...and I'm thinking about doing some cosmetic and slight performance enhancing mods to it.

First off, I'd like to say I've never worked on cars or anything, I've built my own computers and helped friends with theres, and thats about it for my engineering skills. So cars are "new" to me so I'm kinda obsessed with them latley.

Cosmeticly I might want to tint the windows, replace the taillights with euro altezza's, replace the headlights with angel eyes, and then add some foglights. That stuff shouldn't be too hard should it? I did read one of the DIYs on swaping headlights, and it did look pretty ruff, softening the silicon to get the frame out and painting the new one them putting that in... I would probly keep the chrome on my lights though.

For performance I dont want to do anything to significantly reduce the life of my engine, and keep it under warranty. So I was thinking cold air intake, exaust, new computer/chip (not sure which would be good for all around performance increase without a leap in fuel consumption), and possibly new cat converter. Most if not all I can do myself (I hope), but should I need "professional" installation, any idea how much it would cost, or just not even worth it if I needed professional help?

I've thought about new wheels/suspension and lower it a bit, but that might be going too far ... well I might get new wheels... but thats pretty expensive.

But, I'd like not to do anything that would be extremely difficult or expensive to reverse, so I can resell in a few years (I might just keep it forever though).

Also I checked prices on most of this stuff from e-bay, any other good places I can get this stuff from?

Anyways, any help on this stuff appritiated, thanks alot guys!

-Sko

 

Pic of my car.

 

your exterior choices....well that's on you :ugh:

for performance a cai and exhaust is all you need, judging from your post. simple hand tools is all you need for installation. a chip and new cat are not good choices however and should be avoided.

 

congrats on the civic... do you have a account @ http://www.7thgencivic.com/ if not get one those guys (inc. me) only own 2001-2005 civics and can help you make some choices.

just so you know changing the tail lights and headlights both require you to take the bumbers off... and if you need DYI guide the 7thgen site will have em

 

Congrats on the buy.

But please, for the love of god, do not put altezza lights on it.

You don't need a new cat or computer chip like snoopy said. If you can't do those other mods yourself, you shouldn't even bother with professional installation. You won't see much of a gain with those parts, just extra noise.

It's your car, so do what you want and whatever you do, good luck.

 

You might want to rethink or your ideas about the exterior of the car....if not, buy a flamesuit.

 

LOL, jeesus, gotten enough shit about the taillights already... Would you kill me if I put LED tail lights on it?

 

Yes. Leave them stock.

 

I guess someone should clarify as to why they're suggesting not to get the taillights. You might find them aesthetically pleasing, but the one thing you're giving up is the function.

Those tails are pretty hard to see when they're lit up (of course at night you won't have that problem) but in the middle of the day, it's hard to tell if you're stepping on the brakes or not.

Second is the build quality. The lights have been known to either fall apart (the red lens has been known to fall off inside the housing) or they're known to leak.

And finally, the fit isn't the best. Though it might line up, the fit might not be flush to the body, or there might be slight modding that needs to be done to make it fit.

 

oh, ghey...

What about the headlights? I saw some angel eyes that I'd like to install... Also with those headlights I'd have to take off the front bumper and do that thing with the heat gun and the housing, etc? I read about it in one of the faqs...

Thanks