The Unexpected

By Luke Munnell
Photography by Luke Munnell


There's a saying I've grown quite fond of: Life isn't what happens with the plans we make; it's what happens while we're making the plans. As much as we like to think we're in control of our own lives, it's how we react to the unforeseen that determines them. Destiny, fate, mother nature-call it what you want, "it" doesn't really care what you think. It's going to do what it's going to do, and for you to have a shot at a successful life, you've got to learn to roll with it.

Anyone who's been knee-deep in a project car build can see the segue here. No matter how carefully you plan modification, budget, and build schedule, something always happens to throw those plans off, and your project never turns out exactly the way you envisioned. Jon Sunga's been there. But unlike most of the cars we feature, built by experienced wrenchmen who had a good idea of what they were getting into ahead of time, we don't think there ever was a time when the build of Jon's EG Civic went according to plan



This is Jon's first car, and he's had it for seven years. Truth be told, he didn't really want it in the first place. Jon's introduction to cars was through his brother, who rocked a tough first-gen RX-7 back in the day: Turbo II 13B swap, bolt-ons, suspension, etc. "I actually borrowed my brother's car to drive out to look at an RX-7 I wanted to buy," Jon tells, "and I saw this Civic at a Nissan dealership on the way, which one of the salesmen was selling privately." It was a bone-stock DX, had high miles but was relatively clean aside from faded red paint and ripped front seating. "The guy was asking $3K for it," he say. "I showed him the $2K cash I had on me and he let me take it."

Like any broke-ass kid who's first car was a Civic, Jon's a little hesitant to reflect back on his initial mods. "I did a lot of little stuff at first; I added a clock and passenger-side mirror, got new stock seats," he laughs, "but then I cut the springs, put on some painted HX wheels-typical ricer stuff!" Hitting up the local meets, he developed a taste for modification. "I remember seeing the AM7 guys and their crazy-clean cars at all the local spots," he recalls. "That's what made me see realize there was another way to do this."



He eventually swapped out those cut springs and blown shocks for Ground Control coilovers and Tokicos for $500, came up on a set of authentic Mugen RNRs, and rounded up some bolt-on performance mods and more interior bits. He was even pulling extra shifts to save up for an H22A swap. And just when Jon's plans started working out, life threw him a curveball. The Civic was stolen. "I got caught slippin'," he says. "I had a set of Teins in there that I just bought, along with those RNRs and some little stuff that I was going to put on at my friend's place the next day, and someone jacked it out of my driveway that night." Jon found the car a few days later, abandoned, just down the street from his place. "Baldwin Park was a gang neighborhood back then. I knew who did it, but there was really nothing I could do about it." The car was stripped down to nothing but a running shell, and all Jon's schwag was gone. "It was my only car," he says. "I had no choice but to re-build it."

Jon spent about $500 of his H-swap money piecing the Civic back together, and later added some stereo equipment and found a good deal on replacement bolt-ons. Content with the brand-new Teins, the thieves left Jon's ground Control/Tokico suspension untouched, and in turn, so did he. He picked up a set of Work RZRs from a friend, and just as he started saving up for that H-swap he'd been planning, his car went missing. Again. "This time the cops found it the same day," he says. "The thieves only had time to get the wheels off and rip out the stereo. I guess I lucked out."

Munnell, L. (2010). 1992 Honda Civic DX - The Unexpected. Import Tuner. Retrieved from http://www.importtuner.com/features/impp_1009_1992_honda_civic_dx/index.html