[dot]

Congratulations. Your car looks pretty unique. I was impressed by the quality of interiors, they look almost new. Most Civics seem to get scratch marks on the matt silver coating of the power window holder plates, gear knob and the hand brake lever. Your 07 civic seems to have none. Thats great, good find. The price is amazing, are these the usual prices around Delhi, Punjab, Haryana areas?

[Ace F355]

Thanks again to all for your wishes!

Another update: Steering embedded audio controls added!

Originally Posted by DMehta

Congratulations! This one is a looker. The smoked taillights look really good. What is the mileage you are getting? My friend owns a 3 year old civic and is very displeased with the mileage.
PS- keep clicking many more pictures!

Usually, I am getting 10.5-11 kmpl in city and 13-14 kmpl on highways! As I told in my review, mileage is something that depends heavily on your driving style. Does your friend owns an AT Civic or is it a MT? Check out latest posts in Shuvc's Civic thread to be surprised by some amazing mileage figures.

I will do another shoot and will add more pictures soon!

Originally Posted by shuvc

Looks wonderful ! Love the lamps.

Sunfilm? Also, consider removing all the badges in the rear except the H logo

Hey Shuvc, good to see you in my thread. I have enjoyed reading updates about your white beauty, though rather silently!

No sunfilm as of yet on my car! Lets see when do I find time to add those! Another good suggestion regarding taking those extra badges off my car!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Hi Ace,

A big congrats on the mean machine. The colour looks awesome, a typical gangsta look. The headlamps give the beast a mean look. I was simply going over the pics for some time, absolutely drool worthy. Take good care of the beast and pls sometime let the beast go on a free run. Remember its a sin to tame such a beast.

Happy mile crunching, drive safely, and wear seta belts.

BTW I dont think it can be called a grey shark but a black panther maybe.

Thanks ghodlur, my car sees some free runs (read, until the engine maxes out in top gear) rather frequently whenever I find an open stretch free from any kind of traffic.

PS: The nickname is based on Grey Reef Sharks found in our Indian ocean! Knowledge gained from Discovery Channel, eh!

Originally Posted by Ride_4_Fortune

@ACE F355, This is a nice write-up. The civic looks too good in this colour. You are lucky to own one.

I always wanted to own this car as this is one of my favourites. When I am blessed with some Vitamin M, I would get one for myself probably a pre-workshipped, like GTO's civic.

Thanks Ride_4_Fortune. I wish you all the best for owning your Civic ASAP!

Originally Posted by bluevolt

I am very much happy with both sales and service department with Honda SVC. I bought my car from Ring Road Honda, peeragarhi, and the showroom/SVC people are very courteous and listen to customer's request/requirements pretty eagerly.

Cool, I will try them out on my next service!

Originally Posted by dot

Congratulations. Your car looks pretty unique. I was impressed by the quality of interiors, they look almost new. Most Civics seem to get scratch marks on the matt silver coating of the power window holder plates, gear knob and the hand brake lever. Your 07 civic seems to have none. Thats great, good find. The price is amazing, are these the usual prices around Delhi, Punjab, Haryana areas?

Thanks dot. Yes, the interior is in great shape! All I needed after buying the car was to spend some money to get rid of small dings and dents on exterior!

About the prices, as you may be well aware, used car market is so variable! I was quoted prices between 6.8 to 8.2 lacs for the other cars I test drove (with more or less similar vintage and mileage)! This one came up as best deal as the seller was an individual, not a dealer and I was getting 3 years old V trim MT Civic for less than 50% of the original sticker price!

[dot]

Originally Posted by Ace F355

Another update: Steering embedded audio controls added!

Ace F355, can you elaborate on how you added the audio controls on steering. A lot of us might benefit.

Originally Posted by Ace F355

All I needed after buying the car was to spend some money to get rid of small dings and dents on exterior!

Yes, I remember you looking for good service station in some thread. Good to see that they have done a good job.

[Ace F355]

I and Pranav were so busy doing this DIY that it never occured to me to take some snaps! But I will write down the procedure followed in my next reply! and I will take some pics next time I open up the steering as I need to do some more work on it, since last time we did this, we were running out of time because of my busy schedule!

Anyway, I took some more pics this morning. Some more eye candy for you all.

[Ace F355]

Some more, with steering mounted controls!

I think no one noticed the Gatling Gun Shroud used around head lamp projectors! To me, that thing looks classy and devilish, and is the major attraction in smoked head lamps! Check it out in these pics.

[cityvic]

Woah dude Killer pics man.

Welcome to the Civic Club.

These are the same projectors which Pranav made?DIY?

Btw whats the procedure of get the steering controls?Are those buttons from the Anhc?

[Ace F355]

All right, here is the deal!

Back in the day, Manan (m4ugr8) had mentioned about Pranav adding steering mounted audio controls in his Civic.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...ml#post1428016

When I was searching my type of Civic, I saw Pranav's Civic in TBHP Classifieds. I contacted him, arranged a test drive and absolutely loved his car. In the end, I had options to choose between

a) July 2007, Black S/AT Civic with 49,xxx kms clicked on the Odo
b) Sept. 2007 Grey V/MT Civic with 34,xxx kms on the Odo

I chose (b).

But I liked headlights and tail-lights on Pranav's car and since he was selling his car, he was keen to make his car stock. I bought my headlights and tail-lights from him only!

Now, Civic has these audio controls inside the handrest in the rear! Pretty useless in my case since my car's backseat is loaded with 3 people most of the time!!!

So, last time when I was in delhi, I asked Pranav if he wants to sell those steering mounted controls as well! He agreed to shift his controls into my car and we started working on it.

Total time taken - Four and half hours
Stuff needed - couple of screw drivers and lots of patience!

Here is how it was done -

1. Battery was disconnected since we had to take the SRS airbag off the steering.

2. Plastic panels just behind the steering wheel were opened.

3. Airbag was unscrewed and its both yellow and black wires were disconnected. Airbag was put aside.

4. The dull silver plastic panel (in which controls are fitted) was unscrewed and taken out. It had two plastic mess kinda things which were unscrewed and taken away!

5. Controls were put into the silver panel and screwed.

6. Pranav had already a harness made which he used to connect the controls into his Civic. However the trick in my case was, AT Civic had connections to be fitted into both upper and lower stripe of the harness but in my MY Civic had only one stripe! (I am spaculating here but I think the other stripe has connections for paddle shifts in AT Civic)

7. We matched the connections in the front (part of the steering) harness connection and back (part of the steering) harness connection using a multimeter and connected them appropriately.

8. Back seat of my car was removed and the OEM controls in the back handrest were disconnected. Appropriate wires carrying the signals were identified (Black and Pink wires to be specific) and they were connected to harness found the back of the steering. The connection was made into the wiring system parallel passing to the driver seat!

9. Controls were tested and found to work fine.

10. Cruise control buttons are there just for the show but I plan to connect them with something!

11. Parallel connection for both front and rear controls were tried and only volume control was found to be working. I spaculate that this parallel connection must be possible but I need to open up eveything to make testing for that! Finally, rear controls were disconnected!

12. All the stuff was put together back as it was after fitting the audio controls, airbag was installed and battery was connected.

13. I also wanted to make connections for the in-built lights in the controls with parking lights but then again, it is a matter of time when can I find time to open up all this mess again... We had to wrap up our DIY since I had 7 hours of drive ahead of me and it was getting dark!

I know DIY details are useless without showing pictures, so I will make sure to click pics whenever I am tearing all this stuff apart! If anyone is wondering how much did I buy these controls for, INR 3500. But they are of so much convinence and I seriously wonder what was Honda thinking not adding them OEM into Civic!

And yes, these are the same controls that come in ANHC now a days!

[rr_zen]

The steering mounted audio controls look fab. Thanks for sharing details around the cost, mode of sourcing, the DIY process and the results.

Honda India thinks that Civic is meant to be chauffer driven and thats what I presume made them exclude this option. However, if one has observed the Honda India website, one of the thumbnail pics put up there has the steering mounted audio controls on it.

One thing that concerns me is that this DIY involves disturbing the airbag.

[dot]

Originally Posted by Ace F355

10. Cruise control buttons are there just for the show but I plan to connect them with something!

The DIY has come out great. Thanks for sharing.

Maybe you can get an after-market cruise control kit and connect with the existing buttons, that way it will be truly functional.

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by cityvic

Woah dude Killer pics man.

Welcome to the Civic Club.

These are the same projectors which Pranav made?DIY?

Btw whats the procedure of get the steering controls?Are those buttons from the Anhc?

Thanks cityvic. Yep, these are the headlights made by Pranav only! I took the steering controls from his car but I guess they should be available through Honda dealers in India, else try ebay and you could find them easily.

Originally Posted by rr_zen

The steering mounted audio controls look fab. Thanks for sharing details around the cost, mode of sourcing, the DIY process and the results.

Honda India thinks that Civic is meant to be chauffer driven and thats what I presume made them exclude this option. However, if one has observed the Honda India website, one of the thumbnail pics put up there has the steering mounted audio controls on it.

One thing that concerns me is that this DIY involves disturbing the airbag.

Yeah, taking out the airbag is always a big concern in this kind of work. You have to be very careful! I have already given the details you asked for, please read.

Originally Posted by dot

The DIY has come out great. Thanks for sharing.

Maybe you can get an after-market cruise control kit and connect with the existing buttons, that way it will be truly functional.

Thanks dot. I doubt on such aftermarket CC kits, but lets see if I can find one! Also, IMHO CC is not much useful on Indian roads, not in my area at least!

[Ace F355]

I received couple of PMs about the tail lamps brand. I am putting this info in here as well.

These tail lamps are from ESDEPO. I bought them from Pranav but here is where you can find them online. Excellent product IMO!

AESTMOD - car modifications and car accessories Rear Tail lamp ESDEPO BLACK

[Ace F355]

Ordered following cosmetic and mechanical upgrades for my Shark yesterday.

1. K&N Typhoon 69 series SRI
2. Genuine Red 'H' front and rear emblems from Honda, Japan
3. Genuine Honda 'Type R' emblem for the rear
4. Genuine Honda Type R key fob (with red H logo)
5. Genuine Honda Type R Engine Start button with trim kit

Can anyone suggest me where can I get this steering wheel emblem?

[jatinpatel]

If the roads permit then why dont you get a complete Type R kit? with type R wheels will look killer on gray.

[dot]

Originally Posted by Ace F355

Ordered following cosmetic and mechanical upgrades for my Shark yesterday.

5. Genuine Honda Type R Engine Start button with trim kit

Wow, where do you place such an order? Or do I sent you a PM

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by jatinpatel

If the roads permit then why dont you get a complete Type R kit? with type R wheels will look killer on gray.

Hello again Jatin, I am all in for body kit and alloys and have so many options but alas, I would kill all the comfort by upgrading them!!!

Originally Posted by dot

Wow, where do you place such an order? Or do I sent you a PM

Why PM, I will put the info here only, Dot.

I ordered most of my stuff from procivic and ebay and it is already on its way.

JDM FD2 Civic Type R Engine Start Button & Trim 06-09 - eBay (item 380315974526 end time Mar-13-11 14:06:21 PDT)

Also, I have a K20A engine lying around with a known mechanic of mine and I was wondering how much of a complication it will be to import an engine to India? And yep, you guessed it right, it is the 2.0 ltr Type R gem producing 225 BHP!

Now, any ideas where to procure this red steering wheel emblem???

Edit: I am also looking into aftermarket Cruise Control kits as well. Will keep you guys posted if I find something reliable.