victor.m's 94 EJ1 build

Well, here's my '94 EJ1. Got it about a month ago, and started working on it slowly. It had a few things wrong with it, so I've started to slowly take care of them. It also has a JDM D15B SOHC VTEC in there, so it's what I'm gonna be working with until I get a B16 swap.

What I've done so far:

- Fixed the driver side lock; got a whole new assembly as the old one had a rod broken off and had one of the rod connectors busted

- Found a 12v cig lighter cap, it was missing one so I picked it up at the junkyard

- Fixed the passenger side power window switch..the switch would open the window but not close it, got one at the junkyard and now it works a charm

- New gas cap, again courtesy of junkyard - the "Honda Motor Co."
and "CAUTION OPEN SLOWLY" was faded on my old one. New one looks nice and slick.

- Junkyard to the rescue once more, gut new hoses for my windshield washers - previous one was busted. Works very nice now, have some nice windshield washing fluid in there too instead of just water.

- The valve cover. Ripped one off a D15B at the junkyard (not enough experience to take the whole motor and couldn't test it to know if it was good, I wish I could've just taken the whole thing though) and got working with a friend to get it nice and polished, then painted. Pics will show.

- Yellow ricer H's came off; got brand new stock H's for the front and back. Looking a lot nicer =)

- Shinier oil cap, just regular stock black one.

- AEM Short Ram Intake..I know, it's no CAI, but I'm in Florida and when the flooding gets going, the CAI turns out to be a bad idea.

- Small little detail but the passenger side seat was missing the rubber cover on the back handle to push the seat up. Got that at the junkyard. I like to pay attention to these little details

- Kenwood speakers for the front and back; 140W Peak/28 RMS for the front (5.25") and 160W Peak/32 RMS for the back (6.5"). It's no Infinity but ALL the speakers were blown when I got the car, so it'll do for now. $80 for all 4 at my local pepboys, it was an impulse buy.

SO, as an intermission, lets go on to some pictures!

Here's my baby (needs some body work here and there as can be noticed):


Look at that terrible yellow H...what were they thinking?!


Pretty big dent on the driver-side door there. I know, I need new rims. Badly. I'm working on it.


Again, the yellow H kills me. Glad it's off now.


Psht, my EJ1 TRYING to be all sexy.

Now, here's the engine bay BEFORE my new valve cover:

Break fluid was low..got it replenished.

Here's the new valve cover...

Before:



After:







If anyone wants to see the whole photostream of my friend and I polishing+painting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victorm/sets/72157603884802468/

And also, ta-da, the new H's!

Front:


Back:


My friend's '06 Eclipse GS in the back there..psht. He has nothing on me ;p

So I think that's all the pics..for now. Here are the things I have planned for the near future:

- Cat converter. Need one pretty badly, my car sounds like a mad bumblebee when I rev it. Really sucks, and besides, it's pretty illegal not to have one (I blame the previous owner).
- Fix up all the small dents, and especially the door dent. Want my body smooth again, I'm having a bodyshop do it as I'm not sure how well I could do it myself and don't want to mess with my car's body.
- H/E, already took car of I. Definietely need something nicer in that department. Thinking GReddy SUS headers / EVO2 Catback exhaust. Opinions?

- Then we'll see where it goes from there..can't plan too far ahead ;p

So there you go! Hopefully I'll be able to show some decent progress up until summer =)

 

nice work so far, any plans on wheels? btw, AEM makes an air bypass valve for it's CAIs so water doesnt ruin things . and welcome to jdmchat!

 

Thanks =) I actually really wanted to find HX 8-spoke rims and paint them black, but I hear they're pretty hard to find..waiting for them to come by. Would they fit my EX? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated though, I really want dark rims, either black or gunmetal is what I'm after. I'd LIKE to keep it OEM, hence why I wish I could find some HX rims - but I'm still far from getting 'em so I'll be looking at whatever I can find =)

And about the bypass valve, I heard that even with a bypass valve it's a bit risky with the kind of flooding we get in Florida. Would it really be ok to run a CAI with the bypass valve and not have to worry about getting any water in my engine?

thanks for the welcome, I was inspired to post by JussHatched's EJ1 thread

edit: btw, the '06-08 Si Sedans are mad sexy. Saw one in nighthawk black pearl the other day at the dealership; if I had the money I'd pick one up to be my daily driver and keep my EJ1 as just a project car

 

haha thanks on the FA5 comment! its a fun car. and yes any wheels from a civic until the 06' model year will fit (except for the 04/05 Si). as for the CAI, hey the SRI should be good enough until you swap in a B16

 

welcome to JDMChat! you sound like you've been busy! loL! definatly going in the right direction! as far as paying attention to all the little things, thats exactly how i was with my old CRX. if something was wrong, even the smallest thing, it really bothered me! and i got alot of compliments on how nice everything was. you'll prolly get the same comps if you keep it up! you'll be very pop around here if you keep posting pics like these all the time!!! lol! we're pic whores around here!

 

Wow so I guess I have a wide array of rim choices. Anyone know where I can find HX rims? But yah the FA5 is really nice, 'gratz =)

And yah I've definitely been keeping busy! I'm about to get my gauge and climate control lighting red, just got all my #24 and #74 bulbs and I'm gonna paint them soon and put them in, I'll let you guys know how it turns out, and of course, pictures . But yes I'm a perfectionist so I have to have everything down to the last details looking perfect. Here are a few pics of the relatively clean interior, need to scrub down the fabric soon but it's in really good shape (also overdue for a nice vaccuming but I'll get to that eventually):





And here are my bulbs, gotta go get some Testor's race track orange paint for 'em now:



I'll update you guys as soon as they're painted/installed.

 

I did the same thing with the amber gauges a little while ago. I just used an orange sharpie though Anyways let us know how it turns out.

 

oh yeah, swap in a 5 speed

 

How much would a 5spd manual tranny cost me? And what would I need to get the car converted from auto to manual aside from bolting on the new tranny? I'm afraid of messing something up with such a big project, lol, but I'd love to get it done. I'm thinking something would have to be done to the ECU, and would VTEC and my cruise control still work?

Anyways, the gauges came out pretty nice, but a bit dimmer than I'd like..gonna have to find out something else to make them brigther. I think using an orange sharpie would make a more transparent coat and give a better effect. I wish I could show pics but my crappy camera phone won't capture the red lights, so I'll have to wait 'til I can use my friend's camera tomorrow.

EDIT!: WOW DO I FEEL STUPID! My dimmer was all the way to the bottom, and that's why my cluster was dim! I just cranked it up and now it's AWESOME. Loving the red! Here's a pic, but my crappy camera phone doesn't do it justice. I'll take better pics with my friend's DSLR tomorrow when I'm visiting him to show him this. Here it is: