Dave

Old XP was awesome wasn't it!! @dr_broon God them were the days!

They are indeed mate! Thing is, the price of them, although still a bit more than normal HDD, has come down massively so makes them more attainable too

SSD is a must now I'd say! I'm going to see if I can do same on Gayle laptop, although hers doesn't have any wee inspection hatches to check hard drive etc, whole thing has to come apart just to get to hard drive. Even worse for changing the battery in it! But I think it needs it now, she's seen how fast mine is so as she also uses hers for work it would be good to get it done. Thinking I'll see if I can clone her new windows 10 install to save doing it all again. I tried Ubuntu before getting Windows 10 as had always wanted to try a Lynux based OS, and my colleague at work recommended it. I was using it from a usb stick to see what it looked like/how it performed, and admit it did seem fast. But then it wasn't installed on my drive, just an empty usb so didnt have cluttered up files etc to deal with. lol Used it for a few days to get a feel for it, but I just couldn't take to it. For an OS which is based such a basic and simple platform, it was overcomplicated. Even doing a small thing like adding a desktop shortcut was a faff, so decided its deffo not for me! lol Windows 10 is so simple to use it just makes everything a doddle.

How we doing all? Something a bit different to the usual chat this lol For the past year, I've been looking at getting both my own laptop and Mrs Chillax's laptop upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 ( I know, should have been done ages ago!! And me working in IT too!). Both laptops are getting on a bit now, but thing is, we both like them! They work fine, hers looking mint and mine looking a bit scratched and worn. Priced up similar spec laptops, and we'd be looking at around £700 each! Soooo, checked if our old ones could even run W10 and got differing info, some saying nope, some saying yes. Took the plunge and bought two W10 licenses at £80 each. But then In had a cunning plan! After much research, I worked out that my laptop could take an upgrade from HDD drive to SSD drive. New drive was only £30. Even better, I thought that it might be able to run two internal hard drives, so its old 600gb HDD could be reused for storage. Bought a carrier that replaces the disused CD/DVD drive and has the HDD fitted to it. Started working on both at around teatime yesterday, both running W10, all updates done, by about midnight. That includes fitting the new drive to mine and modifying it to take the 2nd drive. Difference in how both now run is amazing, much faster. but mine, with windows being installed on the SSD drive, is bloody amazingly fast! Boots up and is usable within 1 minute (because its got SSD, fastboot is enabled in BIOS), unlike before where it took around 2 to 3 mins to boot, then you had to wait till it all settled down before using it. Programs load really fast no lag when using loads of things at once, really really impressive. So if you are thinking of a new laptop, or even had thought about an SSD drive, do it! Its cost us £276 all in, that's for 2 windows 10 licenses, a new MS Office family edition, my new ssd drive and the carrier for it. Oh, plus 8 quid for a roll of red carbon look vinyl that I've wrapped mine with so it now looks brand new!! Hella lot cheaper than £1400 quid!

Win win! It's all coming together mate!

That's so cool, no Q plate for Tubs2! Plus means you can get her back on the road even quicker mate. Result!

MOT ran out 3 days ago, and is currently sorned so will be currently off the road. Looking through his videos, he hasn't posted anything for the past 11months (and that was a bike engine build). Couldn't see the civic anywhere in the background of that, and the last video of the civic was a year ago. Possibly the car is still awaiting the engine build as he took it out during lockdown i think?

Ahh, with you now. That'll be a nice set up, and good that you can remove it away from the pikeys! I'm going for an Android head unit (with no cd mechanism) which will need to stay in the car, but the one I'm looking at is only £60 to £80 quid so not too fussed.

Wow, that makes a lot more sense than some of the tablet installs i've seen where you need to take the dash out to get them out. Will you be making something like that and attaching it to the dash then, or modding the dash to fit it in (with a slot on side of dash to remove)? How will you be attaching cables etc? Interested in this!

Yeah, I find that hilarious when i think back to before the days of Civic5, when I'd go into the honda forums and get slated for having a 5 door Civic. "Who wants a 5 door vti, they aint sporty! Has to be an EK4 3 door VTi. Take that grandad mobile away" was the usual abuse I got..........oh how the tables have turned!! Now the sports Civic is a 5 door! Haha! Used to poke me off how the "jdm brigade" with their Swindon built 3 doors would constantly claim there EK4's were better.....Ruby used to regulary blow the arse of EK4's without even thinking about it! Christ, she used to sit on the bum of some Scooby's too! lmao I think there are those out there who love old Hondas, love a fast honda but need something practical. Most of the 3 door Ek'3 have rotted away or been ragged to death so the mb6/mc2 makes great sense. The aerodeck is small enough to still be chuckable, but is sooooooo practical it still amazes me even today what we fit in DD's boot or on the roof!

yeah, deffo seeing a rise in price for any with a B series in them, although have also seen a few low miles D series commanding decent money now. That one however, i'd say is priced far too high, body work not great, interior missing, although not high miles (especially for a Honda) its got 137k on the clock, aircon deleted, etc and looks as though it really hasnt been looked after, it's probably looking at a more realistic £1800 tops. By the time you sort the bodywork/replace the panels, source and replace the interior, replace the manifold and then god knows what its like underneath, you're looking at spending almost £500 to a grand on it. Would it then be worth £3K? Nope, I doubt it.

Not sure mate, been trying to find the site i got that pic from and be buggered if i can find it again lol

That looks sweet! Nice to see one for our Civics!

Thats a tablet install mate, same as what you're looking to do. Looks mint don't it!

hahaha, yes, I always say if I do a job and get no injury, I've missed a bit or not done it right! lol Yeah, I noticed the join on Mikes dash too, he even posted that although it looks good it wasn't perfect and he wasn't that happy with the join. I'm going a different route now if I can, although would like to master both options (this one and the other one higher up i was on about). That way, if there is demand for them, we can offer both versions to anyone who wants it. I'm currently now looking for another console to use for the higher up one as that's the one I really want! I figure, with my wiring skills and the wiring diagram, i can rewire the hazard/heated window switches to work with the other switches we spoke about. That's my goal now! Here's the one I'm going for. Tons and tons of work (and that ones been wrapped in faux leather to cover imperfections) but something like this would be amazing. Only one I've seen done that way, and going by my rough measurements today, double din should fit The entire panel will be prepped and sprayed once all the work is done on it, so the joins should all be invisible when completed. Suppose if these do go into production, what i could do is also offer them just in primer so the buyer can spray them whatever colour they want, should they want to do that? Probs best sticking with the black. So many ideas buzzing around my head, including vinyl wrapping it in a brushed aluminum effect vinyl.

Sooo, made a start on this today..............and it was a disaster! lol I've put together the process so far to where I got to, but stopped as my concentration was shot and I wasn't happy with how it was turning out. I cut the centre console section to size for double din, which wasn't really that easy either after measuring up. 1. We'll assume you have already removed the centre console from the car to work on, or have bought 2 spare ones. You will need to sacrafice 2 consoles to make this conversion to double din. 2. Remove the 6 screws pictured here. 3. Remove the two screws that hold the metal bracket to the console panel. Make a note of how this is fitted as we need to refit it once done. 3. The bracket removed and the six screws we removed. 4. Now we need to measuer the height of the double din cage. This was 10.2cm 5. we now need to cut the panel. On panel one, cut the sides just below the curved bit of the top corners of the radio slot. 6. On panel two, do the same cut but just above the bottom corners. 7. Screw the bottom section you have cut temp into the centre console, then slide the top section in. Et Voila, we're done!...... 8. .......errr, not quite! lol There will be small gaps that will need to be filled in with fiberglass resin, then shaped to the contour of the panel. But before we get to that, more cutting is needed! 9. You will notice that the two panels that you have used to create a double din sized radio slot are now to tall to fit in the centre console. Temp screw the top part to the centre console, then offer up the bottom section and let it overlap the top section. Here you can see the overlap. This is how much we need to remove from the panel further down. 11. Measure the overlap, which will be around 5cm's. This is what will need to be removed from lower down the panel. And that's as far as I got, had also cut my finger with the saw by this point and was truely pee'd off! The effects of long covid really is buggering up my concentration levels, so decided to call it a day. On looking at the panels closely, I've decided to experiment with a different way! I've cut away the top part that houses the clock and hazard switch/heated rear window switch and offered up the double din cage. I reckon that I should be able to fit the radio there, nice and high up. Will depend on space behind that in the dash though, as not sure how tight for depth it is there so that needs investigating. I also need to get another centre console cut more acurately (going to use my dremil this time) to see if the double din will indeed fit. My trial so far shows it's going to be mega tight, but looks like it might just be doable. It will involve a lot of precision cutting, and a lot of filling/shaping with fiberglass but would be awesome when done. Watch this space.

For the baggage compartment top cover, that translates to English as parcel shelf mate. A search on ebay or even in the forum should find you one hopefully. The 4-2-1 manifold should be easy enough to find as I think all the D14 engines are the same fitting (although hopefully another member can confirm this.) I think the only issue I've seen with the manifold is that sometimes the flange where it bolts to the exhaust/CAT needs to be cut off and turned round slightly. You might be lucky enough to find one that fits without any adjustment though. For the door handle fault, downloading our official Honda Service manual will help you when you take it apart as it shows diagrams of all parts on these cars. Liking the sound of the MOMO alloys, very old school! Dave

Hi George and welcome to the club. I had a MA8 1.4 Civic as my first Civic M, so if you can let us know what info you need would be happy to help mate. Post some photos of your Civic too as we all love photos of the Civics here

She's pretty decent mate, looks better in the pics that she really is but I plan on a full respray at some point so she will eventually look as clean as the pics lol Miss driving it though!

Seeing as we can't go out cause of lockdown, and the weather is crap, thought I'd post a pic of Mindy from happier times! This has to be my new fav photo of Mindy! Taken on a photo shoot I did for another mk1 mx5 owner about a year and a half ago at the Forth Bridge just outside Edinburgh. Hope you like.

It is isn't it. Absolutely love Only Fools, seen every episode including the specials about a hundred times each! Never get tired of it.

Just found this, Scalextric race last year between Boycie & Del boy.......using Dels 3 wheeler and his famous "cap-ree Ghia".

Golf GTi is a tidy car too mate, but have to say the MGZS 180 is an awesome looking car! That front end looks mean as hell, and coupled with the vented front wings and the big rear spoiler they are the sweetest looking MGZS model. An aerodeck with that front would be an amazing looking car that would deffo raise a few eyebrows! The bigger arches on them are part of the plastic bodykit aren't they? Wonder how the deck would look if fitting that front/kit to the aerodeck and aerodeck VTiS rear lip? Would look pretty trick I think? On the 2nd project (the red one) the shell looked pretty mint rust wise, even as it was on the forklift about to meet its demise. Was a shame the engine let go on that one.

@dr_broonThats the one! @JonesAh man, sad to see the 2nd one go away on the back of the truck like that mate. Loved watching the projects you did (especially the first one!) and the results you achieved. Both epic builds and both built to create something you yourself wanted. A lot of builds are done to what everyone expects, using a lot of "scene" brands etc. Yours was a true home build and all the better for it! Just read the whole thing again from start to finish! lol No idea why the members on the Rover forum frowned on it when everyone here was loving it. The cars are by and large the same car, something I think some of the Rover owners aren't readily haapy to accept. Which is a shame, as I think the two clubs could have worked together to put both these cracking cars firmly on the modern classic radar and map.

Oh, and to add, I think If Rover had put it into production, there would have been a high demand for it sales wise!