2003 Honda Civic

With her banging 2003 Honda Civic, Kaitlin Buckner of Danville, VA, has shown the world (or at least the East Coast) that the ladies can rock the ICE realm as well as the guys. This build was a family affair with the help of her father, her brother Kyle and their business, Sounds Unlimited. This explains Kaitlin's taste for car audio, and her inspiration to bling her ride up to a show-worthy level.

Her brother Kyle has three years of experience designing great installations, so it makes sense that he put in overtime on this project. However, as a full-time student it was no easy task balancing his time between school and building Kaitlin's Civic to sound and look great. He spent countless hours and applied some serious time management, but it paid off with a masterpiece of a demo vehicle. If only all families pitched in on our audio projects like that!

The Essence Of AlpineAt the heart of the system beats the Alpine IVA-W200, trimmed out in a custom-made dash kit. Kyle didn't just run into the shop and pick up whatever was on the shelf. The product choice is core to his goals behind the build. "You see all these demo cars with the best equipment that the brand carries," he explains. "I wanted to do something a little different - to use the low end of the brand and make it perform better than others." The result shows that you can get a lot for not a lot of money.

DIY HeroIn addition to the custom dash kit, Kyle fabricated a lot of the pieces of the install himself. He wanted to maintain a subversive factory look: It could be stock, but you just know it's not. So there aren't a lot of painted pieces, but there are a lot of inserts, which allowed Kyle to do a lot of finishes for a clean look. How did he come by his incredible DIY skills? Just flip to the last department of this mag. "I learned most of the tricks I did from Steve Brown of Alpine Electronics," Kyle reveals. "I have seen a lot of Alpine's recent demo cars and every one just blows my mind. Steve is my hero!"

Insert HereClose to Kyle's heart are the door panels, mainly because of the inserts that feature crossovers from the front component sets. Kyle molded space in the fiberglass for six acrylic tubes to funnel wire under the crossover. The insert flushes into the fiberglassed door panel. "I also like the Plexiglas with the Alpine design on the edge of the insert," Kyle adds. To accent the interior, he painted the fiberglass inserts blue to match the exterior, providing the perfect amount of contrast with the interior. These inserts hold both the crossover and midrange in the front doors. The door panel itself was dyed gray, while the tweeters reside in custom fabricated sail panels at the top. For rear speakers, Kyle bypassed the doors altogether. Giving the rear components a smooth look, individual rods were made to sit down into the rear deck.

We're FinishedAnother of Kyle's favorites is the subwoofer enclosure, which fits perfectly behind the back seats. "The enclosure also has all the types of finishes used in the rest of the car," Kyle states. "The blue paint, the factory dye, the Alpine design on the Plexi and the black carbon-fiber vinyl."

Each individual finish coats an individual part of the five-piece fiberglass face of the enclosure. The subs mount on one piece. The blue-painted section fits on the top of the subs, covering the screw holes, so you just see the surround. Another insert rests on the painted piece. Lastly, the box is outlined by the carbon-fiber-vinyl-wrapped trim ring, which gives the effect of not having too much exterior paint in this part of the install.

Let's Get Amplified!Like the enclosure, the mainly fiberglass trunk includes all the finishes used in the vehicle. This means that not too much of one finish overwhelms the look. The top part is painted black and the four Alpine V-Power amps sit on the gray-dyed pieces. A painted blue trim piece sits in the middle and hugs the 1-farad capacitor in the center. The MDF piece on the floor, wrapped in carbon-fiber vinyl, proudly wears the "Sounds Unlimited" logo. In the trunk, you will find the power and ground distributions that sit on a graphic piece flushed into the fiberglass.

Due to the number of electronics in the space, the trunk proved to be the most difficult part of the install. Since many components had to go in before others, Kyle had to ask himself, "How am I going to wire it up?" He reveals, "A lot of thinking went on in the trunk, but I'm happy the way it turned out."

Protected By UngoWith the interior and exterior finished, you might think that Kyle's job was done. But, if Kaitlin wants to actually drive this Civic around, she'll need top-notch protection. Kyle wired up the Ungo SR5000 security system, which not only provides security but also controls the windows remote starts the car. So when you approach this 2003 Honda Civic at a show, you better stand back because it's protected by Ungo!