By After living in the city for a couple of years, my wife and I decided to move back to the suburbs and we rented a town house that had a one-car garage. The town house was about 20 miles from work so we were back to commuting again. By now the Miata was being driven about 5000 miles a year and we weren’t about to start commuting to work in it. My wife just bought a new 2005 Mazda 3 hatchback and she didn’t want to commute in that either. It was her first brand new car and I understood why she didn’t want to add a ton of miles to it. So we needed another car.
I started looking for another CRX, but by this time Fast and Furious had been around for a couple of years and all of the CRXs were riced out beyond belief and they were still holding their value. I really wanted something that was stock and under $2k. I was looking for weeks before I found a white 1990 Integra GS for $2000. We checked it out, and it had some rust, but everything worked, it idled perfectly and was a blank canvas. I got it for $1800.
I absolutely loved everything about the DA. The automatic seat belts, moon roof, slick 5-speed shifter and of course those headlights with the fog lights built in. I had big plans for the Integra. I started with all of the maintenance items that I was comfortable with up to that point. I replaced the front and rear brakes, oil pan gasket, cam seal (you know that was leaking). I got some sweet custom floor mats from Lloyds Mats. I beat the hell out of that car every time I drove it and it just kept taking it. It was one hell of a car. Great on gas, super reliable fun to drive. Everything the Miata was supposed to be, but no longer was. I daily’ed the Integra for over a year and I think I washed it once. The rust was WAY worse than I thought and before long I realized that this “project car” was just a car. There was no project.
I was ready to move on from the DA and get myself something that I could build. Something I could daily, but not worry about it becoming a garage queen. This time I wasn’t going to get an old Honda. This time I was going to start with a new car.
