Jon played his cards a little closer the next time around, and stocked parts up in his pad while rolling the Civic stock around town. His connections in the aftermarket led to a full-time gig at Fast Autoworks, and naturally, deals on parts came his way. He replaced the stolen RZRs with a set of used Work Meisters he picked up in trade for work on a homie's car, replaced his Civic's mismatched stock interior with a pair of Bride Zieg IIIs and matching re-upholstered rears for about a $1K, and added a JDM EG6 Si-R console in place of the stock DX unit the thieves tore out to grab his stereo. He even traded a beater EF Civic he picked up along the way for a Kenwood KBT-614 head unit, two Alpine amps, four Pioneer speakers, and a 12-inch JBL sub. "I was planning on keeping the EF as a daily," he says, "but I couldn't pass up the deal. I only paid $100 for that car."
After more than four years, the H22A swap Jon had been planning finally became a reality. Kind of. "Once I saved up, my friend gave me a really good deal on his B16A," he says, "and Fast (Autoworks) was able to get me pretty much everything under the hood, all for about the price of an H22A swap." Chase Bays stepped in with wiring after the Civic was stolen for the second time, and according to Jon, converting the tucked harness for the B16 was easy.
We all know how badly Honda red fades-Jon's Civic had pretty much been pink until this point. "I wasn't sure about which color to paint it," he says, "but I knew I had to do something crazy before I brought it out." Crazy, but clean. Jon had become a fan of stock lines, and purposely hadn't added very much in the exterior department. Any color he chose to paint the Civic would have to stand out, yet remain subtle. "The Honda guys up north were doing the Battleship Gray engine bays with all different exterior colors," he recalls, "and when my friends Mikey and Arnel from Phase2 did theirs down here [see sidebar], I got ideas for mine." A lifelong Lakers fan, Jon chose royal purple for the exterior. But also a collector of kicks, he went teal with the engine bay and interior, inspired by the "Grape" colorway of Nike's Air Jordan 5. "I couldn't afford a pro to paint it like I originally wanted, so I took my shoes and some Lakers gear down to a Home Depot and matched up a couple hundred bucks in Sherwin Williams paint and supplies, and my friend Adam and I sprayed it in his backyard," he says, before offering a final comment that perfectly caps the process of his Civic's build, and his acceptance of the things he couldn't change along the way, "The colors turned out a little off, but whatever. I'm cool with it."