antz
Member
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2015
- Messages
- 36
I did an introduction the other day, enquiring about Civics as I was looking to buy one and I’ll admit, I know absolutely sod all about them and have never been a Honda fan in the slightest.
Why did I want to buy one? Curiosity really…..My mate owns an EP3 Type R and we give each other **** all the time because I drive a BMW/Volvo/Ford and he drives a Honda. Plus with all the love/hate war of Honda owners vs the world I thought I would give it a go and judge for myself. Also I happened to know where there was a EM1 Vti sat in a yard doing nothing.
So last weekend I did something I never thought I’d do. I bought a Civic…..
It’s a 2000 EM1 Vti with the B16A2 engine and 124k miles. The story goes that a local scrap dealer bought it to weigh in because it ran out of MOT and was rough. He cut the fuel lines to drain the fuel, cut the cat off, filled it full of scrap and threw it on the back of his lorry to weigh in. When he got to the scrapyard and put it on the weighbridge the scrap merchant told him the engine was worth more than the scrap value so he brought it back to his yard, put the wheels back on and dumped it in a corner. That was in March.
Since then its sat there until I got wind of it last month. I carefully did some investigation into its status (he is an odd chap to approach direct) and three weeks ago I did a deal on it for £300 with no keys (he lost them) but he did have the V5 at least. Annoyingly in the meantime his compound was broken into and 9 cars vandalised, including the Civic which suffered a broken windscreen and driver’s window. I joined here to see if it was worth it and decided to go ahead with the deal anyway. The good news is that he found the keys with the V5 and we did a deal on £295 delivered plus I’m keeping all the scrap metal that was still inside it.
Before the damage:
After:
The plan: Get the car fired up to see if the engine is still a good runner. I was going to break it but I have the urge to book a track day at Croft with a couple of mates, split costs and give it some death round the track.
First thing was to drag it free of its current resting place and into its temporary home in my workshop.
I cant afford new parts yet so I started fannying about with my new purchase. Spent 2 hours cleaning broken glass, sticky death, gospel music and “burn in hell” leaflets out the car. Why does safety glass smash into 4 billion pieces and not just three big pieces!? I’ll never get rid of it all but for now it’s safer to sit in until I get the windows replaced.
Made up some new earth straps for the battery and engine whilst my mate ripped the grill off, dismantled it and declared he had made a de-badged grill by only using the surround.
Was given a huge K&N so that found its way on as the aircon found its way into the bin. Still need to finish removing the under dash bit.
Discovering the front bumper was held on with precisely one bolt at the passenger arch, When we undid it the bumper fell off. Realigned the headlights before realising the bonnet is bent and probably the reason the front end doesn’t fit right on the passenger side. Armed only with a crow bar, some scaff pipe and a rubber mallet we knocked some of the dents out around the car. They are far from perfect but many little dents with some shape to the panel is better than huge dents. Also de-badged the bootlid which was kinda pointless considering the state of it.
This is going to be a pain to repair. I need to repair all the wires and somehow get a new high pressure fuel line.
Painted the grill surround black and realised it looks ****. Fail. Ill get some speed mesh and make some brackets to finish it off anyway.
That's where Im at for now......
Why did I want to buy one? Curiosity really…..My mate owns an EP3 Type R and we give each other **** all the time because I drive a BMW/Volvo/Ford and he drives a Honda. Plus with all the love/hate war of Honda owners vs the world I thought I would give it a go and judge for myself. Also I happened to know where there was a EM1 Vti sat in a yard doing nothing.
So last weekend I did something I never thought I’d do. I bought a Civic…..
It’s a 2000 EM1 Vti with the B16A2 engine and 124k miles. The story goes that a local scrap dealer bought it to weigh in because it ran out of MOT and was rough. He cut the fuel lines to drain the fuel, cut the cat off, filled it full of scrap and threw it on the back of his lorry to weigh in. When he got to the scrapyard and put it on the weighbridge the scrap merchant told him the engine was worth more than the scrap value so he brought it back to his yard, put the wheels back on and dumped it in a corner. That was in March.
Since then its sat there until I got wind of it last month. I carefully did some investigation into its status (he is an odd chap to approach direct) and three weeks ago I did a deal on it for £300 with no keys (he lost them) but he did have the V5 at least. Annoyingly in the meantime his compound was broken into and 9 cars vandalised, including the Civic which suffered a broken windscreen and driver’s window. I joined here to see if it was worth it and decided to go ahead with the deal anyway. The good news is that he found the keys with the V5 and we did a deal on £295 delivered plus I’m keeping all the scrap metal that was still inside it.
Before the damage:
After:
The plan: Get the car fired up to see if the engine is still a good runner. I was going to break it but I have the urge to book a track day at Croft with a couple of mates, split costs and give it some death round the track.
First thing was to drag it free of its current resting place and into its temporary home in my workshop.
I cant afford new parts yet so I started fannying about with my new purchase. Spent 2 hours cleaning broken glass, sticky death, gospel music and “burn in hell” leaflets out the car. Why does safety glass smash into 4 billion pieces and not just three big pieces!? I’ll never get rid of it all but for now it’s safer to sit in until I get the windows replaced.
Made up some new earth straps for the battery and engine whilst my mate ripped the grill off, dismantled it and declared he had made a de-badged grill by only using the surround.
Was given a huge K&N so that found its way on as the aircon found its way into the bin. Still need to finish removing the under dash bit.
Discovering the front bumper was held on with precisely one bolt at the passenger arch, When we undid it the bumper fell off. Realigned the headlights before realising the bonnet is bent and probably the reason the front end doesn’t fit right on the passenger side. Armed only with a crow bar, some scaff pipe and a rubber mallet we knocked some of the dents out around the car. They are far from perfect but many little dents with some shape to the panel is better than huge dents. Also de-badged the bootlid which was kinda pointless considering the state of it.
This is going to be a pain to repair. I need to repair all the wires and somehow get a new high pressure fuel line.
Painted the grill surround black and realised it looks ****. Fail. Ill get some speed mesh and make some brackets to finish it off anyway.
That's where Im at for now......
I wanna help out or throw in some spare parts from my EM1 but nothing much left 
