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06 Civic Performance and Audio Build - Cleaned up!

Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 8:36:48 AM PST

So, due to some issues with the other build and some things in there that made it a mess, I've decided to start fresh here.

Here's the deal, this is an audio AND PERFORMANCE build log. I don't just do auido in here, I do performance and other things as well. Now that we've cleared that up, let's get on with it.

I've decided to not put all the pics in here, however, I'll go through some of them. All the begining will have to do with performance. After that, I'll go to the audio portion. I've currently started building the audio portion of the project now.

Enjoy!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 8:42:26 AM PST

Here's a list of the Performance Mods and Misc Mods done thus far. I'll do the list, and then go through some pictures of what's been done.

Misc
Flip Key Mod Done June 2, 2011
Spenser Air Squash Air Freshener Done June 2, 2011 / Replaced August 20, 2011

Exterior
De-badged the Civic logo.
SI trunk with wing - (Have - needs install and carbon fiber vinyl)
OEM Fogs with Hella Projectors with 3000K Morimoto HID's - (Needs installed)
Morimoto Mini H1 Projectors with 5000K Morimoto HID's Done October 26, 2011
OEM Sidemarkers - Tinted Done October 23, 2011
Carbon Fiber Vinyl - Hood, Roof, Trunk, Wing (need vinyl)
Si Grill carbon fiber vinyled - Done March 7, 2011
HFP Lip Kit Carbon Fiber Vinyled - (Need)

Interior
Seat Reupholstering (needed)
Hybrid Racing Black Nickel Weighted Shift Knob Done March 8, 2011
Reupholstered center console arm rest Done - Don't remember date
Led dome lights Done - Don't remember date
Carbon Fiber Vinyled Shift Boot Frame - Done March 20, 2011
Reupholstered Shift Boot - Done March 20, 2011

Engine/Performance
Scan Gauge II in a custom pod Done October 23, 2011
Brand New OEM Shifter Cables - Done March 20, 2011
TWM Performance Short Shifter Adaptor Done March 8, 2011
Hybrid Racing Shifter Cable Bushings Done April 15, 2011
Hybrid Racing Shifter Base Bushings Done March 8, 2011
Hybrid Racing Radiator Hoses Done May 2, 2011
Injen CAI - Black Done March 20, 2011
P2R Throttle Body Spacer Done March 20, 2011
NST Pulleys (Need)
Weapon-R Engine Torque Damper (Need)
Megan Racing Header Done April 14, 2011 / Removed April 22, 2011
Megan Racing Downpipe Done June 29, 2011
Weapon-R Angled O2 Sensor CEL Eliminator Done April 14, 2011 / Removed April 22, 2011
Vibrant Catback Exhaust Done April 14, 2011 Welded center pipes together - Done June 20, 2011
Vibrant Bottle Resonator (Bought, needs to be welded on)
Flash Pro (Need)

Suspension
Buddy Club N+ Coilovers Done September 02, 2010
Buddy Club Rear Camber Arms Done September 02, 2010
Ingalls Front Camber Bolts Done September 02, 2010
Ingalls Front Camber Bolts (second set) Done 3/28/2011
Si Rear Sway Bar Done June 29, 2011
Hotchkis Endlinks (need)
P2R Lower Tie Bar Done September 17, 2011

Wheels and Tires
Re-Rolled rear fenders and got rid of about 98% of the rubbing issues.
Front fenders rolled Done September 17, 201
Varrstoen ES 2.2.2 18x8 Matte Black Done February 13, 2011
Maxxis Victra Tires 40 series (Current)

Falken Tires - 215/35/18 (Future)

Wilwood Brake Kit (black) (Way future.)
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 9:01:11 AM PST

Flip Key Mod:

What it was:

What it turned into

Pretty Basic!

Don't have much of the air freshener, it's pretty self explanatory.

De-badging and tinted tail lights:

Morimoto Mini H1 Projectors with 5000K Morimoto HID's:

Before with normal Halogen Bulbs, nokia yellow highs/drls and the OEM parking lights:

Projectors with HID's, cleared parking lights with chrome bulbs, same Nokia Yellow highs/drls, and Audi Style LED's under headlights and LED's in the grill, as well as OEM Fog lights:

Daytime Shots
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 9:08:47 AM PST

The shrouds on those are custom made by me. Fiber glassed, body filled, and hours and hours of sanding might I add! Primed, and painted black with High Heat VHT Matte Black! Here are only a few pics of those, cause there's hundreds!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 9:23:11 AM PST

For the OEM Sidemarkers, I had to make my own wire harnesses, cause I didn't want to buy some. These are them:

Next I tinted them:

Can't forget about my helper! You'll see her and my other daughter alot throughout the build!

Still shines!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 9:29:52 AM PST

Time to install!

This was EXTREMELY nerve wracking!

Really blends nicely!

Wire em up!

The wiring was cleaned up from this:

to this:

Forgot to add the pic with the black heat shrink!

Video:
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 9:46:51 AM PST

Si Grill carbon fiber vinyled:

Also Tinted the "Honda" logo:

Hybrid Racing Black Nickel Weighted Shift Knob:

Reupholstered center console arm rest

Carbon Fiber Vinyled Shift Boot Frame and Reupholstered Shift Boot (this needs to be redone badly):

Scan Gauge II in a custom pod:

Made a frame of ABS

Then, again, lots of sanding and filling!

Covered it with carbon fiber vinyl
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 9:58:45 AM PST

TWM Performance Short Shifter Adaptor
Hybrid Racing Shifter Cable Bushings
Hybrid Racing Shifter Base Bushings

Old on the left, new on the right

Cable Bushings

Shifter Bushings

Hybrid Racing Radiator Hoses

Injen CAI - Black:
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 10:11:29 AM PST

P2R Throttle Body Spacer:

Vibrant Catback Exhaust:
Old on the right, new shiny on the left!

WORST DESIGN FOR A CONNECTION EVER!!!!

My inspector!

Before Video:

After video:

Changes:
Painted the exhaust with VHT Heat Resistant Black

Not gonna do the Megan Racing Header cause I already took it off. WAAAAYYYYY too loud, and lost too much gas mileage for it. Gone!

Megan Racing Downpipe:
OEM on the left, Megan on the right

After video with Megan Downpipe and no Racing Header:
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 10:14:59 AM PST

Exhaust Fix:
I ripped this thing off like 4 times.

Got fed up and did this!

Also had some issues with the rear bushing not staying on cause I had to bend the bracket down in order for the exhaust tail not to hit the bumper. Fixed that with a ss screw and some washers and a nut! Sometimes you just need to be smarter than the part!

Vibrant Bottle Resonator:
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 10:41:12 AM PST

Buddy Club Rear Camber Arms
Buddy Club N+ Spec Dampers

Before Drop Front

After Drop Front

Ingals Front Camber Bolts (2 sets)
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 10:57:24 AM PST

Speed Bleeders and brake fluid flush:

Old and new

Just from the reservoir:

Painted calipers:
These were black, as you can see here:

But I decided to color match them to the car like everything else, like this:

Going to be changing them back to black, cause they look to much like stock with the color match paint. Looked much better black!

Si Rear Sway Bar:
Painted it to match the car

Old (black) and new

P2R Lower Tie Bar:
Also Painted to match the car

Varrstoen ES 2.2.2 18x8 Matte Black:

Old wheels - YUCK - trying to sell them btw!

New

Current Stance:

I'll get more pics soon of the current stance and overall look of the car.

So I think that's gonna about do it for the Performance Parts.

I still need to do a few things like the fog lights, the endlinks, and a few other things. I need a Flash Pro very soon so I can tune this thing, runs a little rough. But the next thing on the list is tires. I currently run a 225/40/18, and I'm going to drop down to a set of 215/35/18 Falken Tires.
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:01:10 AM PST

That brings me to the audio portion of the build! I just started that last weekend. I actually got started about a year ago with some stuff, but I'm going to hold off on showing that. I'll just update as I go along.

There are some things that I'm going to redo that I've done already, so those are the things that I'll just update when I get to them.

Here's a list of the equipment for the audio!

Audio (I have all this in hand, just need to do the install)
Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet
Octava HDMI Converter
Samsung 7" LED LCD with HDMI input x2
Knu Knoceptz HDMI cables - x3
Knu Konceptz Optical cables - x2
Hertz Mille ML280s Signature Tweeters
Hertz Mille ML700 3" Comp Mid Range
Hertz Mille ML1600 Mid Bass
Hertz High Energy HSK-165 Rear fill (passive)
Hertz High Energy HX300D subs (12"s dvc)
Audison Bit One.1 Processor
Audison LRx 4.1k (mid range and tweeters),
Audison LRx 2.9 (mid bass),
Audison LRx 2.4 (rear fill),
Audison LRx 1.1k x 2 (subs)
Stinger - Batteries (x3 SPP1200), H/O relay, Cables (1/0 Ga, 4ga, 8ga, speaker, other wires)
Audison Connection - distribution blocks, and all connections
Mechman 220 amp alternator
Zenesis auto start alarm with window up/down modules, and sunroof modules
AND A SHATLOAD OF OTHER LITTLE KNICKNACKS!!!!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:04:32 AM PST

Ok ladies and gents, and everyone else, I got some work done on the audio portion of the build this weekend. It wasn't nearly as much as I wanted to do but, as I've stated before, I have other responsibilities and they had to come first this weekend.

First things first, I FINALLY, got my car aligned properly. I decided that the Firestone by my house just couldn't do the job right. After two tries, I said F-em, I'll find another shop to go to. I was seriously regretting the lifetime alignment package there at this point. But I took it in on saturday, and told them I was in no hurry, take your time, just please get it done right. Went over every issue I had with it, and it was the manager that I was talking to.

Saturday afternoon the called me up and said we'll be done in about 20 minutes and we close at 6:00 so anytime before then it'll be ready for you to pick up. So I got up there not expecting much, to be honest, and I was absolutely wowed! It's beautiful! I could tell just by walking up on it, that it was fixed. Before you could tell that the driver side wheel top sunk in way further (about 3/8" per my measurements) than the passenger side. Now it's about perfect.

Drove it home and have no complaints. This place is about 20 minutes from my house but I'd happily drive another 20 for them to treat me the way they did! BIG UPS to them! Thanks!

Now, the audio. I mocked up my tablet a bit the other night, onto some 1/4" foam board. This is going to give me an idea about mounting and cutting on the dash bezel without actually having to use the tablet. Not a big deal.

I'll start working on that very soon!

However, with today being so nice I had to take advantage of the weather and get some work done in the trunk! Not really having a design for the sub enclosure yet, I'm still mulling over some designs for that, I decided I needed to get some progress made on the rear deck amp rack. So, that's what I worked on.

So a few months back, or a month, or however the hell long ago it was, I made a mock up of the area under the rear deck for this amp rack. So I started with that mock up of foam board, and some 1/2" birch ply wood.

Got out the Ridgid (FTW) circular saw and the jig saw and went to work on my first board.

Got out the amp mock ups from last year, FINALLY get to use these! Then did a little set up to see what kind of room I ended up with.

Then I got out the real deal baby! Audison LRx 2.4 and LRx 2.9! Mmmmmmmm sexay!

Ya those are gonna look good there!

This post was edited by Scooter Carver at November 8, 2011 11:08:45 AM PST
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:08:21 AM PST

So with those bad boys in there I knew I was going to need something pretty stout to hold up to the weight. These are what I came up with. 14" Heavy Duty Drawer Slides from Home Depot, courtesy of the hardware department.

So I did some more measuring and calculating and decided I need 4 panels. Two for the actual drawer, and two for the frame. So at this point I had my first panel done, I just needed to copy it three more times. So I cut out three pieces to copy.

OH YA, NEW TOOLS FTW!! Bought this a couple months ago, and finally get to use it!

Then I got to routering.

Now I needed to cut two of them down by a half inch to account for the rail slide thickness.

This post was edited by Scooter Carver at November 8, 2011 11:10:23 AM PST
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:13:29 AM PST

Double checking my arrangements and calculations. And time to build the walls. I wanted to do this in a way that I could incorporate my final design and have it tight against the amps. So I had to do some serious calculations on this. Took me a few times of measuring and remeasuring and measuring again! But I got it.

That was all dry fitted in place. Nothing attached at this point. I looked at it a few more times, and with the design and the way the amps sit, etc., I had to get the wires in there and at the same time, make it look neat. My original thought was to cut out some really big arches , or two, leaving two inches on either side and two inches in the center to attach the wall. But then I got to thinking, and the only thing going in here are going to be two amps and maybe some leds. I don't need that much cut out, and with this being half inch, I need as much structural as I can get. So I decided on a couple of 1 1/2" cut outs on either end and in the middle. The RCA's will go through the center, and the power and ground through the outer cut outs.

If you're thinking wire management, and WTF, cause that's going to not look clean and tidy, well don't fret! It will look clean and balanced cause these amps can be rotated. The center part (grey) with the led audison logo, rotates and that allows you to put them in any direction! WINNING!

Ok lets put it together. Glue, and nails!

Time for the amp cutouts for the top plate! 2.4 done!

2.9 done!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:20:03 AM PST

Traced the cutouts on the base plate so that I can make sure they all line up!

So here's where I hit my first hiccup. I did not like the way these set up. I'll explain in a moment. Here are some more test fittings.

Now it's time to put the walls on the base plate.

So with the walls and the base done, I decided it was time to do a little experimenting! I don't want just square cut outs. Well the cutouts aren't square, they have rounded corners, but what I mean is a square cut into the wood. I either wanted a rounded edge or a 45 degree edge. I think the 45 degree edge is what I want to go with most. Router time!

Left, square, right, 45ed

Now this is what I'm unhappy with. As you can see, there's a huge gap between the edge and the amp. It's not cause of the 45, it's cause of my miscalculations. So what I did was traced out the amp on the base. Base of the amp that is. What I didn't pay attention to, was that the amp itself, tapers at the top portion of it. Then it rounds in, and creates a lip. Well all this falls into play with my wall raising.

See in order to make it all fit, I had to flip the RCA's inputs of the amp, to go under the amp. Audison people know what I'm talking about. You'll see later in the build at some point. Basically, the rca inputs, can flip to the underside of the amp. There's a little cut out under there to allow the plugs and wires to insert and hide the wires for a nice clean install. Well I didn't have the room or ability to go through the base, so I had to raise the amp in order to pass the wires under it. Now that's why I had to do all the measurements and calculations.

So, back to the cutout and why I'm unhappy with it. You can see here, the gap is waaaaaaaayyy too much!

Not a chance in hell I'm letting that go. I did some measuring and lines and things to get it where it needs to be, and I know it'll get closer. I'd like it within a 3/16's to an 1/8 inch. I'm probably going to finish with carbon fiber vinyl, or something thin like that, so I'll be good with that closeness.

However, I took some closeups to compare the 45 angle and squareness next to the amps.
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:21:20 AM PST

This is where I want it, how close anyway!

So there it is! That's what I was able to get done today. Hopefully I'll get some time to do more soon.

On another note, the component rack I built a while back, I'm going to go ahead and remove and rebuild with birch ply. I know it probably seems silly, but the weight difference is crazy. Also I'd like to get it done and have it outside of the car so I can do some arranging and prep for wiring on it and not have to hunch over in the car. I could feasibly do it in the comfort of my living room! Course if I drop the soldering iron on my wifes carpet, I'll be living in my car from then on! Meh, small price to pay right! HA!

Ok more soon! Thanks for tuning in!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 11:22:35 AM PST

There it is, now everyone's caught up and up to speed!

From here on out, I'll be updating this thread, not the other one!

Thanks to everyone who's been following, and thanks to everyone who just showed up. Enjoy the ride! Should be plenty more to come very soon!
Anthony Marzella
- 54 posts
November 8, 2011 11:36:00 AM PST

Wow... You must make some serious bank to have all those toys, lol. It took me 9 months to save for my JL C5-653s. You do nice work.
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 12:07:03 PM PST

Anthony Marzella said:
Wow... You must make some serious bank to have all those toys, lol. It took me 9 months to save for my JL C5-653s. You do nice work.

I work a shitload of overtime, which adds to my "secret fund" and I also have been building my equipment stockpile for about 2 years now. The performance stuff I get a little here and there, and of course christmas's and birthday's help too!

Thanks for the compliments!
Scooter Carver
- 366 posts
November 8, 2011 1:11:03 PM PST

NOTE: Just so everyone is aware, this thread is going to jump around a lot. Reason being, as much as I'd like to complete one project before going to another, my time just simply doesn't allow me to do that. There are going to be times that I'm going to have to jump to a simpler project that I can do inside or in limited amounts of time. I just wanted to throw that out there. Thanks!
bass attic
- 104 posts
November 8, 2011 2:03:04 PM PST

better now without the bs..
nice amp rack .... will it be motorized?
Dice Man
- 31 posts
November 8, 2011 3:03:00 PM PST

Much better presentation and flow
Good luck with your build
Brad Stolberg
- 486 posts
November 8, 2011 5:09:52 PM PST

dude, youve put a lot of effort and love in that car, and shit looks dope even for a honda jk :)...would you want to interview for a job in Chicago at my shop? We do everything from Devin Hesters Donk Impala to Joe highschool's subs to matte black RR Phantoms...PM me