Dexter

What a selection this year. There are 5 cars atleast that i think deserves COTY. I'll digest this for a while before making my vote, even though i'm pretty sure about my choice...

Makes choosing your vote easier... not!

Looking nice, like them winter wheels.

Thanks @philgor and @phill1975, i was thinking about both Emzvr and Grant so you made my job easier!

Is that from a S2000? Top work, mate, loving it.

Your mb has come a long way, congrats on a job well done. Excellent spec list, would like to see these a lot more often in build threads. Cool interior light mods, especially liking the boot lights. Keep it going!

Good luck! How big discs can you fit with those?

This is how i feel after each installed mod.

True, but then you need to go atleast as wide as the original studs are. But in Gostt's case there might be room for it?

You can only fit very narrow spacers, otherwise the studs will get dangerously short. So be careful if you choose this route. And you should definitely keep the deck, you're just getting started! At least keep on going until you get car of the month, was pretty close last time you know...

Looking good. Blue & white never goes out of style. Clever idea with the shotgun shells too.

I've had the same problem for a while but now after seeing your pics i think i'll go silver also. So thanks for being the guinea pig ! Lovely new pics but the rear wheels seem to sit a bit too much inside the arches, atleast for my taste. Next time you're buying new wheels maybe go wider at the back or with a smaller ET?

Good point. Another reason to go plastic!

I wouldn't bother with tracking. I guess you got some camber since your insides are more worn? If there's no noticeable pull to either side while cruising and having your steering wheel straight, or any other strange steering issues you can't otherwise explain while driving in good weather, there shouldn't be a need for an alignment. If you changed some suspension components then it's recommended. The magic word you've mentioned here is grip. Grip doesn't have much to do with alignment, well a bit when cornering really hard, but mostly grip is all about tyres. And looking at your tyres they don't even look like winter tyres to me. But then again i live in Finland, and our winters are a bit different than over there i guess . But nevertheless if your problem is understeer and loss of grip in winter conditions, the solution is very simple: invest in some proper winter tyres. I've used Continentals for the past five years and they're just great. Never i've had serious problems in the winter, i can pretty much drive like in the summer no matter if it's ice or snow or dry. No bulls**t. ABS and LSD help a lot but it's mostly about the tyres... take a look at these for example: http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110&cart_id=48510672.110.22533&sowigan=Wi&Breite=195&Quer=55&Felge=15&Speed=&Load=&kategorie=6&Marke=Continental&ranzahl=4&tyre_for=&x_tyre_for=&Herst=Continental&m_s=3&rsmFahrzeugart=ALL&filter_preis_bis=&filter_preis_von=&homologation=&search_tool=standard&Label=E-C-72-2&details=Ordern&typ=D-119180 and compare the tread pattern to your current tyres. I'm using Continental Conti Viking Contacts which are so-called "nordic" winter tyres, and are a step more hardcore than "central europe" winter tyres. If you really want to play on the safe side, invest in some nordic winters. But i'm not sure where you can get them, the site i linked you shows different tyre options when using the english webshop compared to when i browse it in finnish. Maybe you can send an e-mail and ask for nordics? Anyway this is just my experience and opinion... but hope it helps!

I would start from the rear lights and follow them as far as you can but if i remember correctly they go into a tube underneath the body panels soon, so it gets a bit complicated.

This is the way to go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNBz4DIY6E4 Starting at 10:25 how to build a budget show cage for a civic. It's awesome, i promise!

That's some cracking sweetage right there.

Ok still haven't fitted this. Just wanna make sure i can just remove those 2 bolts where the stopper will mount without having to worry about any of my suspension components falling off or getting misaligned? I guess the bolts hold the upper camber arm or mount or something.

Must be the wires then... that's all i can think of?

Are you 100% sure you have the correct bulb? Compare it to the working light. The little bumbs on the stud should fit nicely into the grooves in the holder. I once accidentally put wrong ones in (that didn't 100% match the grooves) and the result was both rear brake lights on the whole time... and since it was both i didn't even realise this until after quite a while!

Yeah i don't think you really need them for anything? Since the wheel bolts will hold the disc down just as securely. But i put them back anyway, well the 3 of them .

Lookin' tidy, mate.

Victory! What i tried first: - crc ice rust remover - 4 different hammers / mallets - a puller tool - lots of heat And after all of this wasn't quite enough, i had to turn to google. And literally the first search result solved my problem in less than 10 minutes! So anybody who's got trouble with stuck brake discs, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMuHKDI00rw. You can do quite a lot with a few bolts, nuts and washers. After that everything was a breeze, so here's my new setup: zinc-plated grooved discs from Brake Depot and Ferodo DS2500 pads. Now the calipers just need a new lick of red paint! I went through all the brake parts pretty thoroughly and everything is looking pretty good. Sliding pins were in good order, needed just a slight sanding and new lube and they're like new now. Rubber boots were all intact, and the piston went in smoothly. I gave the piston contact surface a light sanding, as well as the wheel hubs and properly copper pasted them as well as the caliper paws and pad retainer clips. After that, a proper bedding in & test drive and i can say now the deck stops like a jet landing on a aircraft carrier! And i'm not surprised, considering my old pads looked like this: Whaddaya mean i needed new ones!!! Old discs: They're not even that bad considering the 5+ years they've served me. I think i'll take them down to a machine shop to see if i can get them refurbed, just so i can have a backup pair JUST in case my new discs might warp or crack unexpectedly. Next up: rear discs & pads.

Congrats, man, well deserved.

So finally found some time to install my new brake discs. Which i would have done, if i they would've come off! I rounded 3 out of the 4 screws holding the front discs in place, but managed to finally get them off after a quite a long battle with a dremel and an impact driver. At this point it was nice to realise that the discs were very very utterly stuck. So i used the 2 holes provided to thread in some bolts to force the disc off as suggest by Haynes. Only to have a bolt snap off in the hole. Nice. At this point i called it a day... i'll probably try again tomorrow with a big can of crc and an assortment of hammers & mallets. Let's hope it does the trick!