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Rover 400 - The Civic Conversion Project


Jones
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rover1.jpg

 

Rover 400

The Civic Conversion Project

 

I was working on my Impreza, when I decided I was going to get a cheap run-around while I took it off the road to do some work on it. I bought a Rover 400 for £200. I knew nothing about the cars, and had no idea it was even a turbo (As it wasn't listed as one on eBay).

It was far too slow to be a turbo, but when I tried to insure it, they insisted it was a turbo model. After some inspection of the engine, I realised it was in fact a turbo, and I was then very interested in getting a bit more power and torque from the engine. I looked at some pictures of modified Rover 400's and they actually look half decent.

It was then, I wanted to upgrade some of the body work, such as the facelift MG ZS rear end which has a flush boot lid.

 

Somehow, I discovered that the Rover 400 shared exactly the same chassis as the Honda Civic MB 5 door, and that's when I decided to do a full exterior conversion. When I was able to get my hands on a rolling shell, I figured I'd also swap over the interior.

 

The Rover 400 has a grey and wood effect interior, which is a bit too "grandad-esque" for my liking. As you can see from the image, the interior is exactly the same.

 

Rover 400 Interior:

rover2.jpg

 

Honda Civic MB Interior:

civic_interior2.jpg

 

 

Of course, it wouldn't be right to have an 86bhp car that looked fast, so I'll also be doing some engine tuning.

Being that this is a mechanical injection mode, digital tuning such as tuning boxes and remapping is not possible. So I will be upping the fuel intake, fitting an intercooler, and fitting a new model turbo charger. The engine already has SDi injectors capable of increased fueling. I'm probably looking at increasing the power to around 130-150, with tons more torque.

 

I'm picking up the Civic shell on Saturday, so stay tuned for updates.

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I think the hardest part of this build will be the front slam panel. If the headlights and bonnet aren't compatible, it's going to be a big job to remove and weld back into place.

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Yeah the slam panels look ever so slightly different. The bumper support bar looks like it bolts off so hopefully it will be a straight swap without changing slam panels over.

 

I wasn't able to get my hands on a VTI-S front splitter. So I got a different one which doesn't look as mean but it's ok. I'm just trying to find a rear bumper splitter lip now.

 

Let the fun begin lol :lol:

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There was some bad rusted on the rear of the roof which has now been fixed. It's not a professional looking job but it works, and it's protected now.

Rear ends have been swapped over finally, luckily the tail lights were exactly the same set up. Swapped over the lock mechanism, and the trim is also exactly the same fitting so that worked well also.

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I have finished the front end. It wasn't an easy task, but considering I decided not to swap over the slam panels, it turned out ok. If I was to ever do this project again (God knows why), I would definitely swap the slam panels over.

So, here we have the whole front end stripped down.

frontend1.jpg

Next up, we needed to modify the slam panel. The centre had to be cut away to allow the bonnet to close fully.

frontend2.jpg

Now we have the bonnet fitted.

frontend3.jpg

The sides of the slam panel had to be trimmed away in order for the headlights to fit under.

frontend4.jpg


frontend5.jpg

We now have the front end completed.

frontend6.jpg


frontend7.jpg


A few mishaps happened during the assembly of the front end. Firstly, I snapped a bolt at the bottom of the drivers side wing, not a major issue but the door now catches on the wing. There might be just enough thread to fit a nut onto it, and hopefully solve that issue.

While grinding a rounded torx bolt off the bottom of the radiator to fit the intercooler, I cut into the radiator, so a replacement radiator has been purchased. I won't be able to drive the car until I've changed it. It also comes with an intercooler, so now I have one spare which is always handy I guess.

Tomorrows job will involve replacing the drivers side doors, and that will be the exterior completed. I also need to rewire the headlights as the loom is different on the Civic. Once I get hold of a Haynes manual I'll be able to know which wires to join to which.

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