Exciting news, everyone!

This week over at the Slightly Mangled garage, we made some MAJOR headway on our lifted, AWD Civic project. Our lift kit sponsors over at HRG Engineering delivered the final components for our lift kit up front. This week, we took full advantage of it and finished installing the subframe drop. It’s pretty significant at 3″ of drop – definitely needed for the size of the lift kit going on it. It’s starting to look more and more like a lifted Civic each week, especially after this week!

HRG Subframe Kit Installed

Here are the major components:

First, you have the subframe drop, which comprises of 6 individual pieces – 4 single barrels & 2 double-barrels. These are used with elongated, grade 8 hardware to fit into the chassis. Second, you have the spacers. These sit on top of the struts to provide additional ground clearance. Third, there is a steering column extender, which is required since the rack is attached to the subframe. Lastly, there are the extended spindles, which we have shown previously. We will re-install those hopefully next week with new ball joints.

HRG Front Lift Kit Components

What’s next?

After we re-install the spindles and make sure all of the suspension mates up well, we should begin the engine swap process. This process may take a little while longer than anticipated due to space limitations, but we will work on it. We will also be announcing another sponsor of the build during that time, and we cannot wait to share them with you all – it’s definitely a BIG one!

HRG Strut Tower View

Check out this week’s episode down below. Thanks for tuning in!

Text, Photos & Video by Ben Battles

ACT clutch