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Cosmic Grey 2005 EP3 Civic Type R

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267
Now then, thought I'd get signed up here and create a thread on the current car. Never owned a Honda before, so this is my first one.

Bought exactly a year ago, a 2005 Cosmic grey EP3.

Pictures from the day I purchased it:

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When I bought it, it had some cheap non standard floor mats fitted:

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First thing I did was to replace these with new genuine Type R mats and retaining bracket.

rear one piece mat fitted:

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Passenger mat:

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And finally, the driver's mat. This car (I don't think) has ever had a retaining bracket fitted. The flap in the carpet was uncut, and there was no plastic insert for the screw to hold the bracket to the chassis.

Bracket fitted:

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And finally, drivers mat fitted. No more mat slipping under the pedals!

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Next, a few more tidying up bits:

First up, the red 'R' on the boot lid had seen better days:

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I found on ebay, laser cut vinyl inserts for the badge for a couple of quid, so got one ordered. Cleaned the 'R' and got the sticker applied. Much better:

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Next, I turned my attention to the stock gearknob, which over 13 years, had been scratched by rings etc. I ordered a D1 spec replacement, which is almost identical, but smoked chrome. Old vs new:

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New gearknob fitted has really smartened up the interior:

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Nice and weighty at 350g, it's nice to drive with.

And finally, a replacement K&N air box filter:

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Air box dismantled, old filter removed and old vs new:

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Yes, the old filter came out with leaves stuck to it!

Removed a few leaves from the airbox and fitted the K&N:

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I gave the air box lid a clean while it was off the car. And all back together:

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Next, I bought a new intake hose:

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and mikalor T clamps. I had to trim the hose slightly for a perfect fit. I have also replaced 8 x rusty 10mm bolts with D1 spec ally allen fasteners:

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All copper slipped.

I also replaced the rusty battery brace with a new one. Lastly with the engine bay, was a clean and polish. Looking much better!

Before:

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After:

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I have also replaced all 4 drop links, rear arb bushes and removed the rusty rear arb bracket bolts and replaced with new ones.

I also bought a non resonated mid pipe and 200 cel sports cat:

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While the car was in the air on the ramps, it was discovered that the osr caliper is binding and the nsf CV boot was split.

So I bought a set of Brembo rear discs, Brembo rear pads, new caliper and CV boot:

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The car now has a full set of Brembo discs and pads on the rear, along with a new osr caliper to replace the knackered binding one:

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Also fitted new ARB bushes front and rear.

Since the rear brakes were sorted, I purchased a brand new Scorpion back box to complete my set up:

-Sports cat
-Non resonated mid pipe
-Scorpion back box

Next up was fitting the exhaust.

Car up in the air again:

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Exhaust, what an absolute b*stard! All bolts snapped. Mid pipe and cat came off as one, as the bolts between the 2 were rusted solid. The bolts holding the cat to the manifold snapped, and as they were captive nuts, required drilling out.

A few drill bits later, victory! Knocked off the captive nuts and used stainless nuts and bolts on the cat to mani.
Non resonated mid pipe required bending slightly to give clearance from the floor of the car, and additional modification to the rear hangers required. Scorpion back box fitted, with everything lining up perfectly and enough clearance. New bolts and gaskets fitted through out to complete.

Also Added a 90 degree post cat o2 spacer to prevent the engine management light coming on.

Cat and non-res mid pipe fitted:

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Scorpion back box fitted:

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Sounds quiet on tick over but lovely tone when accelerating.

In addition to the above, valve clearances were all checked:

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All bang on tolerance.

Finally, a couple of pics from a run out:

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Next up, suspension. Bought this lot:

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New Eibach Pro springs
New Eibach front camber bolts
New adjustable rear camber arms
2 new track rod ends (nsf is knocking)

The car has since had a full laser alignment. Perfect.

I heard talk of the pollen filters on these cars getting forgotten about and being manky. So I ordered a pair and changed them.

The old ones were both upside down too.

New vs old:

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Much needed change!

Few pics from a drive out after suspension/set up all sorted

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Few more updates to come later...
 
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look9ng better than the 2.slow :p
:asw:

:lol:

Ah, the 2.slow.....

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:D

Few more updates to the car. The interior door grab handle trims had seen better days, and the driver's side had been brush painted silver :rolleyes:

I popped them off, prepped and painted them gloss black and refitted them:

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Much better.

Next, I turned my attention to the wheels, which had seen better days. I rubbed them down, prepped and painted them gloss black too, along with new red centre cap decals:

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This was short lived though, as some Evo 8 wheels became available, and being the perfect set up on an EP3 ( 17x8 ET38 ), I bought them:

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They'd seen better days, but once I'd removed the battered stickers, touched in a few marks, T cut and polished them, they came up alright:

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Following that, I bought new flat seat nuts and locking nuts, 67 -> 64mm spigot rings and new 215/45/17 tyres.

They're now fitted to the car. Happy enough with the results:

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They sit nice and flush too:

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And that's where we're at. :D
 
Looks good man, you going to keep them white or ?

Thanks mate, I was originally going to have them refurbished gunmetal grey or TE37 style bronze. But when they turned up, they were too good to refurbish, so I just cleaned them up and fitted them as I got them.

Happy enough with the white (for now :lol:)

I love the fit of the Evo 8 wheels on an EP3 though, they're just perfect in terms of fitment and being flush with the arches :cool:
 
Slight update....

Thanks to Mook, the car is now sporting a club sticker:

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Thanks mate :)

Next I took to the spare wheel well with Kurust. Wasn't that bad at all really, just a few surface rust patches. Once cured, painted up with Hammerite. All protected. No pics, as a spare wheel well isn't very exciting :lol:

Next up, after my mate on here Pistol Pete fitted a K&N Typhoon induction kit to his EP3, and wouldn't shut up about how awesome it sounded :lol: I kept a look out. An AEM induction kit came up on eBay, so I bought it:

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It needed a new filter and general 'tarting' up.

When I got it, I ordered a new 90mm Pipercross filter and 76mm silicon inlet hose. I also removed the 'Jap Performance parts" sticker, touched in the patch where the paint had come off and cleaned up the induction pipe. All done, and ready to fit:

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Standard airbox removed:

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AEM installed:

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The induction noise of this thing in VTEC sounds epic :smt005

And that's it for now, I'm sure there'll be more to come....;)
 
Awesome read, it's really nice to see an EP3 being taken care of properly. Now that I have a JDM rear anti roll bar and a front strut brace, on the long run, I am considering getting the same springs, camber bolts and camber arms, then FRSU. What's you experience with these? Do they really make a big difference?
 
Looking really good mate. Some good progress photos. :D

Awesome read, it's really nice to see an EP3 being taken care of properly. Now that I have a JDM rear anti roll bar and a front strut brace, on the long run, I am considering getting the same springs, camber bolts and camber arms, then FRSU. What's you experience with these? Do they really make a big difference?

Thanks gents, appreciate the comments! Currently on with another side project (only a small tidy up one, but should make all the difference!). Anything to keep me busy! :D

Vitka, FRSU makes all the difference! Car feels really planted! JDM 22mm rear ARB is on my list! :D
 
So, a common issue on these cars (and one that's annoyed me for a while), is the peeling chrome from the handbrake cover. I'm not a fan of the aftermarket gaiters etc, so wanted to refurbish the handbrake cover, whilst keeping it looking oem....

I removed the centre console that surrounds the handbrake lever, and found the screw missing from the passenger side :rolleyes:

Anyway, centre console removed, along with handbrake cover. How crap does this look?

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I had some various grades of wet and dry sandpaper, plastic primer, gloss black paint and lacquer, so...

Masked up the rubber handbrake grip to avoid catching it with the sandpaper, and proceeded to flat off the offended peeling chrome surround. Once prepped, primed, painted and lacquered, it looked like this:

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Much better!

I measured up the original remaining screw on the drivers side for securing the centre console handbrake surround and ordered some black M5 screws and M6 washers. Once the lacquer was dry/hard, I used Autoglym dash care on the console and the handbrake cover. Fluff/dust/grime over 14 years removed!

All nice and clean and ready to be refitted:

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I used Autoglym dash care on the rest of the internal plastics, and hoovered the car out before refitting the handbrake cover and centre console.

Refitted with brand new screws and washers, looking clean and oem:

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:cool:

And a few pics of the rest of the interior all plastics cleaned, and car hoovered:

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Thought I'd also use some Autoglym leather restore on the steering wheel, along with Autoglym dash car on the centre horn pad. It came out looking fresh :D

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And that's it for now :D
 
Your Cars looking lovely. Interior touches look ace. How does it run after fitting a sports cat? Does it make it much louder?
 
Your Cars looking lovely. Interior touches look ace. How does it run after fitting a sports cat? Does it make it much louder?

Thanks man - comments appreciated! :D

Regarding the sports cat, not sure. Went from full stock exhaust to sports cat and non resonated Scorpion exhaust. It's not overly loud, just a nice tone. Great for driving around normally, then sounds fantastic on acceleration/vtec :twisted:
 
Looking smart, it is the little things that count.

Personalisation rather than modification.
 
Well, after hearing a lot about the "nasty facelift rear carpet arch liners" and associated rot, I decided to pull mine out. On doing so, a full dust pan of crap came out of both sides :eek:

It looked like it had seen better days, so I had a poke around with a screw driver and wire wheel....

passenger side:

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Driver side:

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oh dear :(

Well, best get on with it! :lol:

I had the rot cut out as far back as the metal was contaminated:

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and fresh metal welded in & sill profiled to join up to the rear arch lip:

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The factory metalwork back there is so thin it's unbelievable! Not anymore! :cool:

I only have pictures of the driver side, but talking to my guy,it was exactly the same story on the passenger side. Both sides have been completed and protected with Schulz.

When I get the car back, I'm going to finish it off and waxoyl the whole rear arch on both sides.

Another job done, and should preserve the car a bit longer! :D
 
After picking the car up, into my garage it went, wheels off and got the waxoyl out...

Both rear arches all waxoyled now, and looking new :cool:

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Big thanks to YVS for sorting the welding, top job! :smt023
 
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