Kyle Crawfords EF Civic Hatchback

I know from my own experiences. If you take nice photo's & you build a car. You end up taking a lot of photos of your own car, it just happens. On one hand its AWESOME, you get to see your car go through the stages in beautiful high res (& now my case, youtube) and its fantastic to look back on it. On the other hand, no one EVER offers to take photos of your car as they see pictures of it all the time. In the 7years I've been building Honda's, not ONCE have I EVER been offered a shoot from someone else. Regularly I've thought "maybe the car's I've built just suck" or maybe they're not hip enough for the internet, but I just let it go and focus on building my car to even greater things. I also find it's helped me in my own builds, its allowed me to focus, I really have learnt the art of building a car to satisfy me & myself only. Now I'm going to actually take you back to the EXACT night I made this website. That I started a chapter of my life that has now became the main act. Picture this ; It's 2009 & I'm at a hotel in Los Angeles where I had been traveling & bored one night I started a free wordpress blog. Earlier in the day I had picked up Honda Tuning (RIP) magazine from a store & I am relaxing by reading said magazine, contemplating how the hell to put pictures from flickr to wordpress, how to make the URL be the one I'd purchased & not the one that you just get handed to you. I flick the page of HT and I see the OHSNAPS! page, a page where you see photos that have been sent in from various photographers & I see this beautiful aqua coloured DA Integra, I thought it was the best photo I'd ever seen in my life. I looked & the photographers name & I see "Kyle Crawford". Thinking "What are the chances this guy has a Flickr account" I search him on Flickr, that very same site I'd just been getting so angry at not understanding & Pops up straight away Kyles Flickr account. This is one of the joys of the internet. Being able to connect with people at the click of a button! I browsed his photos & knew this was the kind of pictures I wanted to be able to take, clean, crisp photos, not overly edited or making them look stupid by adding some dumb effects that honestly ruin the caption for me. Kyle did this & inspired me to do what I did but over here & I'd never forgotten that it was Kyles photography that really inspired myself. In a way, I guess you all have him to thank (or give abuse to) for 6TWO1 starting & making me realise my own potential behind a camera, giving me the inspiration to take my passion from a dream to putting it to ....well i was going to type paper but I guess it should be the internet. Fast forward a few years & I stumble across Kyle on Instagram. So I hit that follow button & leave a comment on one of his photos. I guess he looked back at mine as he commented back on some of my Arsenal photos. Just so happen's that both of us are Arsenal (Football club) fans! So we got talking via Instagram/Facebook and I mentioned to him I was going to be at Honda Day, which he was also at! So I made sure that whilst I was over, Kyle was a guy I was going to meet & his car was one i was going to shoot! I offered him over facebook the shoot & honestly was slightly nervous in waiting for a reply. Thankfully he jumped at the chance & that made me even more nervous!! Just bare in mind what I've told you earlier about never having photos done, well I'd seen his photos & saw how good they were, so if he was being so kind to give me a few hours of his time, the photos had to be up to par! I made sure to take that extra memory card over to Honda Day & after Day 1 was over, I stole kyle & his car for the following shoot. I'm also going to give you a full run down of his build to this day & I really hope you enjoy this. Kyle mentioned to me that no one ever offered him a shoot before & its mainly because he is normally behind the camera!! How funny eh?... Kyles build started back in September 2012, after admiring the EF with its previous owner for 3 years, the opportunity arose to where he could buy the car as a rolling shell & he didnt think twice about making the 9 hour journey to pick it up. Due to having a crappy job with horrible working hours mixed with the luck of having a best friend who has a competition drift car trailer & a truck to tow it with, meant a long over night journey down to North Carolina from Pensilvania one Saturday night. Photo from the day they loaded the car up upon collection! Nothing the previous owner could tell him would stop Kyle from taking the car back home with him that now morning, handing over the cash they headed back on that long drive to put the Civic straight in its new garage ! Actual photo from that moment! Everyone who's a true car enthusiast experiences that first few weeks with a new project. Where you're buying and selling parts like the rapture is coming! Kyle is no different, one big decision at the start was to sell a set of Volk RE30s for a set of Desmond Regamasters in Almighty Grey. Hard pressed to make a choice like that! Amazingly, the Desmond Regamasters were BRAND NEW !! Never ever been used before that had just been imported in from Hong Kong... Something I can only dream of finding! Next big job undertook was stripping the interior out & getting rid of all the sound deadening...a dreaded job which is one of my least favourites to do on a car... He resprayed the interior once this was all done, I can only imagine how rewarding that moment must have felt ! The hard work paying off! Which now looks like this... The interior now lays host to a pair of Glitterback Bride Zeta III Bucket seats with Status Racing 5pt Harnesses.. Momo Mod78 Steering wheel... Arc Magic! Titanium Shift knob... AutoPower 6-pt bolt-in roll cage & a coke can.. Which is actually now part of his build. Because when he was fitting his ASR kit, he hammered under the floor cracking the paint, which was an exact size of a coke can haha, It's these little mods like this that personalises a car. When you build a car in your garage with your friends, shit happens. The next big part of the build was the Engine... opting for a JDM B18C which was supplied by HmotorsOnline. Now normally I wouldnt promote another company of whom I've never met or delt with before but EVERYONE who I've spoke to & met over in the USA has said how incredible this company is to deal with. Custom Blue valve cover The engine sat in the bay on uprated hasport engine mounts... The fitting of this however did not go to plan. Having everything ready to go in except for the clutch, Kyle got struck with something we all dread, horrible customer service. The company who had promised him a clutch then dropped the bomb that the "IN STOCK" item was going to cost an EXTRA $400! Unreal, so after cancelling that order & putting in an order for an ACT Clutch instead.... Vision Mirrors, the company who make Spoon Sports Mirrors.. Buddyclub Spec2 is Kyle's noise maker of choice, along with the Feels Manifold... US Tracks cant have the same noise reg's as here! Function 7 & ASR are tightening up the backend of the EF The Civic has had a couple of sets of Coilovers too, but Kyle went back to a brand he used to use on previous cars called PIC. These are no longer in existence so Kyle treasures his EF Kit... The Car came with the Chargespeed front lip but Kyle added the Osaka JDM Banner, he also ran an Osaka JDM wing before making the decision to take the car back to a more OEM looking rear.. Now Kyle has the car running again he fully intends on getting it on a track next time he can & I'm really looking forward to seeing how he gets on! Those Rega's I mentioned... We moved from this location to what I thought would be a quieter one as a lot of the drag teams were leaving Honda Day (Where we were doing the shoot). But upon our approach we got the attention of a few of the other Honda fans & I honestly thought we were doomed.. Luck was on our side when the on lookers decided Kyle & I look way to threatening to approach to actually talk to like humans (I joke.. ) and instead they shouted over about 40 meters at us, deciding not to leave their car... The new location was much more pleasing to the eye for the photos, whilst the constant barrage of shouting & telling these people I was English not Australian was distracting but none the less, Kyles EF managed to grab my attention back straight away. I love the way the EF looks, how it sits. I think it may just be my favourite looking Honda. GET THE PLANE DID YOU GET THE PLANE" They screeched.. I have to say I understand Kyles reasoning behind putting the OEM Spoiler back on, but I cant say I agree with his choice, Id have loved to have seen an EF Devil wing on there ! But once again, thats the beautiful thing about modifying cars & doing it YOUR way, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks. It truly is one of the few individual hobbys which can also make you friends for life. The back window has one half dedicated to Osaka JDM & the other half paying homage to a fallen friend who sadly passed away.. This brings us to the end of Kyles post. It was an absolute Honour to be able to do this, I love being able to write a post which also brings a bit of light to the public to why 6TWO1 exists. It was a pleasure to hang out with Kyle & shoot his car. He is a gentleman of the highest order. This shoot & feature is one that has meant the most to me, as like I said at the very beginning, if I hadn't stumbled over Kyle's photo in that magazine that night, something in my brain possibly wouldn't have sparked. I probably wouldn't have continued on that journey I started, I more than likely would have given up & resigned myself to a job I really wasn't enjoying & just existed. Instead I get to live my life, every day I wake up excited about whats ahead of me, excited about my job along with the future this holds for me & that I get to do EXACTLY what I want too in life. I am forever grateful. I really hope you have enjoyed this post. If you have, please share it on your various social networks! Exterior: - Full JDM SiR front end conversion - JDM SiR rear lip/sideskirts - Chargespeed front lip - Vision CF Type-MC mirrors (paint matched) - UKDM clear corner/bumper lenses - JDM taillights/center Interior: - FRP Black Bride Zeta III buckets - PCi solid mount seat rails - Momo Mod 78 - Checkerd Sports boss - JDM EF9 cluster - ITR shifter - ARC Magic Titanium shift knob - AutoPower 6-pt bolt-in roll bar/cage - Status Racing 5-pt harnesses - Braille B106 battery - Jet Grey respray - Coca-cola can Engine: - ’97 Spec JDM ITR B18C - FEEL’s header - Buddy Club Spec II exhaust - ACT Organic disc / Xtreme Duty pressure plate - ACT Prolite 9lb flywheel - Koyo EF9 Full-size radiator - Golden Eagle fuel rail - K-Tuned inline fuel filter - A-1 -6AN fuel fittings - Walbro 255lph fuel pump - RyWire Mil-Spec tuck harness - HAsport 73A Urethane mounts - HAsport axles - HAsport EF linkage - Hush Performance Hydraulic Clutch conversion - Mugen Reservoir cover Suspension: - PIC Select coilovers (12kf/10kr) - Full-Race traction bar - DA brake conversion - Centric cryotreated rotors - Hawk HP+ pads - Motul RBF600 fluid - Energy urethane bushing replacements - Function7 spherical LCAs - ASR rear 24mm sway bar - ASR rear subframe brace - 15” x 6.5” Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels (Almighty Grey) - 205/50/15 Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 tires - J’s Racing steel lug nuts Audio: - Buddy Club Spec II exhaust The end....