Smithy's 2002 EP3 build so far

[Smithy CTR]

Hi Guys,

been meaning to post up my progress on my CTR for months now finally doing it! This is my first post so bear with me.

I bought the car completely standard the only modification was a magic tree airfreshener which flew out the window on the way home from picking it up. The mileage was 70k with two previous ownwers and most of the service history. I will start with a few pics as it was when i first picked her up

Obviously it needed a major clean up so first thing was a good clay bar and waxing

After a good clean up the interior was the next step, 6 hours of valeting managed to bring the fabric inside back to life

After driving the car for a while i totally fell in love with it and decided to take it to the next step, so i wrote a list of everything i hated about and fixed it. I took a load of photos but these are the bits i really didnt like

The only solution to this was a full respray and lots of TLC and a few Mods here and there- here we go!!!!

Lets go for a wild colour

After hours of hard thinking i wanted to do something different with my interior panels and engine covers, lucky for me my friend has just started to do carbon dipping. Hope you guys like the outcome?

Now time to build the car...

After allot of hard work and £ i wanted to show the car off so ventured up to Silverstone for the Trax show, here's some more photos from the day and i was very impressed with the attention it got

At this point now i just wanted to put more and more work into it so i decided on a few mods. Iv recently fitted 30MM Eibach pro kit springs, 15MM Eibach wheel spacers front and rear and a HKS High Power Silent cat back system. Heres a pic of the exhaust... it aint small

Finally to finish the car off i had to get a private number plate to hide the age a bit

Thanks for taking the time to read all this, i know there's allot of pics but i had so many so i chose the ones that i thought would show the story best. I would appreciate any comments whether it be positive or negative as i know this style wouldn't be everyone's taste. I still have a lot more ideas for this and will carry on boring everyone with more pictures.

List of Mods-

-Tegiwa Induction
-HKS High Power Silent System (cat back)
-15mm Eibach wheel spacers
-30mm Eibach Pro kit lowering springs
-Uprated Engine Mount
-Tinted windows
-Custom Carbon Fibre engine/interior panels
-Smoked headlights
-Gloss Black calipers
-Tinted rear lamps
-Milano Red painted wheels
-Xenon HID headlamp conversion 6k

 

[tom83]

That looks spot on. I like the Carbon Dipping in the engine bay and dash.

Top work

 

[Jamesstone]

Looks like you've put some serious hours in there, good work

 

[dazzawest]

the carbon dipping looks good, especially the rocker cover. we've had a few bits done at work looks cool. might get my dash done aswell in the normal carbon effect.
all the time and effort looks to have paid off, looks really smart.

 

[dazzawest]

red intake pipe will finish that engine bay off nicely

 

[howie1987]

Very nice mate, much did it cost for the respray?

 

[Smithy CTR]

Thanks for good feedback I still need to do a few more bits to the engine bay, I'm contemplating upgrading to the RBC manifold and painting it gloss black along with the fan belt mount and anything else I can get to its just finding the time. The paint job itself was done by a friend so got major mates rates although we both spent loads of time doing it, also I wanted to put this together myself so I appreciated more. The carbon dipping however was done by someone else local to me and he's very good at stuff like that, some of the styles he can do are amazing and can carbon or pattern anything even silicone hoses.

 

[Smithy CTR]

Thanks for good feedback I still need to do a few more bits to the engine bay, I'm contemplating upgrading to the RBC manifold and painting it gloss black along with the fan belt mount and anything else I can get to its just finding the time. The paint job itself was done by a friend so got major mates rates although we both spent loads of time doing it, also I wanted to put this together myself so I appreciated more. The carbon dipping however was done by someone else local to me and he's very good at stuff like that, some of the styles he can do are amazing and can carbon or pattern anything even silicone hoses.

also need to change my avatar picture to something more recent

 

[suggs_84]

That is very smart chap, a very bold choice with the wheels

 

[Smithy CTR]

That is very smart chap, a very bold choice with the wheels

Thanks Suggs, yeah the wheels were a dangerous move, mixed opinions on the colour but mainly good. I have just bought a set of Evo Enkei rims, need new lug nuts and spigot rings and deciding on tyre size as they have 235/45/17s on (tractor treads) I can't decide whether to go 215/40/17 or 215/45/17? But the wheels will be painted Shadow Chrome

 

[suggs_84]

Yeah the Evo wheels are awesome aint they, if I was to ever change my wheels it would be for a set of them!

 

[Smithy CTR]

Yeah mate I'm hoping they turn out well, gonna cost me a few quid though £100 a corner plus refurbishment I'm looking at about £540ish, gonna have to sell my OEM wheels to help compensate me but nothing good ever comes free

 

[suggs_84]

Oh yeah, be worth it in the end!

 

[Jamesstone]

Shadow chrome is a good wheel colour choice, Audi if I remeber correctly? Want to do my Evo 8 wheels the same colour!

 

[Smithy CTR]

I've only ever really seen Shadow Chrome done on BMWs, my old man had that colour on his M3. Not seen Evo rims in that colour so wanted to be a bit different also got a few styling ideas for the logos

 

[Smithy CTR]

So what size tires do i get for my Evo Enkei's? After 3 days of buggering around with different size tyres i have finally concluded what size i am going to use. I will put up pictures showing you what the outcome of what the 3 choices look like. I am currently sitting on 30mm Eibach springs and 15mm Eibach spacers and wanted to replace the original wheels with the Evo Enkei rims but my main goal was to reduce the amount of space in the wheel arch from my OEM whels which are currently sitting on 205/40/17s.
First up is a 215/40/17

As you can see there is still a massive gap between the roof of the arch and the top of the tyre, this wouldn't be so bad if i lowered it more but not spending another £180 on more springs and scraping my exhaust on speed bumps more than it already is .
So i went on the hunt for a old 215/45/17

So now you can see the space has been consumed by the tyre and while doing what i wanted it, it now looks like a beach buggy :evil: and yes it did rub over speed bumps. At this point i was really losing interest in changing more tyres on my lunch break but persistance is the key.
Finally i found an old 205/45/17 this was my last option as i was running out of sizes

Finally a size i was happy with although there is still a gap i just faced the fact that the CTR wheel arches were just made to wide for 17" wheels and unless your willing to ride on the floor you wont escape the gap look. What i like most about this size on the Enkei rim is that the sidewalls stretch out to seal the bead giving it a sporty look while keeping some height on the tire. Word of advice if you do get these wheels and fit 205/45/17s i suggest get tyres with rim protectors especially if you use your Honda as a daily like me, nothing worse than getting wheels refurbed then curb grinding.

Now i know what size tyres to get just a matter of getting a balance between quality and price . As for refurbishment plans i am looking to get these done in Candy Red, this colour below

Again this is a colour some may like and some may hate but i like the wild JDM style and wanna make the most of it before i get too old haha. I will post more pictures up once the wheels are painted and the new tyres are on. Hope this post was useful to some people

 

[joe1141]

hi buddy can i say your EP3 looks stunning, i am thinking of getting a HKS Hi power exhaust, i was just wondering if you get get a picture of the back of the car so i can see what its like, also do you have a contact for your mate who does the carbon dipping as im very intrested in getting some interior parts dipped as well

 

[Smithy CTR]

hi buddy can i say your EP3 looks stunning, i am thinking of getting a HKS Hi power exhaust, i was just wondering if you get get a picture of the back of the car so i can see what its like, also do you have a contact for your mate who does the carbon dipping as im very intrested in getting some interior parts dipped as well

Thanks Joe, I am just about to head off to work to clean the civic so I will take some photos of the exhaust so you can get a better look. As for the Carbon Dipping I will post a link for his website when I get on the PC later, he can do various Styles not just Carbon but you can see for yourself

 

[joe1141]

Thanks Joe, I am just about to head off to work to clean the civic so I will take some photos of the exhaust so you can get a better look. As for the Carbon Dipping I will post a link for his website when I get on the PC later, he can do various Styles not just Carbon but you can see for yourself

Hi buddy thanks mate and yeah I've looked into dipping quiet a bit and I think all the stuff they do is amazing

 

[You Jay]

Great looking car mate.

I like the carbon dipped parts.