 Almost 8 years ago Melissa was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in her knees and jaw, which changed her life completely. She couldn't play sports, couldn't participate in gym class, couldn't eat almost half of the things she used to eat and love, and the worst thing was, arthritis is a non-curable disease. She was going to be challenged with this obstacle for the rest of her life. Before the CRX she had an old 1986 Toyota Corolla that she hated with a passion. The only good thing about it was it was free. So she dealt with it for about 3 months until things started to go wrong with it. The heater failed, the windows wouldn't go up and the body was rusting away. A very close friend of Melissa's who knew about her arthritis and the things she goes through noticed her frustration. He remembered how much Melissa really loves Honda CRX's and how she wanted one, so he actually went and bought her a 1991 honda CRX Si, and surprised her with it for Christmas! And that's when her CRX journey started. At first the whole car was pink, and the engine was completely stock. It had a loud ugly exhaust on it, the body kit was in real rough shape, the trim was painted black, and the wheels on it now are the same ones that came with it. The first thing Melissa did was an engine swap, she put in a JDM DOHC ZC. It was a nice pick up of speed, but of course not enough. Her new goal was to have a turbo within one year. The next purchase was a carbon fiber hood. The car was too girly, something had to be done to get rid of some of the pink! Then came the bad luck... After getting new tires installed, she took her car to an alignment shop and, while the car was parked outside, it was backed into twice in one day. Two days later, while at a Hockey game, Melissa's poor CRX was backed into a third time! The driver's side fender had been pushed in, and the rear bumper and taillights were damaged from the previous incidents. Another two days passed, and Melissa let her sister drive her car. Not expecting manual steering, her sister scraped the whole passenger side of the car along a barrier. That made four separate incidents in under one week. Luckily Melissa had already booked her car in at the body shop. They replaced the fenders, fixed the body kit completely so it was mint again, fixed the passenger side and re-painted the whole car. That's when she had them paint the trim pink, and paint the roof and spoiler black, to make it look less girly hahaha. After the whole body was re-done, she was then on her way to getting a turbo. It took a long time, but finally, after a lot of help from others and getting good deals on parts, and having parts custom made, the turbo was in. It took a lot of time, work and money, but it was worth it! Melissa sums it up best in her own words: 'So now I can proudly say that I have a Honda CRX, and I have learned a lot about doing my own engine swap, and I have learned a lot about turbo's. This car is almost like therapy for me. When I'm upset over my health, I go to my car. I'll be in my garage for hours working on my car on my own, getting my mind off of my arthritis. It means so much to me to have this car, I can't stress enough on how this car has changed my life.Thank you Jas, Dion, Doug, and everyone else who has helped work on my car. Means a lot' Good on ya, Melissa. 411 (1991 CRX SI):
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