My build mission statement (silly but it helps me not go too crazy with mods that may be headaches in the end):
Since this is my daily and a family car, preserving the reliability that was a reason for its initial purchase is essential; but I also find it necessaqry to define my car from all the late-middle aged women who seem to roll 8th gen sedans. Likewise, I favor an enhanced OEM look over attention hungry flashy cosmetic mods (and added exterior plastic must be kept to a minimum!), so that’s the context of the mods I’ve done and the couple that are left to finish...
Purchased March 1, 2011. 35% 3M tint x5 a few days later. At the time I thought I wanted a wing spoiler (had one on my former Civic) and the dealer effectively gave it to me for free, but later on that spoiler would give me headaches.
I wanted to get a clear bra done ASAP so at only 30 miles I had a DuraShield+ clear bra put onto the front (DuraShield+ was an acquisition of 3M and just as good I had heard). Unfortunately installation (by the owner of the business no less) was less than ideal. I gave him a chance to fix his fingerprints on the tacky side and a multitude of bubbles, to which his solution was popping them with a pin and coloring the imperfections with a black sharpie. We fought. He yelled. I won a chargeback. But this was not the end…
I discovered CHH and bought all the OEM accessories that I felt the car should have had from the factory. At this point I told myself no modding and this would be it. Wellllllll maybe wheels but that's it!
Honda OEM Accessory Cargo Net 08L96-TA0-100
Honda OEM Accessory Console Mat 83452-TA0-A01
Honda OEM Accessory Console Tray 83451-TA0-A01ZA
Honda OEM Accessory Interior Illumination 08E10-TA0-110A
Honda OEM Accessory Trunk Tray 08U45-TA0-100
Honda OEM Accord Crosstour Leather Shift Knob 54130-TB0-A81ZA
Full LED Interior, LED Reverse and High-Mount Brake Light
Philips 9005 CrystalVision Ultra DRL/High Beam Headlamp Bulbs
Phillips HIR2 9012 Gen-III Low Beam Headlamp Bulbs (Retrofitted)
Husky Liners 98401 Black Custom Fit Front and Second Seat Floor Liner Set
SafeFit Kick Mats Black
Brodin ProClip Center Mount 854098 with iPhone4 Tilt Swivel 511178
Yeah that didn't last long. I’d always liked 5 spoke designed wheels so I landed on a set of 19” TSW Vortexes in hypersilver wrapped in Nitto 555s and McGard spline lugs. Look, ma, I’m a 4x4 (damn you, Honda).
Every time my son would climb in and out of the car with half of the sandbox in his shoes I couldn’t help but think about the could-be scratches on the door sills. I found an Amazon seller who makes custom sill protectors, make/model/color specific. They have a gel, semi-rubbery texture but have resisted scratching completely.
I wanted to add some depth to the tone of my first V6, so I landed on the status quo for 8th gens – dual Magnaflow 14832s. In retrospect I may have gone with Greddy or Megan since their welds are cleaner, but to this day I have no complaints about the Magnas and there is no drone. I did purchase a Megan test pipe at the same time but ended up not installing.
The DuraShield+ clear bra fiasco finally is resolved! In anticipation of discovering more damage than was visible, I had the best body shop in the area remove the film as I watched… The DuraShield+ installer used some sort of harsh cleaning agent that bonded the bra to the clear coat. To add insult, razor etchings were left in the hood where he had freehanded some cuts too deeply. Oh, and I can’t forget the dozens of pin pricks left in the surface too. The hood of my three month car needed to be completely refinished. Yay for $0.00 deductible insurance!
Next – ye olde shadowspeed roof spoiler. Even though it's gone this is still one of my favorite bargain mods since it helps distinguish the car from its stock counterparts on the street.
Paid it off... I did Honda's 0.9% APR financing so the purchase would appear on my credit but I knew that I didn't want to modify a car too much that wasn't mine. Thee payments later:
Replica Inspire motorized folding signal mirrors came next. At the time legitimate JDM/TDM mirrors were difficult to source and group buy sources had dried up; so I gambled on replicas. I ended up needing to buy two pair to actually have two functioning mirrors but they did the job and looked great doing it. Replica sellers are a-holes who hide behind language barriers of their own creation lol. Oh and this mod set the trend of me needing to do each expensive mod 2-3 times. Awesome.
I started posting on M8G and my eyes were opened to the necessity of a drop. With consideration for Iowa's winters and my desire not to slam (or so I thought) the car I landed on the Honda HFP suspension for the coupe. Net drop after some break in was about 1.25” front, 1.5” rear.
Never a fan of the horizontal chrome strips on the hoods of some Hondas, I purchased a replacement upper chrome molding and had it painted body color and clear bra’d to promote adhesion and resist damage.
Eagle Eyes arrived. OEM garnish on a boat ride form Japan.
Takeda SRI added to my filthy engine bay.
Piano black pillar covers added and removed the same day. Rough edges and a violation of the no added exterior plastic rule.
Current state eight months in:
Here’s a big one – JDM Inspire trunk garnish and Eagle Eye LED tails and trunk lights. Sourcing a legitimate garnish was not easy or cheap, but the rear of the car is completely transformed for the better.
After learning about retrofit headlights I couldn’t say no (Morimoto Minis with WeatherTech LampGards protection). Note to therapist: lighting addiction officially started.
Pedals.
CrossTour manifold and cover assembly added.
Progress 22mm rear sway bar added, along with an Ultra Racing 19mm front strut tower sway bar.
SPC two arm kit (camber and toe) to bring the HFP drop back into spec from -3.2 degrees. Later I added the third (trailing) arms when I went lower.
After going back and forth on the idea for a while I finally bought some white LED DRLs with an enclosed resistor setup to help prevent any damage to surrounding engine bay components. They looked great, but after a 3 hour drive the resistors were too hot to touch, which seemed dangerous so I removed them for some Hoen Xenonmatch bulbs to match the color of the projectors (fogs too).
Moved on from my 19” TSWs to a staggered 20” Vossen CV3 setup in matte silver, again in Nitto 555s. Calipers hit with white G2.
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