Honda Civic 1.8 I-VTEC

PART FOUR: We replace the damaged, ill-fitting front bumper and do a DIY paint job. Andrew Everett cracks on with our reliable Japanese motor.

Part four: fitting a secondhand bumper to our previously damaged project car.

We’re already at Part Four of our 2006 Civic project and it seems as though we’re running out of stuff to do. The aircon was an easy fix and so was fitting a new set of brakes all round. The front dampers had already been replaced with KYB units before we bought the project so that’s one less job to do – not that they are particularly difficult.

The front bumper has had a comedy repair in the past and rather than trying to fix it, I bought a used bumper from a breakers and painted it myself using good old Halfords aerosol cans. This cost us about £12 in materials as opposed to at least £100 to have it painted professionally. Considering this is a 13-year-old, £1200 Civic, the finish is more than good enough – even if the paint match isn’t quite spot on.

We also found out that our car has had a light bump on the front corner, enough to bend a few flimsy brackets and break a few plastic bits. We took the opportunity to fix all of this while the bumper was removed.

The steering wheel was ‘off ’ too, one of my many pet hates. A quick check with old-fashioned tracking gauges told us that the wheel alignment was OK. We don’t fancy paying the customary £80+ for four-wheel alignment, especially when there is the prospect of the track rod ends being rusted in place (not so bad on Japanese stuff ) but we thought we’d take the chance to show how the steering wheel and airbag comes off.