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@nicalbright's ASM 15' SI Sedan Build Thread

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@nicalbright's ASM 15' SI Sedan Build Thread

What’s up everyone? My names Nic, I'm 24, and live in North Carolina. I’m new to the 9
[SUP]th[/SUP] Gen forums, but not so new to Hondas. I’d describe myself as an ex-Honda owner who has finally made his way back to his roots. Follow me on my journey in this long-term timeline and build thread of my newly acquired 2015 Honda Civic SI sedan in Alabaster Silver Metallic.

Instagram: @nicalbright

Purchased June 24th, 2015



Intro

When I began building cars at age 15, I began my journey with Hondas, as a lot of young kids do. Cheap, easy to learn on, and fun to drive. I owned four pretty embarrassing Hondas over the course of a year, but my last ownership of a Honda was back in 2008. It was a Red EM1 that was coming together nicely, as I had just started getting into the definition of “clean” and quickly growing tired of the typical "loud car, buy everything available on Ebay" phase. The car had a few brand-name parts including a new Greddy Evo2 exhaust, some Skunk2 and Buddy Club bolt-ons, a Password JDM intake, and was set to receive a new paint job to clean up the dulled OEM paint. The night before the scheduled paint job, a man that had apparently spotted my car on a local forum called me offering me a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta VR6 off of his grandfathers car lot as a trade offer for the Civic. He wanted it for his son’s 16[SUP]th[/SUP] birthday, but was short on cash and only had the Jetta to offer. Two hours later we met, did a couple of test drives, and my hand shook his before I even knew what was happening. That night was the night I said goodbye to the Honda world. Ever since that day I’ve been a “Euro guy”, owning and building numerous Volkswagens and taking extreme pride in each of them. My most recent build, a 2006 Volkswagen GLI was my pride and joy. However while it was my favorite build to date, it was also the most unreliable piece of machinery known to man. This is ultimately why I’m now here (and HAPPY to behere I might add) in the 9[SUP]th[/SUP] Gen forums. Lets take a look back and get everyone caught up to speed.

My two most recent Volkswagen builds
1999 Jetta GL
2006 Jetta GLI






New Beginnings, Bad Impressions, and Hard Decisions

A month or so ago I finally landed a job with a company that I had been yearning to begin a career with for over two years. I was overwhelmed with excitement and couldn’t wait toget and get started after accepting their offer. Monday morning arrived; I hopped in the car, and headed out for my first day on the job! Half-way to work as I’m drinking my coffee and cruising along, the inevitable happens.. My car died.. right in the middle of the interstate. First day on the job, and I’m gonna be late because of the stupid car. Fantastic first impression, right? Now we fast-forward a week and the company has had pity on me and given me a new start date because “life happens.” So now the following Monday rolls around and it’s time for my first day again. As I’m driving along attempting to plan my first day (now equipped with a new fuel pump I might add) I’m rudely interrupted by the warning of the temperature gauge and the car dies AGAIN. Guess who now needs a new water pump? This guy. The new job is now suspicious and questioning whether or not hiring me was a good decision, as you could imagine any good company would be. Fast-forwarding again to my fourth day on the job. I’ve re-gained trust in my accountability, the car is fixed, and everything seems to be going well. I leave to go home that night, go to start the car, and boom. Dead. Guess who now needs the in-tank electronic fuel sending module? Pick me! Pick me! I need it! Luckily I had the next two days off this time. Close call. A day later after getting the car back home, I sat on my couch in a total funk hating my current situation. I had a hard, but logical decision to make. I began thinking “What’s the most reliable, best "bang for your buck" vehicle with adecent aftermarket support that I can grab today for $25,000?” After a few hours of research and narrowing down the list to a new Civic SI and a very gently used Subaru BRZ, I was at the local Honda dealership with two of my Honda-lifer friends ready for a test drive.




First Date

Upon arriving at the dealership, I had intended on scoping out a White Civic SI sedan, however I noticed a Silver one in the back peeking out of the plastic wrap that was still on the hood and roof. I was intrigued. I hadn’t seen too many of them in this color floating around, so I figured "Eh, might as well check it out." We unwrapped the car and honestly my first impression was not great. The shape, the taillights, and the lack of HID’s turned me off immediately. I did a brief walk-around and hopped in for the test drive. The second that I sat in the car my mind began to change. Ice cold AC, super comfortable seating, advanced dash and electronics, carbon fiber trim, leather stitched knob and wheel were all great features, not to mention the modern Black and Red color combo. My mind started racing with wheel setups, lip kits, accessories, and everything in between. As I left the parking lot I was surprisingly in total “chill” mode. I didn’t fear for my life or fear breaking down at any giving second like I frequently did in my GLI. The car lacked in power compared to the Volkswagen obviously, but it was fine. Everything was fine. I arrived back at the dealership and got out of the car. I walked around assessing, critiquing, hating, loving, and contemplating the “Pros and Cons” of the car for over a solid hour in the 102* heat. At 2:30PM I sat behind the wheel and decided that “Yep, I want it and I’m not going to leave unless I leave IN it.”




To move the story along, I haggled and compared prices with the managers, shook a few hands, and told them I’d be back in an hour. My two friends and I drove home in the GLI, swapped out my wheels, pulled out the floor mats, the trunk mat, all of my tools and personals, threw the stock intake back on, and drove it back to Honda. The Volkswagen was officially tradedin! I took a few pictures, signed a few papers, and walked out the door with my new 2015 Honda Civic SI sedan for $22,900. They even tossed in the OEM mud flaps and wheel locks that they said weren’t included for that price, so that was even better. I now had a brand new car, a few added extras, a few good parts to re-sell from the Volkswagen, as well as 3-piece wheels with new tires that can hopefully find a home on the SI later on down the road. Life was good today.













Week One

First full day of ownership and I’ve walked past it in aparking lot twice now, forgetting that it’s mine (LOL) So far so good, though. Although I really miss my GLI (and having a boosted car in general) I haven’t regretted my decision. Sure, I spent a ton of money that I would have rather not spent, but atleast it’s on a clean, reliable vehicle instead of on constant repairs for an old one. This has been a great investment thus far.





The “Mod Bug”

As any car enthusiast knows, the hardest part of a purchasing a new/unmolested car is to avoid getting bitten by the “mod bug” that comes with it. Well I’m certainly no different, and my house is full of them. In the last 24-hours, I’ve been creeping in all corners of the internet researching, photoshopping, planning, and “Adding to Cart”. So far no purchases have been officially made, but tomorrow is another day..


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Looks great. I recommend going for a retrofit headlight setup (or UAE headlight setup) and morimoto xb led fog housing setup (direct bolt on with minimal trimming).
Welcome back to Cleveland, Lebron. Nah just playing LOL! I'm sure the 9th will be your best build to date!
No muffler huh? How's that working out for you? Got sound clips?
I like it personally. Good tone, no high-pitched rasp, and little to no highway drone. I've gotten a few "that doesn't sound like a Honda" comments on it, which are good in my book haha! I'll work on getting a sound clip soon.
Looks great. I recommend going for a retrofit headlight setup (or UAE headlight setup) and morimoto xb led fog housing setup (direct bolt on with minimal trimming).
Sweet! Thanks for the input. I'll definitely look into those!

Welcome back to Cleveland, Lebron. Nah just playing LOL! I'm sure the 9th will be your best build to date!
LOL. Thanks! It's going well so far so hopefully it stays that way!
How's the 9th gen community in Winston BTW? Seems like no one coastal side wants to link up.
How's the 9th gen community in Winston BTW? Seems like no one coastal side wants to link up.
I honestly have no idea, haha! Theres a small local meet that was going on here during the fall and the "SI Club" or whatever seemed to have a pretty large gathering the couple of times that I stopped by. The one guy that had inquired about me joining said that they have alot of members around the area, I just havent met them yet haha!
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Nice build...Any thoughts on going F/I?
Nice build...Any thoughts on going F/I?
Thanks! Haven't gotten that far yet. Just kind of going with the flow for now.
Thanks! Haven't gotten that far yet. Just kind of going with the flow for now.
That's what I said too, now I'm debating if I want to make the purchase on a PRL intake or Kraftwerks S/C. Don't want to get the intake just to get rid of it. Waste of money IMO.
Her first snow!


Also, I forgot before that I had test fit the old wheels from my GLI on the Civic before I sold them. The overall look of them wasn't bad, but the amount of work needed to make them truly "fit" wasn't worth it.
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Finally got around to installing the Bayson lip and Modulo skirts. Still waiting on the Mugen RR rear spoiler to come back from
paint, but so far so good!

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Rear spoiler is finally done and installed! Also, i'm checking out a few sets of wheels this week, so we'll see what happens!

Attachments

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Long time no talk! Updating this thread has totally slipped my mind. I haven't done much aside from drive the car, but some things are better than no things I suppose.

1. Added Mugen emblems to the rear spoiler
2. Added amber fog light over-lays
3. Replaced my OEM exhaust tip with stainless 3.75" round one.
4. Bought numerous shift knobs (LOL)
5. Added a leather hood bra
6. Replaced the Mugen skirts with Modulo skirts
7. Picked up a set of 17x9 Varrstoen ES3's with 225/45 Falkens

I unfortunately have no good pictures of anything, BUT i'll work on getting some ASAP and add them to the post!
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I can't believe I had not seen this thread before today.

A very belated welcome. Fun-to-read initial write-up and a great looking car. Love the silver.
Not bad . . .
Looking forward for the new photo's brotha. Keep up the good work!
Hello, Honda people!

Long time, no talk. I haven’t posted here in a good while, so I figured it wastime for an update while I kill this last hour in the office.

Since my last post, the car has been through quite a lot ofaction. It’s had three different sets of wheels, been hit by a semi, tracked afew times, and more. As of late things have calmed down (Thank Christ) and shenow sleeps happily in a new garage out of the wrath of mother nature.
So lets recap!

First, the wheels –
I had a few days inthe feels having flashbacks from when I had a stancey car, and impulse purchaseda set of Weds Kranze from a friend of mine with the intention of dumping thecar on it’s subframe and dragging it up and down the road with stupid camber inan ignorant manner. (17x9.5 +15, 4.0” flat lips.) That phase passed before Ieven mounted tires on the wheels, so I ended up trading them for a set of WorkEquips in more conservative specs. (17x8 +30, 17x9 +30). After a few weeks ofpolishing and attempting to source centers for them, I realized that I really hadno interest in flashy, “real” wheels any longer. With that being said, theywere sold the very next day and shipped off to Texas to a new home! I hadpicked up a set of 17” Rota Slipstreams quite a few months prior for a “Winter”/badweather setup. After eying them up for a few days I decided to give them athorough refinish and make them my primary wheels. I hadn’t seen any other FB6s(Or many other cars, at that) running 17” Slips, so I hooked them up with a newcoat of Satin Black powdercoat, “Spoon” decals, and anodized Red metallic valvestems/caps, then finished them off with a fresh set of Toyos. I’m prettycontent with the overall look, however I may upgrade to something a bit moresturdy in the near future for track use. Perfect for daily-ing, however!

The wreck –
So a few months ago I was traveling down the interstate whena rogue semi-truck wheel came flying out of God-knows-where and slammed thefront of the car at 70+MPH. I kept the car on the road to avoid a full-onwreck, however it mangled it up pretty good. (I was fine, by the way.Thankfully it didn’t travel through the windshield!)
Damage Included: Drivers headlight, drivers fog light, foglight bezel, lower grille, upper grille, front bumper cover, drivers fender,and drivers side skirt/rocker panel. Repairs totaled right under $3000, and putthe car out of commission for roughly three weeks. Bummer.

The Vision –
I’ve played around with all kinds of ideas with thisplatform – OEM+, track, stance, stock..ect. But having owned 20+ vehicles inthe last 7-8 years, there was one route that I hadn’t taken, and that route was..TRACK! So here we are, now roughly two years into owning the vehicle and I’mdedicated to building this thing to shred the track and look good doing it. I’veyet to begin digging under the hood aside from a basic DC Sports SRI, but it’stime is coming. For now, I’m focusing on suspension, handling, and overall improvedperformance.
Modification Updates–
Since my previous post, the cars received…

  • DC Sports Short-Ram Intake
  • Custom 2.5” Cat-Back Exhaust à HKS Hi-Power Muffler
  • Truhart Coilovers
  • BWR Rear Subframe Brace
  • Paint-Matched Windshield Sun Strip
  • F1 Style Rear Brake Light
  • Buddyclub Short Shifter
  • Rota Slipstreams (17x8 +35)
  • Toyo Tires (225/45/17)
  • Mugen Fender Emblems

In the Works –
Custom 350z Front Bumper Ducts
Custom WRX STI Front Air Ducts
Hondata Flashpro
Acuity Short Shifter
All-Weather Floor Mats
Voltex GT Rear Wing (Debating)

That’s all for now. Feel free to follow me o IG for quicker updates!

@nicalbright
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Sounds good you should post some pics.
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Looking foward to see some pics of this me too ! :)
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