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Finally getting around to a build thread for my third car It all started on a dull early may day. A Friend of mine messaged me, asking if I needed any parts from her MB4 before she scrapped it. It had been sitting on her drive since she her daughter had been born. I said to her, "let me know what the scrappy offers, and i'll chuck £50 on top and come grab it", knowing that the d16w4 powerplant in this could replace my lathargic D14 in my MB2 The next day me and a mate collected it, threw some trade plates on and ran up to my workshop. Even with the old 4 speed slush-box, and a years neglect, the MB4 walked away from my MB2 on a straight bit of road. Once we arrived, my friend parked the car up and then headed home. I then stood and had a smoke, looking at this car having a "Wangan midnight" esque moment, seeing the colour of the Sicilian Red paint for the first time. Plans had changed. (see attached image) Rust and engine work: First I got the car up on stands and made a list of everything wrong with it. The rear passenger sill and inner arch passed the good old screwdriver test, however the driver's side failed miserably, along with a few places around the front jacking point, and front inner arch. Out came the grinder, welder, and some conveniently shaped and cut sheet metal that I would be using to patch these big holes. This was a steep learning curve, as I have only ever done agricultural welding, and never thin bodywork. Once the rust was dealt with next came the auto box - I had never planned to keep this gearbox, so the hunt for an s20 close ratio box began. During this time, the auto box, torque converter and PRND lever were all disposed of in an appropriate fashion (Thrown into a skip as fast as humanly possible🤣), meanwhile, the engine was suspended by a ratchet strap around 2 on the gearbox bolts, and a random 2x4 i had laying about across the wings (See attached) Whilst the box was off, I decided to replace the rear main seal, sump gasket, and clean out the oil pickup tube. A few shiny parts were fitted during this time too, including an oil sandwich plate with senders for both oil pressure and temp, HKS oil filter, TTV flywheel and an exedy stage 1 clutch. Once I sourced a box, the new mounts were fitted up and after a copious amount of faffing around the engine and box were in. (I wish I had an engine crane!!) I altered the wiring on the PRND plug to disable the inhibitor switch, as well as the reverse lights. I finished under the bay by rebuilding the distributor, replacing the plugs and HT leads. I also added a bus bar to the firewall as my battery was going to be boot mounted. I am using a Janspeed 4-2-1 manifold, a smashed out OEM cat shell and a Skunk2 megapower exhaust system. I have a Whale pen15 air intake as well. Interior: This car had a creme interior, which I knew wouldn't survive me daily driving it. I quickly tore this out, installed a load of sound deadening and the various wires i'd be needing for my ICE setup, then fitted a black carpet and VTI "bus seat" interior. I mounted the battery and circuit breaker in the spare wheel well, as well as a power distribution block. this would be needed when I got around to building the boot and fitting my 3 amps. I finished the interior off with an oil pressure and temperature gauge set, a fire extinguisher, and an old school pioneer flipout headunit + DVD player. Exterior: The exterior is largely untouched, as it is the rare sicilian red pearl colour. This car was factory specced with a full VTIs kit and Jordan wheels. The jordan wheels went onto my other MB2, so that I could fit my 15" TSW imola wheels. I welded the rear wiper hole up, and the old spoiler holes. I then fitted an "auto spoiler", which had been preiovsly fitted to a friend's recently imported 200sx. This was an almost perfect colour match.

See attached, will be posting some more in the near future about rebuilding my engine haha

Smaller power steering pulley (hopefully it will clear the bonnet without hacking any big holes in it) and 10% underdrive alternator pulley fitted As we've deleted the AC the factory belt was much too long (think it was something like 7pk1735 from memory). Managed to find a belt that will fit (7PK1400) - it seems ok but apparently there is a mark on the tensioner that you can check - i'll do this next time im with the car to confirm but seems like the right size. Engine mounts ordered - I went for Innovative Mounts for a Civic EG as the price for Hasport mounts in the UK is insane (£700+!) and I wanted to avoid ebay china copied junk on this project...

Thanks for the update on the fogs - I managed to get a set of good condition blanking plates so i've removed the fairly rotten big fogs for now but I may reinstate them later. Left the connectors tied up behind. A bit more progress on the K-swap side of things: Drilled a couple of holes in the firewall just under the heater outlet to allow for the shifter cables to pass through (no photo, oops) Got hold of a billet shifter plate designed for an EG but it was sitting too proud of the tunnel so drilled out the fasteners for the shifter base plate and removed it DC5 shifter mocked up - was worried that it would be too close to the dashboard but it seems to just about be ok - the shifter box came with a short shifter already fitted which should help things Clutch and flywheel test fit - just waiting for various missing bolts to arrive from Japan before buttoning it all up. Toyed with the idea of getting an uprated clutch but we've gone with Exedy OEM EP3 clutch for now as it's many times cheaper than an uprated one (£126 vs ~£400) and I reckon it'll be OK for NA power levels. Any future plans to boost the car would require an LSD as well as a clutch upgrade anyway! Flywheel is a Competition Clutch 3.9kg

Hi folks. Had a 2010 Civic TypeS GT in red (aka Sexy Lexy) about 9 years ago, followed by a 2008 Civic TypeR in silver (aka Roxy). Traded the TypeR in for something more sensible for a daily driver, and have had a load of various cars since then. Always missed my TypeS tho! Was supposed to be looking for a classic 1980s Vw Golf convertible or an old Scirocco, but got fed up looking at sheds. Decided plan B was needed which was to sell my 1st Gen MINI Cooper s convertible and get a sensible daily driver again! Initially looked at 10th gen civics, but wasn't too keen on the style, so the hunt was on for a TypeS GT again (pref in red). Had to be the GT, had to be the 1.8 and no older than a 2010. Found one down in Yorkshire for £4.5k, years mot, service history, 64k on the clock,in red....and even the first 2 letters of the reg were the same as my old one (OE). She drives like a brand new car, so happy to be back in an 8th gen! Only got a few pics of her so far but will get more. Hope you like! Some subtle mods on the way, pretty much the same as I did withLexy senior lol Oh, and also means DD is relieved of the daily driving duties, so tucked up in the garage. Means I can spend time getting her back to show standard now!

Happy Christmas everyone! Hope that you're all having a great festive break! 🎄🎄🎄🎄

You are technically right about not needing the whole trailing arms, but good luck with both finding the spindles by themselves in usable condition and taking the old ones off. Finding parts like that is getting progressively hard as our cars start to turn into oldtimers, and most of these super specific upgrade parts have already been grabbed about a decade ago. We're kinda late to the party in that regard. The spindles are also secured to the trailing arms with extremely strong threadlocker, which oftentimes are pretty old and corroded on top, which makes removing them near impossible without drilling them out. Stripped a bolt attempting to remove the disc brake ones, even with applying heat and using rust remover beforehand. No chance. So, yes - you technically don't need them, but realistically you will. Except if you're fine with drilling all of the bolts out and dealing with that headache. And the part about bleeding the brakes is also generally correct. Most cars have their brake systems set up like that so you can still come to a stop if a brake line fails. Otherwise if you combine FR with RR / FL with RL you will only have working brakes on one side of your car, which I don't have to explain why that would be very bad.

Hey all, already done a load of restoration as getting it back to full N/A Glory before I consider ITBs. Just wanted to make a meal of this that arrived the other day, so happy! 🥰

ok, its been some time... but i want to share few photos from a civic photoshoot i made recently. This is how it currently looks like.

Amazing reply from SirPaperbag! Just to add ive done this swap on my (non abs) mb2, but also upgraded a few things. My setup is as follows and works sweet: Disc trailing arms off a mc1 aerodeck MB6 brake booster MB6 1" master cylinder Mgzs 180 282mm front calipers (interesting the caliper is the same as from a 97-03 accord, not sure on the carrier) Mgzs 180 262mm rear calipers 46210-S5A-912 40-40 prop valve Regarding the rear arb - the rear brace that SirPaperbag mentions won't fit without modification. DeLaSoul mentions it in his build thread - if I remember correctly the mounting points where the LCAs mount to the chassis are about 8mm narrower on our MBs to EKs

Small update on the whole brake prop valve situation: Apparently, EG6 prop valves could also work, as they don't have ABS and 262/242mm rotors in the front and rear, just like our M-chassis Civics. So, if that's true, you could get a brand new valve for less than $200 from Japan. Part number for these bad boys is 46210-SR3-013 And you should be fine sticking with your original brake master cylinder + booster! But if you've got 242mm discs all around instead you'd need a "1725" valve (46210-1725-XXX) off a Del Sol, not off an EE/ED/EF Civic! (Different f/r rotor sizes)

Got some from Climair installed rn, and they fit very well. They're still available brand new. Only thing I had to do is grind off a bit of the holding tab in the front (was a bit too long) but that's completely normal with these things. And you can even choose between clear, tinted, and dark, which I find quite nice.

Good shout mate, I'll se about getting this added to FAQ. And thank you, cracking info there!

A reply this detailed deserves to be in the FAQ section of this site! It really seems a more difficult job than a cam swap and a tune haha If I ever manage to stumble upon the main parts for a cheap enough price (Hondas in general were very expensive relative to other cars here in Italy so not many sales...) to justify all the work I'll definitely try. Thanks for all the info!

Great post there mate

The part about needing new trailing arms is 100% correct, as the drum brake ones lack the proper mounting points for a disc brake system. But you've got to be careful with which arms you choose, as the wrong ones could end up increasing your rear trackwidth and that's gonna end badly for your handling. As our M-chassis have borrowed a lot of suspension components from 5th gen Civics (EG), I'd recommend searching for EG5/EG6/etc. trailing arms, as they should keep everything in spec. I for one got a pair of EG5 arms to go with my non-ABS system. But that's only part of the problem. If you've somehow managed to get yourself the right trailing arms then you still have to find a matching brake proportioning valve (or prop valve) that splits the pressure correctly between front and rear. Otherwise your rear brakes might either not bite enough, or bite too much and cause the rear to kick out while braking (very dangerous). This is especially important if you've got something like an MOT or TÜV here in Germany, where your car gets an inspection every X years and they check your brake performance. M-chassis Civics also use an old style of prop valve, which makes it EVEN HARDER to find the correct ones. What you generally want to get is called a "4040" valve, which is just the model number, nothing more (some dumbasses online claimed those valves split 40/40, but where the hell would the remaining 20% go?) I also found a nifty table somewhere on an obscure forum, and I don't know where exactly I got it from, so I sadly can't attribute the original poster, but here it is: And depending on the caliper sizing, you might even have to upgrade your master cylinder, but that's getting really technical. So, in short, get the correct trailing arms, a somewhat correct prop valve and maybe upgrade your master cylinder. If you want to do it properly, it's a whole lot more work than just doing enough for it to work. Pro Tip: You can also fine-tune your front/rear balance by using more or less aggressive pads. And regarding rear ARBs, you've got a choice between either buying some used EG6 brackets, using aftermarket ones, and reinforcement braces with mounts included. I went with a used EG6 ARB, plus mounting hardware, because I wanted to try out how much difference just that dingy little thing would make (a lot). Here are a few pics of it both installed, and some pics of the used mounting hardware. You also need fitting lower control arms with mounting holes for the endlinks. And I'd recommend buying new endlinks while you're at it. And maybe a few harder rubber bushings on top. I also had to fabricate some small metal standoffs for the mounting bracket to properly fit to the rear frame (top right picture, the screw just above the yellow marking). This would be the alternative, a rear brace with mounts included: But some places also carry aftermarket versions of the OG hardware that I mentioned and shower earlier, so that's an option, as well. All in all, it's a s**t job with tons of little hang-ups, researching, browsing marketplaces and painful installation, but the handling difference is night and day.

Heya bud imho, dual rads are a terrible idea. They are both looking to dissipate heat, but when connected, if you feel the desire to move rapidly or it's a very hot day, the heat in the rad will affect the condensers ability to be effective, thus you would lose cooling ability. I guess it's like putting you home fridge in front of the radiator, if the fridge can;t shift the heat, the gasses can't re condense and the fridge loses it's ability to be effective. I think it would more be a limit to the age of the technology of the aircon, pressures used today are greater and condensers are far more efficient. I say delete the aircon, get a bigger rad and just drive faster with all the windows down! haha! I say when my MB6 VTIs still has it's full aircon :P

Thank you guys. I'll try to make a topic of the work in the car I've made so far and all the work I want to do. @SirPaperbag The fog lights are not factory ones but some cheep chinese. I found the originals , bought them but I think the front bumber is an aftermarket bumber so I have to cut the whole thing in there to fit the original factory fog lights. Lots of work has to be made generally and have no time. Nevermind whenever I find some free time I will do it. The grille is handmade, I tried to fit the H emblem from my previous EK civic, but it's too big :( Only the small H emblem of the pre-facelift fits. By the way the car was imported from Germany, as the user manual of the car is in German :D

On the night shift downtime and was having a read through this thread, thought the car looked awful familiar. Saw it at cadwell a while back, with presumably its new owner. Looked and sounded amazing, went like f**k too! ahaha

Whoops, hope these work haha. Got round to fitting most the parts - also fitted a k-tuned rep short shifter with a stainless weighted knob which makes the car feel so nice to drive - will get a photo soon. Me and my wife have also had a baby so time and money to work on the car are in short supply!! Next steps are to get the interior sorted - really want to fix the headliner, and seeing Kaleverada's thread has me inspired for the pillars! Also really want to strip out the back, tint the windows & fit bucket seats...

So, did a good bit of work to the car again. This time I installed a proper mounting bracket for the cold air intake as the old hacked-off and jury-rigged intake mani bracket looked pretty bad, to be honest. Also installed a pair of much more serious sounding horns than that little beeper that the car came with. They sound a lot better than the OEM one did, and are quite a bit louder on top! After that I installed a set of new bumper screws - the original ones were completely rusted and cruddy, and one almost stripped completely when I took that bumper off! Then I got to work on my seat-project. As I said in my last post - the original seats make me sit a bit too high for my own tastes and I have been looking for either some high-quality (road legal) seat rails for aftermarket seats from either Recaro or some other brand, or a completely different way to sit lower than the original seats would allow me to. As it turns out ... you can fit CRX seats on the original M-chassis rails if you drill out the rivets and fabricate an adaptor plate out of steel (10mm thick in my case). I got lucky a few years ago and managed to take a pair of these seats off a guy for jsut 250 bucks total. :) Here's how the first prototype looks like: This was only to take a look and see if my idea could even work to begin with, and if it would make me sit lower than the OEM seats would, but as luck would have it ... this combo works flawlessly and I sit about 5 to 8 centimetres lower than I do in the stock seats! :D They are also quite a bit more comfortable, if a bit worn-out. Real plushy. :) But as things stand right now I'll just make a few more refinements to my adaptor brackets, give those seats a thorough cleaning session and maybe add some more side bolstering to give them a bit more of a sporty feel and I've got myself a nice pair of OEM Honda seats that do exactly what I want from them! :D

So, a few boxes full of fun-parts arrived yesterday... :D I'm still trying to find a good machining shop to get a port and polish, a valve-job and to get the rotating assembly properly balanced, but things are slowly progressing on the new engine build. It's going to be unconventional for sure, but I'm going to be fully building an N/A D16Z6 that I've bought for this project. Forged conrods, high compression pistons, stage 2 camshaft, lightened flywheel, the whole nine yards. I've also done some test-fitting already and it seems that the 'LITE'-series of conrods from Skunk2 doesn't require any notching of the block to fit, which is a huge win in my book! Though I had to cobble together a pseudo-piston from a few pieces of plastic and foam for the test-fit, as the pistons I bought are .5mm oversize and I haven't had the block bored out yet. Worked super well, though! But I'm super stoked to see what kind of power gain this is going to get me, and especially how high I'll be able to rev it. Components-wise it should be fine up to 9.000 or even 10.000 RPM, but we all know that it probably won't make much or even any power up that high in the rev-range. Based on my research into other all-motor D16 builds and B20 builds I'm confident that it should definitely hold up to 9.000 relatively comfortably, as many people in the states rev their stock-rod B20s that high without much issue, running only ARP rod-bolts and nothing else. (B20 engines have the same stroke as D16s, btw) It's going to be a while until things get moving properly, but the first step has been taken and all that's holding me back right now is finding that machining shop! :D Some folks are probably going to ask why I would take a D16 that far instead of just going B-Series, and I'm going to answer that by telling you that a B-Series swap costs around four to five thousand Euros where I live. If you can even find one... That's a lot of money for just a stock engine and trans. And it's also why I'm going to spend about the same amount of money to build a D-Series that is going to make roughly the same power, as well. I simply want a built engine. Simple as that. I've always wanted to build a proper all-motor engine and I finally got the chance, both time- and money-wise to do so, and I'm going to do it! :D I've also been doing some research into getting a road-legal bucket seat, or any kind of seat to be honest, because the stock seats are just too high for my tastes and I constantly have to lean forward when I'm stopped at a red light. Someone else on this forum already made an extremely helpful post about the seat rails from Planted Technology, which helped me immensely, but I've also found a local engineering company here in Germany which is able to fabricate everything in-house and even get it entered into the car's paperwork the legitimate way. That comes with its price though... Well, anyways. That's the current state of my project. See ya 'round!

Sensor for the ir remote I believe.

Can confirm these are direct replacement to the existing big fogs. You might need to swap the plug over however. If I remember correctly the front seal wasn't great so I used a big o-ring between the glass and the front screw on cap piece to keep the water out

Yes definitely! Focus at the moment is building up the engine ready to go into the car. I've got most of the things sorted that need/are easier to go into the car before the engine is in place, e.g. the shifter box, shifter cables and the power steering hoses (it's a real pain to reach the bottom of the PS rack with the engine in!) ready to go now I haven't got any engine mounts sorted yet but im hoping that some genuine Civic EG hasport ones come up for sale used at some point. They're incredibly expensive new (£750!) so I can see why people are tempted by chinese knock offs you can get on ebay, but personally I won't do that. You can get an alternative from Innovative Mounts for about £400 or so, but I dont need to order yet until i'm ready. A lot of these parts, its worth biding your time and seeing what comes up for sale on marketplace, ebay etc rather than getting things new as usually the price is high because it's come from the USA generally and import duties etc are rolled into the price. I've also managed to purchase a VTI-S front lip and side skirts from a car being broken, along with some door mouldings that were in better condition than ours which are all cracked and horrible (the ones right under the window on the top of the outside of the door). They seem to not be available new, i've tried both Honda and Rover part numbers. Most of the clips got smashed during the process of prising them out (I think you're supposed to do it from the reverse side with the door card out to release them) but it seems like you can still get those new fortunately. Also got a set of used MB-specific Meister-R coil overs which seem to be in very good condition so that was a score as they're also pretty pricey new. The rear lip is elusive but I think we may end up modifying the bumper somehow anyway depending on exhaust fitment etc so it's probably just as well for the time being.

Thank you for the warm welcome both I am basically following guides for an EG K-swap as the car seems to be almost identical as far as a K swap is concerned. Even the EG conversion harness (to connect the new engine loom to the existing car loom) appears to work for the MB. Spent a day on the car today and progress as follows: Bye bye D14! Some areas of surface rust in the engine bay that we'll go over with a flap wheel and spraypaint over just to stop it getting any worse but not found anything that needs any welding etc so that's good news Made a bit of a mess knocking out the leftmost engine mount bracket (required to install the EGK2 Hasport mounts). Drilled all the spot welds out but it still wasn't budging so ended up going in behind it with a hammer and chisel and it eventually came off - the chassis has suffered a few battle scars but nothing a bit of sanding and paint can't cure! I've agreed to buy an EP3 civic gearbox so now that the gearbox has been chosen the next job I think will be to get hold of a shifter from an Integra DC5 and get that mounted in the car and get the shifter cables fed through to the engine bay and the shifter mounted. If i'd gone for an FN2 or accord gearbox I would've needed an accord shifter as the pattern is reversed. And finally my first mod! A set of clear indicators, I believe they were from an accord - I had to file off a small tab on the casing to get them to fit the connector was a direct swap so that's a good result

Yes it is a before and after. It has great shine when throwing flash light on it ☺️

Hi fellas's Its been a while. Sadly I've come to a positio where I have to let her go. It's been one hell of a journey but this car has been sitting under a tarp for long enough now. I think I've done a fair amount of mods and I've learned SO MUCH over the past 5 years of owning this car. Sadly I've grown up a little, got a stock '99 accord that I use for work... Hinata ended up outside for a while, now she sits in our new workshop under a cover. Been sitting for a year almost and barely driven. It hurts to look at her so i've been trying to sell it for sometime now. This sunday someones coming over to maybe take her and drive her again. It's a shame but i've been neglecting this car / focusing on other things for quite sometime and I just can look at her anymore. It's been wild, thanks :)

Hi everyone, My name's Nishan, since ive been reading through some of the threads I figured id make an introductory post 🙂 Ive got an manual MC1 aerodeck with a D16W4 on 118k that I picked up as an MOT failure about a month ago for £800, its got an enormous stack of history and im the 3rd owner Been fixing her up slowly over the last month, getting the bits done for a fresh MOT, rear passenger caliper was seized when I bought it and was pretty much the first thing I did along with discs and pads both sides on the rear. Next issue to sort was the horn not working which I stupidly assumed was the clockspring since I had the exact same issue on my first car which was a D14 mb6 and I know its a common issue on old civics. Replaced it and ended up buying a used horn since my multimeter packed up so I just guessed it had to be one of the two. Replaced both the sidelight bulbs since they had burnt out and lastly i had an exhaust leak from the mid section and backbox, since someone had previously taken a few speed bumps pretty enthusiastically and put a nice collection of holes on the bottom managed to score the backbox and mid section for £100 on ebay brand new and almost finished fitting it last weekend, just need to drill out the old bolts to the cat that are pretty in there and that should pass me the MOT fingers crossed 😀. Im thinking of doing some coolant bypass bits as I've heard its a good modification on the D series engines. If anyone knows a thread that explains how best to go about it or has done it themselves please let me know, would be much appreciated Im aiming to put it on the road as my daily as I'm currently dailying a manual honda accord CM2 2.2 diesel which has a nasty bit of timing chain rattle, so im gonna switch them around and daily the civic while I replace the timing chain along with any other bits that need doing. Any info in regards to preventative maintenance on the aerodeck would be greatly appreciated as im not super well versed in the common issues these suffer from. Cheers guys 😁

many thanks both, I had a quick look for repair panels yesterday, they do exist but not found for inner arch yet. also not sure how they compare e.g. in thickness terms with OE body shell ? suggestions on best place to buy the panels appreciated. otherwise I will just carry on googling. ours has been garaged (unheated though) so it is out of the weather, except when used - it's still the daily driver.

Yes mate, deffo ones that can be retro fitted so look OEM. Two things honda left out in the Civic Ms....cupholders and storage! Lol

Happy New Year to all our member. Hope you have a great 2025!

Looks really nice mate 😎 @Dave 's fave colour for an MB 😁

Okay next up, the rest of the sill and front jacking point and floor. The whole sill from front to back was GONE nothing left hardly, Thankfully it did not creep too far up, although i did cut out the bottom part of the back where the floor was spotwelded to as i didnt know if that seam was compromised from the otherside. When replacing the lower section where the floor meets i made sure that the car was supported and i also only did it in section so i didnt move the floor too much. It looks a bit rough but that lower edge was grinded straight for when i put the rest of the sill on. A photo of what i cut out A Before and After! Next bit was to weld the outer sill. Here is it is with the cover on, Panel gaps are slightly out as the doors are not yet put on properly. but it gives you an idea. Next up is the front jacking point This was some seriously thick metal and many layers of it, and with it being upside down it was very awkward to get accurate cuts with the grinder. Rot Cut out and new metal put into the floor. Not the best welding as i was upside down. Reinforcer piece put in then that was plug welded to the floor as from how it was done at factory with the spotwelds. Another piece made for the inner section of the jacking point. added some drain holes too! all Electrox Zinc Primed Then the outer section was welded in the new jacking point panels from Discount MG Rover Spares are spot on! and are made from 2mm steel so thicker than the original! All welded in Rest of the outer sill welded in, sadly i forgot to take photos of the inside section, it was all cut out replaced with fresh metal and the areas where the bolts go in for the wing were cut out, sand blasted, and re welded back in. Another section of the sill being welded in as this had to go under the jacking point piece so was left till last as it was easier to plug weld them from the inside rather than upside down. A Couple of Before photos And After Photos! The Floor inside was all stripped to bare metal and epoxy primed Photo of the car with all the work done! New Grommets were installed alongside new seam sealer. Very happy with the result. And just like that, the interior is back in! Im going to be doing some more work on it over winter, such as brakes and suspension, nothing bodywork wise as its too cold to paint etc. so that will be done next year, hopefully the car will be ready for an MOT around april time next year depending on weather!

Okay so i said id do an update some time ago and never got round to it, to cut a long story short, all the welding is now fully complete and the car now has its interior back in. but i thought id show you the work that i have done over the past year. Starting off with the Rear Drivers side sill, this side is the worst, The Passenger side was not too bad compared to this. so i started cutting away to see what the extent of it was. As you can see it is quite bad. Luckily the back part of the inner sill is nice an rust free, very solid in fact on both sides! It has only really crept up on the edges and further down to the front. I cut out the bottom bit as i am completely replacing the whole sill as it is knackered to say the least. A new section was made for the back part of the sill This section is the part where the trailing arm bolts up into, the lip was rusty, i was not happy leaving it like that so it was also repaired with 1.2mm steel not the cleanest job but strong and then filled with S50 Cavity Wax. some more reconstruction work of the rear sill because i cut away all the rust i had very little to work with to get the shape right so i had to make sure that it all lines up hence why i put a little piece in to the right of the image to give me a guide. It was also done to make sure the sill overlaps the middle section as the sill is made in 3 bits, Rear, Middle and Front, it is plug welded at the seam shown on this photo. Here is the sill panel all ready to be welded in making sure that it is also all lined up. A good photo to show the extent of the cutting that i have had to do on this side due to the rot. I thought if i have the whole panel then why not just replace the whole section, its easier, quicker and makes for a neater repair. More Cutting showing the extent of the rust around the wheel arch area. Not terrible but also not good. Some Crappy looking plug welds later and its finally in. I should really have removed more of the factory coating but nevermind... The main thing is is that the welds are strong and have plenty of penetration on the backside, they can be grinded down later. The wheel arch more opened up showing the extent of how much ive had to cut out. With even more to come! Because you cant get the inners for these ive had to make it myself, it was a pain but we got there in the end. I cut it down and got it welded in, Doesn't look pretty yet but will do later on down the line once finished. Next was to sort out this lip behind the bumper as rust had got there too! Lots more cutting atleast the rust wont come back, Right? A new boot floor lip made for the outer skin to weld onto. Another little patch repaired Fabricated the lower section of the inner arch where it comes down and meets the bit behind the bumper Here is the Inner Arch All welded up. Im pretty chuffed with that to say im a novice at this sort of stuff and it being my first car to restore. Heres it with the bumper on. A photo of all the rot ive had to cut out! Some more fabrication work, A new jacking point! Testing fitment of the Genuine wheel arch, The other one was used for backup in case i messed up. Inner arch all finished. Some more little reinforcers done for the Rear sill. Getting the Alignment right for the rear quarter panel, i butt welded rather than joggled. All tacked in place. all welded, put the bumper on to test fitment too. By no means perfect but for a first try at a wheel arch its not terrible, a few pin holes which were filled later. Lower section of the sill with the new jacking point welded. Some filler work to be required i think Atleast the panel gaps are good I will do this post in 2 sections, the next being the front sill and jacking point just to make sure it uploads with all the images etc, Overall im happy with the result, i think i could have made the wheel arch tidier but for a first time its not horrendous.

I started out with the heko ones, but then got a set of the Climair ones, which are a bit better.

Hi Dave, Sorry for the late reply. the filler neck on mine was a sod to remove as it was rusty, and the rubber pipe had hardened and lost its flexibility. the trailing arm and strut got in the way, so i had to lower the tank down and kind of feed it through. Good news is though, if yours is rusty a Rover 45 filler neck will be identical and probably much tidier.

Thanks @Dave, anyone seen the newish series by Roverjoe on youtube? Damn, the initial rust on his arches and sills filled me with proper dread but he, for an armature, did very well! Still so crazy the inter swappable parts from the rover 45/400/mg zs.

Easiest way to get these out I've done it many times. Heat them with a blow lamp till they burn. The rubber turns to ash and you can take the tube out. Then cut a slit in the outer ring in two places 180 degrees from one another using hacksaw or similar. Really easy.

Hey Bro, Same with the one I wanted, common area. Poked and made it all worse haha, was the same on the other side, but the stability was still there, so a couple of small welds and used Isopon skin, high build primer, done. Got the other areas the side trim attaches to (in pics) back to bare metal, Jenolited everywhere, painted. Annoying at the time I painted gloss black to get it protected as nh605p was out of my dead budget! So check the side trim as it will have work for you :P You one looks better than mine, still be prepared as Kink says, that rust is coming from the inside out, you need to get at the source. If you love it and really want it, get it and sort it.

Thanks for this man, appreciate the time to break it down. They do look sweet (AD08RS), It's like you said, the stiff walls give great feedback and give that feel of confidence I'm after. My VTIs is my beloved thing, only goes out of the hottest dry days, this year... 0 days out haha. So having the best dry performance is important, did I mention they also look cool? :P

I have actually used both Rainsport 5 and the AD08RS tires, so I think I'll just throw my two cents in here. The Rainsports are literally a 10/10 in the rain - I once drove on the Autobahn during a heavy rainstorm with around 130kph and I didn't get even the slightest bit of aquaplaning at all! But their dry grip is not the best to be honest. They tend to understeer and 'smeer' during cornering, so maybe a 7.5/10 in that category. The AD08RS are also very good in 'bad' (rainy) conditions - I'd give them an 8/10 in that regard, they grip quite well in the wet for semi-slicks. When I went over to my mates' to put the new tires on my wheels it was still early February and quite the rainy evening, but the brand new tires didn't feel slippery or dodgy in those cold and wet conditions at all! (Around 5-7°C and quite a lot of rain) Their dry grip is in a completely different league as well - the car feels like driving on rails compared to the old Rainsports. On my usual B-roads there were a few corners that always felt a bit dodgy/understeery when I took them with 100kph, but the Advans give me nothing but confidence! So, my recommendation for you would be the AD08RS. Their dry grip is almost perfect in my opinion and they are good enough in the rain, especially if it's mainly a dry-weather car. (And I use them for my daily, so...) Plus a few pictures comparing the fitment (same tire sizes for both of them):

Hey bud, glad you're getting the old girl back in the road. I'm a big fan of uniroyal rain sports. I know you're only going to be out in the dry, but you never know what's coming, and they're fantastic in the wet. Good in the dry too. Bit soft and wear quickly, but I've used them for years now.

Heya, The worry is the light on after shutdown, it should go off. Mine had a poor after market alarm installed which caused the door sensors to short which was a mystery for ages as it caused a parasitic leech draining the battery. Has there been any mods you might be unaware of, any filled fuses that should be blank or odd wiring anywhere? Fairly sure euro codes are region wide? as opposed to US/JDM, 18 codes are super common, I think you can just unplug the sensor and do the multi meter test to check them. "Spin the Wheel: Carefully spin the wheel by hand while keeping the sensor detached but not removed. When the magnetic field strength (Hall Effect type) or the teeth on the reluctor ring pass by the sensor (magnetic type), you should see a small voltage fluctuation on the multimeter (if it is set to AC volts)." You could also check resistance I think, to see if it's shorted to earth.

Right, to hell with YouTube. Uploaded directly to civic5! Couple of photos too. 20240502_165628.mp4

Took the time to do some more work on the ole Fastback today and installed a nice upgrade for the interior. The object in question being a very nice short shifter from Hybrid Racing and a set of stiffer shift-linkage bushings from Hardrace. The installation was pretty straightforward - take off the interior trim that surrounds the shifter, undo a few bolts and take out the b*tch pin, take off the old shifter and replace all the original parts with the shiny new ones. Even the rubber gasket went on there relatively easily, with a bit of lubrication of course ;) And the finished product looks like this: Had to take out the small plastic ring out from the top of the shifter boot to be able to install the 'swan neck' part of the shifter on top of it, but I really like the way it looks (and feels)! The biggest hold-up was the size of the hole where the shifter bolts onto the shift linkage. Had to take off some material or otherwise I'd have to choose between either only having gears 1 through 4 or gear 3 through reverse. Nothing bad though. File down, reinstall, take off again and file down a bit more and boom - bob's your uncle. There are still some vibrations to chase down, but nothing a bit of lubricant/machine oil can't fix. All in all, I'd say it was a huge upgrade for the driving experience - it's super notchy and rowing through the gears almost feels like racking a gun at times. I'd give the shifter itself a solid 9/10, feels well built, installation is straightforward and well documented by Hybrid Racing, they give you all the hardware you need and you don't have to damage or reuse old components (except filing down that linkage hole, but that's a M-chassis issue only).

Yeah, I agree - think it looks top now.

thanks man for your help!! i will look into it :)

I will do at some point. It's in bits at the minute. Already had some modifications on the car which are not done to (in my opinion) a good standard. So undoing a lot of crap whilst putting my stamp on it I guess. But not going to go mad just want to do some track days in 2024 then may look at selling it. Can't see myself getting madly attached to it tbh.