Dave,
I replaced all the front lower control arm bushings and all
of the rear bushings on my 91 Civic this past summer. What
Tegger said about my labor in pressing out the lower control
arm bushings "by hand" is true. It can be done but it is
/very/ labor intensive for an athletic woman. A man in
half-decent shape will fare better without question, but one
also has to be clever. OTOH, if you have access to a 20-ton
shop press, this should be fine for pressing the old lower
control arm bushings out and pushing the new ones in. But no
guarantees on this. Those bushings really freeze up after a
decade or so! See the newsgroup archives for reports on many
who simply found a shop that pressed the control arm
bushings in and out for a reasonable fee, albeit more than a
few reported that the shop also admitted to having a lot of
trouble pressing them in and out. The shop has to have a
humongous press.
I also agree with most everything else Tegger says.
On the poly bushings: I decided not to go with them, because
of the many reports of noise problems and some opinions that
the ride was stiffer. I bought all bushings from online OEM
parts sites.
For the trailing arm bushings, I found that shops hesitated
to agree to press them out. Also, some folks have had
problems getting the shop to orient the bushings correctly.
I got estimates on the job from both Pep Boys and my local
Honda dealer, and found I would save a bundle if I bought
the tool and bushings myself. I found the tool new on Ebay
for $139 total, but I do not currently see it there.
I hesitated to do more suspension work (e.g. ball joints),
because I did not have evidence that they were failing. Plus
I plan to keep the car only "another five years." I think my
ride is smoother, but not by much.
I did replace the stabilizer links in their entirety. Their
rubber bushings were really shot, and on one, the steel was
eaten away. They're an easy job.
My site has a full report on all this, plus links to other
sites discussing these jobs. See
http://home.earthlink.net/~honda.lioness/id15.html