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User avatar
By AndrewEP3
#3810159
Hey, I'm Andrew. I've been lurking around this forum for just over a year now and decided to start my own build thread.

After owning a very problematic Polo Gti 6n2, which spent more time in the garage than it did on the road I decided to save my money and look for an EP3 as I've always wanted one since they came out. I had my heart set on either a nighthawk black or cosmic grey facelift version, but after a month of looking I couldn't find exactly what I wanted mileage and colour wise and I needed a new car pretty quickly as my Polo was in the garage yet again with more problems and I needed a car to get to work. One day I happened to be at the local Honda dealer as my parents had Hondas for nearly 15 years and asked them if they could find me one.

After turning down several cars they found me a 54 plate facelift in cosmic grey with two previous owners, full Honda service history from new and 58k miles on the clock. I jumped at the chance and a week later it was mine. Honda gave me free MOT's for life and a years warranty, which unfortunately meant I couldn't modify the car until the warranty was up.

Here is the car when I picked it up

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Fast forward a year and I decided to start. First I took a trip to the Hel Performance warehouse as my break lines were on the way out, which is a 10 minute drive from my house and they made them then and there as I waited in my choice of dark red and only charged me £60.

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Next I decided to purchase some 30mm ABP/Eibach springs, Eibach front camber bolts and Buddyclub rear camber adjusters

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I then purchased a Skunk 2 gear nob as Tegiwa has some Christmas discounts going, which improved the gear changes I think quite a bit. I then had all the ball joint dust covers replaced as apparently they were all in very bad condition. I then needed 4 new tyres as the Michelin Pilot 3's I had on the car were knackered and the road noise was terrible, especially motorway driving. I managed to get myself a set of 4 brand new Yokohama S-Drive's for the grand sum of £293 as Yokohama just happened to have an offer on at the time I enquired, which was great.

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Also bought some new genuine EP3 Honda matts from ebay for £25 and gave the seats a good clean.

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I then had the springs fitted and the FRSU done at a local garage and wow! The car feels like a go-kart, handling has massively improved, feels extremely well planted to the road. The springs still need to fully settle, but so far I am very happy with the drop.

I had the usual geometry of

-1 camber all way round
2mm toe in at rear
1mm toe out at front

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A pic with my friend Chris's JDM Prelude, a bit Barryboy I know haha

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I was currently saving for an M2 Spoon N1 rep , but as luck would have it I logged onto facebook one day to find several of my friends had tagged me in a post of a guy selling a genuine Spoon N1 for £145 due to writing his car off the previous morning.

So naturally I was straight on that and a 25 minute drive later I was the proud owner of a Spoon N1

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Little clip of me driving away after fitting it at a friends house



I needed new brakes and dics as mine were absolutely knackered. At the time I didn't have much money so a friend of mine got me a full set of Pagid dics and pads for £93 from his work :)

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I also entered the 1/4 mile drag event at Dakota Raceway in Smeatharpe Devon, which is about a half hour drive from my house. At the end of the day I came 22nd overall out of 31 in my class, pretty happy with that considering I was one of about 4 n/a engine cars with no engine mods. Were quite a few tuned Hondas there, unfortunately I got paired up with crazy bhp scoobys, Audi's and Supra's most of the time. Was a fantastic day out and one of the funnest things I have ever done.

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I also bought a mugen rep the other day. It looks pretty good, although has a hairline crack in it about 4 inches long. I messaged the seller and he has refunded some of my money, although did ask if i wanted to swap it for another one. A bit of filler, sanding and a professional spray and it'll be fine.

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That is it so far. Next on my list is new wheels and a Tegiwa induction kit.
User avatar
By AndrewEP3
#3858078
It has been a long time since i was last on this forum and alot has happened in that time with my car. So here we go!

Around a year ago i purchased some new wheels. I live 20 mnutes from Rare Rims, the official Rota wheels dealer in the UK. I had gone down there to look at a few wheels, but wanted something different than the usual. They informed me that they were about to drop some new wheels the following week and advised me to pop back.

The following week i went and had another look and fell in love with the new Rota Titans in satin black, which i purchased then and there in 17x8 et42 with a full set of Yokohama S-Drives.

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I then purchased the Tegiwa carbon intake, silicon hose and scuttle tidyand fitted them all just in time for the next Drag & Drift event near me. We got up there earl in the morning whilst it was still cold and got a fair few runs in. I was extremely pleased to have somehow managed to get a 14.28! in the afternoon. Just over a second quicker than last time.

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Not long after i decided to upgrade the brakes further and went for a full set of RPB grooved discs and a fullof Cosworth Street Master pads. This was a deffinate improvement and well worth doing.

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I then had my Mugen rep spoiler painted and ended up selling my Spoon N1 and buying the Tegiwa Catback and oil cap. The catback was a right ballache to fit, none of the holes on the flange lined up with the oem cat and none of the gaskets provided fit. Luckily an automotive shop down the road had the correct gasket and with a bit of help me and a mate drilled out the hole on the flange to make it fit.

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Things then went a bit quiet for a few months due to lack of funds. However the last Drag & Drift day of the year was the next weekend so we ended up going again. Unfortunatly it was absolutely hammering it down, but on the good side that just evened it up quite nicely between everyone and i ended up winning the front wheel drive class.

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Here are a couple videos of some runs i did.





User avatar
By AndrewEP3
#3858080
Another couple of months passed and i decided i wanted some new seats. I had always been on the look out for some, but never had the money and they were always miles away! I decided to save up around £500 and was determined that when another set came up for sale i would just go for it. Originally i was looking for a set of black DC2 recaros until i randomly saw an advert for some basically mint premiere edition seats with rails for £400, 50 miles from me. I messaged the guy right away then picked them up three days later and i couldnt be happier!

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I then decided to splash out on a full set of Yokohama AD08's in 215/45/17. The inner lip on the rear arches both needed rolling as they were catching. Absolutely love these tyres, the grip is amazing and give you so much confidence in both the wet and dry.

Next i ordered a facelift mugen grille and lip from BKR Honda, an after market parts company in Slovakia. Was very impressed with the quality of their replica parts and communication was fantastic throughout. The parts also fitted near on 100% as advertised. I would reccomend anyone getting a lip to have it properly moulded to the bumper though.

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I had a friend of mine who is an apprentice at a bodyshop spray the parts for me and he did an excellent job. I also purchased a new honda badge for the front, a mugen badge from BKR and some mesh, which i sprayed black and fitted to the back on the grille with the clips that come on the back of it.

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I had a few days off so decided i would have a go at refurbing the rocker cover, which was in an absolute state. I wanted something a bit different so purchased some anodised red vht paint and primer.

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With the last wet coat the rocker came up in this deep cherry red colour. I then sanded the paint off of the honda logo to finish it off. I also bought some red anodised Downstar dress-up washer for the bay. The bay itself just needs a good clean up now and i think i may go for a carbon blug and mani cover.

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So thats me all up to date for the time being.
User avatar
By 160mph_boy
#3858131
Duuuude...those seats are lush!! If i was to ever do anything more to my EP3, all it would be is a nice set of those seats and some JDM floor mats 8-) 8-)

Great job on the rocker cover btw ;)

Long time ago I had and Ep3 for 220k kilometers in[…]