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I'll address the reason for the blog being so slowing down to a screeching halt in a later post.

Some of you may know the 89 Civic Wagon RT4wd was involved in an accident a while ago when it was parked in front of Backyard Joe's house. The night this car got hit, our secret 96 Civic Coupe was also totaled at the same time, more on that in a follow-up post as well, maybe. Whatever the case, I've been slowly taking steps to get the thing back into good condition.

As most of you should know, when you bring the car closer to the ground (lowering), you run the risk of the things on the bottom of the car coming in contact with the pavement more often. The wagon get's driven daily and although it is low, it gets driven pretty hard. This style of behavior eventually caused an exhaust leak in the system. Tired of hearing the wife point out all the extra sounds coming from under the vehicle, it became time to get it taken care of. I've been passing this Lyon's Muffler for years, always reminding myself that I wanted to check them out one of these days. For this repair there would be no better opportunity to make a visit.

Service was great! They listened to what I wanted to do, gave me a quote on the work and we were on the rack as soon as the previous customers vehicle was done. We evaluated the damage and came up with a plan.

The wagon has a stock SOHC motor, so the small pea shooter exhaust to keep it efficient and quiet was the plan. I know you guys wanted to see a 3inch system and my parts list for boosting it, but not this time...

Most places will just hack all your flanges and leave you with a system you can't remove on your own. I learned that lesson about fifteen years ago at a different place… Lyon's had no problem taking care of it the right way.

All done and ready to rock, took about an hour to get it all buttoned up. This purring now!

Silviachicka here!

It’s been a minute since I talked about my car. I was so eager to share my experience in Japan that I didn’t bother updating everyone on my coupe. Well a lot has happened since I last posted about it…a lot.

As mentioned before it needed an engine. I looked for a dual cam KA for a long time with no luck. My second option was SR, I was able to find one at a reasonable price. This wasn’t our first rodeo with swaps. The SR I picked up was the nicest one of all the options I had. Upon arriving, the engine was out of the front clip. I noticed it had an HKS boost actuator and solid motor mounts. That had me a bit worried because that meant whoever the previous owner was knew what they had and could possible be a worn out engine. Well we did the swap and I drove it around just to make sure stuff was "good to go". Turns out, I’ve actually been driving it around for awhile and even had a private track day and had no issues already! The engine runs great, feels, and sounds very healthy! As you can imagine I’m pretty stoked.

We're not all photographers like Mr. ALTV, so please don't mind the "rawness".

Here are some pics:

Front clip.

Taking her home.

The fastback was turned into a storage during the swap.

Bye-bye to the old hunk of metal that was resting in there.

Engine is in :)

Pretty tired, even with the help of friends. I sat back for a couple minutes just to look at it… It's amazing how far a little progress can make you feel!

Shake down session at a private track day

My second purchase for the car after my engine swap was suspension. We've had Apexi N1 on two of our S Chassis, one of them having them for 8 years and no problems. Really like the quality and the way they handle so I decided to run Apexi N1's on this coupe as well. It's important to do some research before making a "big" purchase like that. People think it's ok to cheap out on parts and if that's what they want to do that's fine but don't cheap out on something that is pretty important such as your suspension. I've seen post's about people buying cheap knockoffs and end up causing more damage to the car than just a snapped coilover. Anyways, the install was fast and easy. I've installed these on my last coupe so it was a walk in the park.

My car originally had a Heads Up Display and Digital Cluster often referred to HUD however , the previous owner removed the digital cluster and replaced it with an analog cluster. Personally I prefer the HUD and Digital Cluster and so i’ve been on the hunt for a digital cluster. I seriously went through about 3 different cluster before actually finding one that worked. It was well worth it though because it looks sexy at night and totally complements my Defi boost gauge ;) Installing the clusters wasn’t hard at all but it was a big pain in the butt having done it 3 times back to back haha. Nothing is more comforting than hearing “Now be careful and watch your face, when you are removing the steering column bolts, it drops kinda fast”

Cellphone lighting for hard to reach places.

Fingers crossed it works.

3 times a charm! Doesn't it look great?

Finally I got around to installing my boost gauge! I’ve never worked with wiring and it seems complicated and a bit of a headache. Normally I’m like “Screw it, teach me” but this SoCal heat had me thinking, maybe i’ll just take notes this time around. We knocked out 2 birds with one stone (I do not condone the harming of animals) while my friend Elvis did my gauge install, my boyfriend Mo helped me install my OS Giken 2 way diff. A little side story about my diff, I contacted a shop to purchase and install my diff and they were trying to charge me $700 for installation! Unbelievable!! Be careful guys and gals…shop around before forking out your hard earned money. On that note, shout out to Raceline USA in Temple City for installing my diff and being able to sell me my diff at a fraction of that that other place was trying to charge me.

Elvis taking care of the wiring.

The finished product.

People don't believe me when I say this car had dirt/grime caked on it. Take a look for yourself.

My boyfriend helping install the diff. I tried and it was just too damn heavy.

5 Lug Swap! YES! 5 lug swap means more wheel choices, wahoo! I decided to go with ISIS Performance 5 lug hubs. The install was easy…in theory haha. So the hardest part of the swap was getting my OEM hubs off the car, such a pain in the butt! Rented a slide hammer from Autozone and went to town on those breezes. Besides that it was relatively easy! The hubs have taken a few beatings, so far I have no complains!

Having done my 5 lug swap I had to put my mesh wheels on, finally! Rocking some Skunk2 Aluminum Lug Nuts. Skunk2 lug nuts are super light and nice finish.

I also got Silvia trunk lock but I will not be installing that until my coupe gets paint. So for now, it collects dust.

I’ve been following this drift team for quite some time now they go by MCR Factory or Mind Control. If you haven’t heard of them youtube them real quick and prepare to be blown away. Super rad skills and unique “clean” chassis. They make these beautiful valve covers that i’ve been itching to have for myself. I finally decided to reach out the the email on their website not knowing i’d be speaking to Masashi Yokoi himself. We spoke for a few weeks before finally sending payment and finalizing the order. Yokoi competes here in Formula D (his first season) and over seas so there were major time differences between us. That meant he would respond at around 2 a.m. and I woke my butt of to respond because I didn’t want to lose time and get my valve cover asap. It was well worth it! Great customer service despite the language barrier and great quality.

This is it for now, I got a paint quote so now I have a dollar figure to save up for. No more Silvia front end collecting dust in my room. Till next time everybody!