Yes, that is the case.
Ok wait......so he is looking at getting a crashed facelift civic with front end damage and hoping to swap his pre-facelift bits onto the damaged facelift civic.....
Sorry I think I misunderstood when I first read the post, been up for almost 24 hours lol!!
I guess there's no reason you can't do a pre-facelift conversion
Your friend will need the headlights, front wings,bonnet, bumper, grill etc off his old civic to transfer over.
Slam panel doesn't need changing? I think there may be a fitment issue with one of the radiator brackets, but I don't think it's anything that can't be modified easily. Slam panel swap is effort!
Saying that, I've never seen anyone do a pre-facelift conversion, always the other way around so who knows?! You might get away with it!