The rather odd way I got to an appliance: 02 Civic coupe (Copart content)

The beginning of this story is right here.

I bought my suspension parts from my local junkyard for around $115 total.

Here's the good control arm.

I removed the broken one.

The sway bar endlink was bad so I bought the front ones. I will end up buying rear ones at a later date.

I don't like this design fasteners because the allen slot gets stripped fairly easily with old age.

The allen wrench slot got stripped when I tried to remove it, so I had to cut it off for the new one when it arrives.

That nasty carpet had to go, so I asked my local junkyard about a used carpet. One of the workers told me that it would be around $50-75 because it would be alot of work for them to take one out, plus, if the car was in a wreck and rain can get in it, the carpet would be junk, which happened to be the case for one of the Civic coupes they had. A new aftermarket carpet from ebay is $158, I purchased one for my 97 Civic I used to own a few years ago. I decided to go the engineer's route and see how expensive home carpet is. It's inexpensive, at around $.80 a square foot, I only needed about 42 sq. feet (rough estimate) of leftover new carpet. Furniture Fair gave me a price drop of around $10, thanks guys! So I got quite a bit more than I needed since it's leftover, and they needed to sell me the whole roll, for $30.33. I ended up buying 77 sq. feet of carpet.

Of course, I had to remove the interior.

I had to cut a foot off the width to even start rough measuring the rest of the cuts I needed to make. Since the car is a high mileage one with 229,000+ it doesn't need to be perfect, but I still want to make it as nice as possible. Then, I cut 10" to make it closer to the correct width.

Then, I laid it down on the floor and made the center cut for the trans and e-brake.

When I have good camera money, I will retake pictures of the carpet, since you just can't see how good it looks with my crappy cell phone pics now.

Even with cutting a narrow hole in the middle, it was still off, but that's ok. It would mostly be unseen with the seat installed, but it still looks better covered up. I used a little duct tape to try to keep the carpet as flat as it could go in between the seat bolt holes and with that thin strip of carpet pictured; It doesn't help that much, though. I didn't want to use superglue or another adhesive because the normal carpet is just placed down, so duct tape is a good compromise. I also cut a couple of slits in the carpet where it "bubbles up" or doesn't stay flat against the chassis, so it looks better. I also broke the plastic trim around the shifter because it screws in, and I thought that it clips in.

I also cleaned the interior plastics when I took them out, along with the dashboard, and it looks much better!

I may end up taping down a little more carpet at the tops of the footwells shown, but it is quite a transformation! I took the interior from E36 M3 to stunning (almost) with some time, effort, and a new carpet. I have to reiterate that I need a good camera to show you guys how much better it looks now. The seats have a weird stain on them, so I need to get them shampooed.

Wow, cool project! I think I have that same carpet in my condo.

The color of the carpet is waaaaaay off in these pictures, you guys will see.

it's not pink?

No, it's tan, just a different shade than the interior. It also smells much better, kind of like a carpet store, or the carpet section of the furniture store.

I replaced the front struts on both sides yesterday.

This shot is how I supported the hub, brake, and cv axle while it was out. It's not sexy since I bought used parts.

Loosening the bolts to the sway bar

I flushed most of the brake fluid out yesterday, and finished the rear drums today.

I received the sway bar endlinks today. The bags don't indicate which one goes to which side, so I will have to compare them when I'm ready to put them on.

Oh, and the bracket for the control arm is bent, so I need to either buy good used subframe or cut it off and make one. One of my local junkyards gave me an outrageous price of $300 for a subframe!

So I'm leaning towards making one and welding it up myself, or having a shop bend the metal into the bracket like the factory did it. I just need to get a picture of it.

I also flushed the radiator out a couple of days ago, but I didn't get any pictures of that (not sexy enough). I will flush it soon after I can safely drive the car since I couldn't get the drain plug to loosen from the block.

I also find it ironic that I bought this car to save money over the 328i, and many items I'm fixing, or should fix, I did with the 328i already (front control arm bushings, sway bar endlinks, fluid flushes, etc.)

I put home carpet in a buddy's car in high school. It worked pretty well but really loved to hold onto water and salt from your boots in the winter.

Yours looks great though, and judging from the amount of rust I don't think salt is a problem in your part of the world.

I bought this tool and connected it to the engine lift points.

I was struggling to get the engine mount bolt out the other day. Yesterday, a hard pull was all it needed. Thank goodness, I couldn't get an impact wrench in there!

I had to cut off the sway bar endlink because the allen slot was stripped out.

It broke off as well.

I also need to purchase the exhaust manifold bolts since they're rusty.

At least the nut is part of the flange so you don't need to work both sides to get them off.

I needed to remove the O2 sensor.

I also changed the trans fluid with this siphon tool. Made it real easy.

I had lowered the subframe a little.

Then, a lot.

The aftermarket muffler is leaking, well, the exhaust is leaking.

This is an odd exhaust setup.

It had to come off, just moving it tore big holes in the welds.

I was going to move the exhaust back towards the rear of the car to get the subframe from on top of it, but it actually was easier to move it forward.

Here's another shot of it.

I used my new sledgehammer to pound in the stuck driveaxle until it was too recessed for it to be reached. Then, I used the punch and the regular hammer to tap it in until I could push out the axle from the knuckle. I don't have a solid bench with a vice (or the space right now), so I will need to have my shop press it out, and press in the new bearing I bought.

Oooh, type X exhaust.

Maybe it's off a Jag.

Nice work so far.

Helpful hint to save time removing the sway bar links if the allen strips out(and you will be replacing the link and nuts anyway): just tighten the hell out of it until it breaks. 1/2in impact preferably. Takes like 5 sec if that :)

I will try that next time.

I got some hardware in along with the OEM balljoints.

The rear motor mount is gone.

I think that Honda should have used more rubber, it looks like they skimped out on that to make more money.

I decided to cut off the bracket and modifying it instead of buying a subframe. I looked through a hundred or so subframes, and my Civic subframe was the most expensive out of the ones I saw on a used parts website. That site quoted me $500 for a subframe.

I just need to cut the side with the welded in nut off and put a piece of plate there. A local welding shop cut a couple pieces for me and punched a hole in them for free!

The other side is bent too, but hopefully not enough for me to replace it.

I also replaced the driver side axle. It's a little wild that only a small clip holds it in the transmission.

I hope it fits into the hub with no problems.

Oh, and this is an accidental $2015 or $2016 challenge car; I would be just in it to have fun with this car.

I removed the broken motor mount.

Here's the Honda motor mount, at $64.

I got to work cutting the bracket up.

I installed the control arm so I can get the location for this subframe as close as I can to the correct location.

When I had it in position, I tacked all the sides down. The pictures didn't come out good, though.

There was a gap, so I needed to get a small strip and grind it down to size.

I needed the magnet to keep the strip in position, it was a little too small.

Another tack

I didn't do any practice with the welder, and it shows. But hey, I haven't welded much in years, so I shouldn't have expected great results without practice.

I cut off the integrated nut and put in on. I thought that I would need to weld it on, but the sides are just long enough to hold it while tightening it.

It's in place.

If I didn't already have 2 jacks, I would have needed to buy one since it's a rectangle.

It's in position.

I forgot that I needed to paint it to prevent rust.

I used a sledgehammer and a socket to punch the hub out.

I popped the race off. It took longer than I thought.

I re-installed the bolts to the engine mounts. It's now connected to the chassis!

I re-installed the sway bar and the new endlinks.

The exhaust is now in place, with new hardware.

I drained the battery, so I'm charging it up right now. I will run it for a little to get it going for a little bit. It's finally coming along pretty good.

I started the car up yesterday, and the aftermarket axle started rotating with the trans in neutral. What the hell? It wasn't inserted in the steering knuckle, and I left a part off the rear motor mount that seems insignificant. I will get a picture of it later.

I thought that I broke the axle, but my mechanic told me that I could just insert it back in, with more axle grease, of course.

They also unbolted the axle from the steering knuckle, my impact wrench couldn't do it.

I couldn't do too much, but I did press out the old balljoint.

Then I pressed in the new one.

It looks good.

At this point, would you say the beemer is easier to work on? Seems neck and neck from where I'm sitting. Anyway, looks like the worst is over and you'll have a bullet proof appliance. Although a two door civic with a vtek and five speed ain't exactly an appliance.