FK7 Si build, cont.

circuit.heart

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Hi everyone! If you recall seeing this car under the BMSPEC name, that's because it was, but the company is no more while the Civic remains my personal vehicle. So that's awkward, but I'm more excited about this car now than I've ever been since I bought it :D so please forgive the second build thread!

Last year, the FK7 was a Time Attack car with an Si engine:

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 3811-cro


After a few events, we decided to pull the plug on the program, so the past year has been a process of turning it from a budget brawler into a competent street car. The BMSPEC aero is gone, and I patched the controversial fender cut with a garnish piece inspired by the IS-F:

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200910_135149


It won't vent the wheel well like an open fender cut, but it does look better! Took about an hour to design and another hour to cut. Totally doable with an angle grinder and a drill at home if anyone's inclined to do the same.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_165053


Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_173755


I need to clean up the side markers a bit and replace a burnt-out indicator bulb.

The rear end made the most difference fixed up. The stock lower valence went back on, race exhaust hacked off and a more suitable piece of pipe welded in. Fun fact, Vibrant (normally overpriced like nuts) actually sells very affordable, fantastic looking exhaust tips. #1333 on my car was like $40 on Amazon.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_150659


Understated dual 3.5" tip lines up perfectly with the stock bumper. Replaced my tow hook cover with a new one ($$$, don't make my mistake of cutting it) and blacked out the frame behind my bumper vents with rust-proofing paint. Looks SO much better now.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_154628 (1)


The rear view is perfect for me now - aggressive, but tidy. You'd have no idea what we used to do with this car if you didn't know the history. ;)

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200910_140321 (1)
 
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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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I did make the bold claim of an FK7 Si build, so it wouldn't be complete without the interior.

Physically, the Si door cards can't be swapped easily into the hatch body, so I didn't want to do anything jank on that front. Instead, a wrecked Type R showed up in a junkyard, so a friend and I bought all four door cards and swapped what needed to be swapped.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_184151

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_184254


Nothing groundbreaking here, just factory "nice".

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_185117

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_190417


Got a shift knob from a friend and the boot from a dealership:

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_194459


Apparently the Si wheel is on national backorder so I found a used one in Puerto Rico and refreshed it.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_212246


Crappy picture but everything's in - door cards, seats, wheel, shifter parts. Feels much more upmarket than the original Sport stuff, Honda sure did a great job making people pick between practicality (hatch) and nice driver feel (Si). But now I get both!

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200909_223725
 

Drake

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Very cool! Glad this Civic will get to live on. If you're able to replace that 'econ' button with a 'sport' you might really start foolin people :thumbsup:
 
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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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Very cool! Glad this Civic will get to live on. If you're able to replace that 'econ' button with a 'sport' you might really start foolin people :thumbsup:
I probably just have to replace the button text haha. KTuner can make the Econ button use a high-boost map to begin with :p
 

86salmon

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Glad to see you around again! Looking forward to seeing more!!
 


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Im digging this new look. Especially the fender thingy you made. Very unique, creative, subtle (compared to before) and functional. Freakin lovin the interior too.

Excited to see what’s more to come with this little animal. :thumbsup::headbang:
 
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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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Maximum effort over the weekend - my neck and wrists are sore as hell :eek:

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. received_2790280494538966


Short story: Brand new Si engine harness and ECU swapped in. Rad.

Long story: Engine harnesses should be done with the engine out of the car, let's put it like that. Apologies for lack of pictures.

You basically get halfway to removing the engine anyways - battery, intake, TIP, and front pipe are all removed, fuel/purge lines get moved to the side, I just really didn't want to drain the coolant so I did my best to keep the engine in its place.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. received_328425445037545


You need skinny arms and long fingers. The most difficult plugs to reach are up front for the A/C compressor, and in the back between the intake manifold and the alternator. Trying to thread a bolt, through a conduit block, into the engine block, BLIND, while the new harness fights you from positioning anything nicely (they don't come pre-bent into the right shape) and you only have enough space between the axle and the subframe to fit one arm? Nuh-uh.

My friend in the blue RS stopped by to help for a solid 7 hours. True bro.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. received_1022297624955538


Lots of cursing and a little blood later, it's in! Zoom in if you like, the OEM Si intake box and MAF are in there too now that the harness and ECU support it.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. received_325928468632103


Now, just have to program the ECU to the original cluster and key in the car, and that's a 100% smog legal complete Si swap.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. received_326433085102674
 
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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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Super cool build, I've been following you on instagram. Makes me sad that your goal is to sell :( But I guess someone else will be very lucky lol

Random question, I heard that rolling the rear fenders makes the whole quarter panel super flimsy since the little ridge acts a support for the thin metal, is this true and (if true) do you feel it's something to consider on a DD car?
I frankly can't justify keeping this car, it's the most expensive one in the stable. Still, I never liked selling crappy product so this is going to be a damn nice FK7 Si before it leaves the nest. :)

The outer skin of the quarter panel usually isn't structural - if it were, a minor ding could become quite troublesome! The 10th gen Civic in particular has stupid flimsy sheetmetal in the rear quarter to begin with. Roll away, no fear.
 
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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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Now for something easier (yeah right :lol:), JDM side markers!

Because my fenders are stretched and trimmed to handle 295's up front, there's actually no metal to clip in side markers the normal way. Need to modify the "sitting angle" of the side markers as well, so within 10min of receiving the package I had cut into the housings with an angle grinder lol.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_162128


Made a hole to pass a zip tie through...

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_163146


In this pic you can see how much fender metal is gone compared to a normal Civic. Nothing near the tire at all :) Drilled a hole through some remaining fender metal, passed the zip tie through, almost forgot to put the amber bulb and socket back in haha.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_163450


Had to take the front bumper off real quick to get a good yank on the ziptie. Nice and snug.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_164624


Fitment check! These are a million years better than the Depos that I drilled a hole through to mount into the fender.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_165551

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_165558

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200921_165608


Money well spent!
 

Nickthewaffler

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Lots of work! I did most of this stuff from my cvt to si tranny swap. Those fenders are super cool, do you care to share on how you did the work? Aluminum sheets? Not familiar with custom body work like that.
 


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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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Lots of work! I did most of this stuff from my cvt to si tranny swap. Those fenders are super cool, do you care to share on how you did the work? Aluminum sheets? Not familiar with custom body work like that.
Hmm... more art than science to making the fenders, I just had a good long-focal length shot of the side of my car, lined up and scaled correctly in a CAD program, and started doodling until it looked right.

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. facebook_1600748637772_6714026414403255892


Added lock/fold tabs to actually hold it in the fender and attach it to the side skirt, then my machinist (I actually trained him, but I'm so many years out of practice he did the work haha) used CAM software to write a cut program for a CNC router.

I have a CNC router at home (leftover from BMSPEC days), so it was pretty easy to get some 1/16" aluminum, route the pattern out, fold it by hand where it needed to be, drill a few holes and get it mounted up. Color is just powder coat from a local shop.

I guess this wouldn't be called "easy" the way I did it, but fundamentally, you're just cutting a 2D piece of thin metal to the shape you desire. I only have technological help because I'm not patient enough to match two of these things by hand lol.
 

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Hmm... more art than science to making the fenders, I just had a good long-focal length shot of the side of my car, lined up and scaled correctly in a CAD program, and started doodling until it looked right.

facebook_1600748637772_6714026414403255892.jpg


Added lock/fold tabs to actually hold it in the fender and attach it to the side skirt, then my machinist (I actually trained him, but I'm so many years out of practice he did the work haha) used CAM software to write a cut program for a CNC router.

I have a CNC router at home (leftover from BMSPEC days), so it was pretty easy to get some 1/16" aluminum, route the pattern out, fold it by hand where it needed to be, drill a few holes and get it mounted up. Color is just powder coat from a local shop.

I guess this wouldn't be called "easy" the way I did it, but fundamentally, you're just cutting a 2D piece of thin metal to the shape you desire. I only have technological help because I'm not patient enough to match two of these things by hand lol.
Right, ill be keeping my fenders as they are thanks! Ahaha, if you ever need some work feel free to pm me, im looking for some good quality custom parts that wont kill me on price.
 

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wow! Just wow! So much work done, wonder how much you are going to ask for it
 

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Thank you for sharing your experience. I dreamt of building a hybrid FK7 SI CVT. I prefer to keep the CVT because there is only CVT sold in my country so manual conversion is not feasible for me.

I started with SI turbocharger swap. I was thinking about swapping the intake piping and MAF from SI but apparently it is also not feasible if I want to keep stock ECU. The next step for me, which I am still exploring, is to swap piston and connecting rod with piston and conrod from the SI.

Thank you for the inspiration. ?
 
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circuit.heart

circuit.heart

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Thank you for sharing your experience. I dreamt of building a hybrid FK7 SI CVT. I prefer to keep the CVT because there is only CVT sold in my country so manual conversion is not feasible for me.

I started with SI turbocharger swap. I was thinking about swapping the intake piping and MAF from SI but apparently it is also not feasible if I want to keep stock ECU. The next step for me, which I am still exploring, is to swap piston and connecting rod with piston and conrod from the SI.

Thank you for the inspiration. ?
You're very welcome! Raising the torque peak/capping torque at a certain level is good for the CVT anyways, so swapping the Si turbo or even a larger one in, is a great idea for longevity.

Forgot to post these earlier. This'll bring me some free advertisement when the haters pipe up uninformed ;)

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200918_175615

Honda Civic 10th gen FK7 Si build, cont. 20200918_175407
 


 


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