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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

Well, the tourer is no more, a nice chap from Wales bought it, and it's either going to be saved to tow his race eg, or end up as an engine donor for it. Karen's got herself a nice blue R18 fk civic, but it's not any good for family adventures. So we've just got a new project...

Sure, we paid £700 for ours plus £80 delivery (which I didn't think was too unreasonable to be honest). I think that's about the going rate for one really. It's a JDM import engine from an automatic car - unknown mileage but it should have had an easier life than a UK one. Typically since I've now bought one there's a k24a3 from an accord showed up on eBay for £570! It doesn't look as clean as ours but would likely be just fine.

Tubs2 looking good in the sun today, even with a thick coating of pollen.

Progress so far Started to strip out the engine - radiator (probably leaking) and AC condenser (also probably leaking) removed: Painting the rear bumper - to cover various marks and scratches but also somewhat of an experiment to see what it looks like with rubber strips colour coded (from photos i've seen I think it will look better) I've started putting together a list of parts that i'd like to acquire (the amount of small parts you need for a K-swap is crazy. It's all bolt on but you definitely need a spreadsheet or similar to manage it!)

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

More work recently completed: Over the Xmas period I decided to do a total suspension refresh on the MB4. I had wanted to do it when i built the car but time and finances were not available. I stripped all suspension off of the car, this took 3 days due to a few issues I encountered. Front end: Firstly, the passenger side front lower balljoint was original to the car, and 130k miles and 25 years had not been kind to it. I ended up having to cut it, and source another set of front lower arms due to how damaged the balljoint taper was. Polybushing all of the front components was a doddle. Whilst the steering rack was out, i discovered the inner tie rods were different to that of every other 90's honda, so unfortunately these were not replaced (I will be converting to a DC2 rack in the future). Reassembly was smooth sailing, until one of the weldnuts sheared off inside the subframe. This meant everything had to come out again (Joy!🥴) I had kept the subframe from my old MB2 (RIP P970NET , gone but never forgotten), so a quick spruce up and this went straight onto the car. Up front I now had Hardrace lower balljoints and tie rods, all bushings were now Energy suspension poly units, I fitted OEM replacement honda wheel bearings from Tegiwa, some skunk 2 upper control arms, and I serviced my Racing logic coilovers. Rear end: This was far more of a pain than I initially anticipated, disassembly was plain sailing, except for the inner LCA bolts snapping (The usual suspects!). Once these were extracted, everything was cleaned and thread-chased. The rear trailing arms were easy to replace the bushes, I opted for uprated hardrace OE style ones for a little bit more compliance. I fitted Skunk2 upper camber arms and some generic chinese toe arms. These were a nighmare to fit due to the locknuts being jammed in the toe adjustment slot, this unfortunately required some "creative" adjustment of the toe arm pocked to allow clearance. The rear LCAs proved the hardest part, due to my Eg/DC2 kit having too small bushes to fit in the outer ends, this required some overnight parts from Scotland to get the right bushes. The next challenge was the shock mount bushes, whuch were the correct fit, however far too wide to fit into my coilovers, these, again, requiring some creative adjustment with a lathe to get to the right size. Whilst the rear was apart I took the time to address a siezed slide pin on one caliper and a few minor exhaust fitment issues. End result: The car now feels brand new, and feels incredibly agile and fun to drive. Body roll and "wandering" around the road has been massively improved. The ride is a tad harsher but this doe not bother me. This was definitely worth the hassle, and didn't break the bank either, costing around £600 in parts in the end I would highly recommend doing this to your MBs if you enjoy spirited driving or B road hacking, its made my MB feel like a racecar! What's next? Next on the list for the car is an update/improvement on the current ICE setup, and some minor bodywork items, with long-term goals being the aformentioned DC2 rack and a replacement engine Unfortunately no photos from the build, however next time I get it up on a ramp I will take some!

I crashed my MB2, and the front bumper needs replacing. Where can I find a new one? I searched online and couldn't find any store that had new bumpers.

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

That looks stunning! Loving that! @dr_broon yup, something about metallic reds that I just love! Gayles new Micra is a similar colour to that red too!

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!

Cheers dude! Checked for vac leaks already and none have came up, used soapy water, as well as the old brake cleaner technique Definitely reckon it’s throttle body related, will dive into it this weekend

sorry no pics of spam for you spam lovers, but Yokohamas good if you only need dry grip ?

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.

Nice suspension set up you've bought mate. Had them on both Ruby and DD, but put DD back to OEM suspension as went a different route with her now. I'd suggest spraying them with rust prevention stuff though, as mine looked awful when I removed them from DD. Only a couple of years if I remember rightly but corrosion was quite bad on them.

Post changed, user blocked. Gold coins for sale indeed.... 🤦

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

Hello to everyone. my name is George and I come from Greece. Happy to be in here, looking forward to find some useful infos. I hope forum is still alive I can understand that M's are very old and rare nowadays. Special thanks to Dave for approving my registration! After 20 years of owning an 99 EK Civic 1.6 Vti, I had an accident, an unlucky event I would say and decided to buy something different. So I bought a CIvic MA9 1.5. I always said that these Civics are unique and different from others! So I'm an old newbie we can say! My new Civic is not in good condition, until now many problems in the interior, some on the engine bay and on the chassis...but I will try to do my best to maintain the car. Here are some photos Thanks for the hospitality!

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.

Glad he's enjoying it. Really shouldnt have sold it tbh. Moment of madness haha.