had a bit of a go at mine earlier this year but they were so stuck I wasn't sure if I was trying to remove them correctly.

I was worried I was going to break something.

I still need to remove my rear arch liners as well so I dread to think what's behind it all!

Sent from my moto e(6) plus using Tapatalk

Thanks mate

Sure, removal of side skirts is pretty easy, they can just be a bit stubborn!

1. There are 2 screws to remove in the front arch
2. There are 2 10mm black push clips to remove under the car (They go through the black brackets and clip into the sill)
3. This is the stubborn part, with the 2 screws and 2 clips removed, the side skirt is then pushed forward to allow it to slide off the clips. The clips can then be removed by twisting and pulling out of the bodywork. Aside from the black clip which is a simple pop clip that needs pulling out.

I dreaded removing my rear arch liners too, but thought "f**k it, committed now" :lol:

Hope that helps mate.

Nidge76 · Dec 9, 2019

That's very helpful. Thank you.

Think I need to have another go at it in the spring. I'm a fair weather kind of guy

Sent from my moto e(6) plus using Tapatalk

Craig82 · Dec 9, 2019

Nidge76 said:
That's very helpful. Thank you.

Think I need to have another go at it in the spring. I'm a fair weather kind of guy

Sent from my moto e(6) plus using Tapatalk

No prob mate, don't blame you, I removed my side skirts with frost on the ground. Couldn't feel my fingers :lol:

Only reason I wanted to get it done was to stop water and crap getting into my inner sills, given that my skirt seals were missing and hardly any of the clips had seals otherwise I'd have waited till warmer temps! :lol:

Craig82 · Dec 26, 2019

I did a bit more work on the wiring for the gauge, more of a tidy up behind the dash. I used the hazard switch illumination to also feed the Stack gauge illumination, and wanted it to look smart behind the dash panel. I used some 10mm black conduit to encase all the wiring, then wrapped it in Tesa loom tape:

Happy enough with it now:

And all back together and working perfectly:

Next up I focused my attention on the wheels. It's bugged me since buying the Evo 8 wheels, they didn't come with the centre caps, so I measured up and went on the lookout. Ideally I wanted the genuine Mitsubishi ones, but couldn't find any. I tried a couple of aftermarket sets that didn't fit, then came across these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292390596882

I test fitted them, and they fit perfectly

I prepped and painted them gloss white and bought some red H decals for them, and they turned out like this:

And fitted to the wheels:

pretty happy with the result, better than them missing!

That's it for now, although I keep playing with the idea of some premier edition or DC5 Recaro seats, but don't actually mind the stock Type R seats