lilpaintballer02

Do i need the fenders, headlights and hood to fit the 99-00 bumper on my 96 civic???

alphalanos

Yep fenders, headlights, grille, hood, bumper and slight modification to the radiator support.

Boudreaux

yup, and you might want to go ahead and pick up the grill too

found this in my docs.... pics are MIA oh well

This is a write up of how to install a 99-00 front end on the frame of your 96-98 civic. It works for hatches, coupes and sedans.


There are 2 ways to go about doing this. 1. You can ghetto rig it and use the 96-98 radiator support, or 2. you can do it the hard way and cut the radiator support off, We tried to use the 96-98 support at first, but the bumper had major fitment issues and we just wanted to make sure to do this right.


Tools you will need:

3/8' Ratchet
medium extension
10, 12, and 14mm sockets
10 mm open ended wrench
Phillips and flat head screwdriver
hammer and chisel
Sawzall with metal blade
4" Circular grinder with 2-3 heavy duty metal grinding wheels.
mechanix gloves
face mask(to cover your mouth)
Protective eyewear.
long sleeved shirt
pants
2 trusted buddies to help you out
a weekend where you dont need your car.

Parts you will need:

99-00 OEM hood
99-00 OEM or JDM fenders (we used the JDM Civic Type R fenders)
99-00 OEM Radiator support
99-00 OEM Front bumper (i suggest finding one that was on a civic Si, because then you get the nice looking lip for free)
99-00 OEM or JDM Grille(we used the JDM because it doesnt have the emblem)
If you want you can buy a 99-00 bumper support also, but we used the 96-98 and made it work(slight fitment issue there, but its manageable)



The following is how we did this conversion, you can do it in any order and it will still work out....for the most part.


Step 1: Pop your hood, disconnect your negative battery terminal (you dont want your airbags going off on you).


Step 2: Take your front bumper off. theres 5 phillips screws on top, and one at each side (you have to peel the fender lining back a little here to get to them), and 2 10mm bolts underneath. If you havent taken your bumper off ever, you may have to jiggle it a bit to break it loose, shouldnt be too big of a deal, dont worry it'll come off. (see above photo for what its supposed to look like with the bumper off.)

Step 3. Start undoing the bolts for the headlights, there are 2 on top one on the outer sides, theres a 10mm bolt holding a small piece of metal on the bumper support, which in turn hold ths light in place, remove that piece, and throw them to the side, you wont be needing those.

Step 4. With the headlights and the front bumper off, take off the front bumper support. there are 2 obvious 12mm bolts on teh sides, but there are 2 hidden bolts (1 on each side) bolting the bumper support to the radiator support. Grab your extension, and the 12mm socket and have at it.


Step 5: With your headlights, bumper/grille, and bumper support off, take the hood and the fenders off now. The hood comes off by unbolting the 4 10mm bolts holding it on. no secret there, however watch the windshild nozzle hose...we kinda forgot about it and got shot in the face with windshield washer fluid, not our cup of tea but if you enjoy it more power to you.

Fenders are the most sneaky part to ever take off your car. I can tell you know they are evil. There are 3 10mm bolts in plain view under the hood, then there is another hidden by the door. Open your door, grab the extension again and take off the 10mm bolt there. Then go down to the bottom part of the wheel well, there is a screw there, undo that, now you have to pry your sideskirts back a little to uncover 2 more 10 mm bolts hiding under the sideskirt. We did this without jacking the car up and got frustrated and broke off a few clips here and there. Nothering that really affects the performance or anything

Ideally, to do this correctly, jack up the car, undo the screws that are holding the side skirt on the car, then carefully undo the clips with a screwdriver until the front part pops off. You dont need to take the entire skirt off, just need to pry it off a little to gain access. Once you do that its smooth sailin to take the fenders off. Take the fenders off, then move back under the car while its still jacked up and remove the 3 12mm bolts that are holding the radiator and the A/C condenser bolted to the radiator support.

Step 6: Heres where the metal work comes in. We didnt realize this until we were neck deep in the donkey doo, but the radiator support is welded onto the frame of the car....Really bolt on huh? There are 2 spot welds on each corner of the top of the radiator support (up where the lights are). WARNING!! IF YOU CANT STAND A LITTLE PAIN AND/OR ARE AFRAID OF SPARKS, GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THE REST OF THIS FOR YOU I reccomend that you stop now, go put on Mechanix gloves, long sleeved shirt, face mask, protective goggles, long pants, and closed toed shoes the rest of the time.

Step 8: Cut the middle support beam with the grinder so that you can get that metal tube thats running across the front of the car out of the way. once you have cut through that. unbolt the hors, and the hood latch fromt he radiator support and try to place them as far under the car as possible.

Step 9. This is important. You have to look where you are cutting when you do this. Our car was a DX so there was no cruise control/abs any of that stuff under the hood which gave us an advantage. There are 6-10 spot welds holding the radiator support to the 2 frame beams of the car. To get to those, you have to start cutting. Now, I suggest MARKING OFF EXATCLY where to cut...well if not exactly as accuratley as you can to the line you are supposed to cut. Now, you want to cut towards the middle part of the radiator support on both sides. We just went 2" to the inside of the frame and made a cut straight up and down making sure to keep the cutting wheel away from any and all wires that were behind the radiator support. Once you cut all the way through both sides, and you have the middle piece cut enough so that you can slide that tube through, you can take the piece of the radiator support off, throw it across the yard and stop it beyond recognition.....well maybe not but thats what we did and it made us feel better. Your car should look like this now.



Note where we cut the radiator support, use your judgement when cutting, obviously if there are wires and stuff back there. MOVE THEM before you cut, because remember that metal gets VERY hot when cutting it, so hot that wires WILL melt if left too close to it.

Step 10. Put the grinder down. grab something to eat, let the metal cool back down. When you come back to it, grab your hammer and chisel and start pounding out the welds. Start with the top center weld and work your way around. by the time you get tot he middle weld, the chisel will be usless because that is triple stamped steel there, and theres no chance of you chiseling it all off.

Step 11: grinding the metal away...This part gets a little tricky, you have to pay close attention to what you are doing here. You do not want to mess with the frame of the car, so you have to be very careful when cutting here. to make things easier we cut down the middle first , then cut around the sides of the stamped steel. Once you have the middle section cut out (theres is an empty space behind it) then grind the edges to that all the steel is gone and the frame is exposed.











This is what it looks like when you are done grinding.







Now you are ready to bolt up your 99-00 front end.

First install your fenders, adjust them so that the door doesnt catch them when you open/close the door.

Once the fenders are on, do the radiator support. Get that piece on the car, and line it up with the stock frame holes. (see thats why its so important NOT to mangle up any metal while doing this.)

Put the radiator and the AC/Condernser in thier proper holes first then swing the rad. support forward and line it up with the holes.

Bolt the 3 bolts back up underneath, then bolt the top bolts in place.

Once you have this done. Start bolting everything back on in reverse.




Do the lights....





We test fitted the grille to see if all the holes lined up correctly.



.....and it did.

RE-install the horn, and the hood latch, you'll have to adjust the hood latch before you finish to make sure that its not sitting too hig and to make sure its level and stuff. Once that is done, reinstall the Bumper support, we used the 96-98 but if you want you can get one off a 99-00 it doesnt really matter. The 96-98 bolted up right on the driver side, but the passenger side was of by a few mm's so we just drilled to make the hole bigger.




...dont let your friends mess with paint thinner.




after adjusting the hood latch, and the fenders, we put the front bumper back on and connected the headlights/turn signals.









Voila, you can now pat yourself on the back. cause you've completed a conversion that most people wont even notice/care about.

lilpaintballer02

thanks guys. anyways i dont really want anything ghetto rigged soo where in the world could i get a radiator support?

and will the 99-00 headlights even fit the 96 bumper

Boudreaux

No, they wont fit. Try looking around for the rad support, my friend got his from a local salvage yard for $5

98civdx

you dont need a core support, its not ghetto rigged, all you is cut a bit of the bumper mount and re drill a hole, you can still use all oem clips to hold it on

call honda or look around, a local junk yard wants 200 for a used one, which is crazy you can a brand new one for not to much more i think.

lilpaintballer02

too bade i dont have a cutting tool =(

but anyways if anything if i do get the 99 core support can it be mounted by hand tools?

jdmwojo

my friend had the headlights hood fenders bumber grill and rad support and it bolted straight on my friend took us a couple hours and it was on the road

98civdx

you will need a spot weld drill bit, and basic tools as well as a welder if you want it right.

boxeocampeon

its not worth it why do you want the 2000 bumper?