Benjamin4456
10-21-2024, 08:47 PM
Seems with how much work I've been doing to this poor car it deserves a build thread.
Starting with a little back story, I purchased this car around six months ago I believe and haven't stopped fiddling with it. It was for sale on the side of the road back in my folks' neighborhood and they shot me a message asking if I was interested. Made it over there one weekend and did some poking around - the car is an 87 LXi four door auto. At the time it had 149k on the clock and had been parked for a couple months due to a few issues that had arisen. I've never worked much on Hondas (I was daily driving my 1980 12AT RX-7 at the time) and didn't really know what I was in for. Turned out it was running horribly, could barely accelerate once up to temp, power steering fluid was pouring from the pressure hose onto the header (quite the smoke show), it had some serious vibrations, and had a couple fixable body dings. Other than that however, the car was in surprisingly good shape. Here's a some photos of how it was when I first picked it up.
11361
11362
11363
The interior is in gorgeous condition
$1500 and a couple more trips and I limped it 80 miles back to my place to start toying with things (it was quite the trek not being able to accelerate consistently). I nearly got the car for $1200, but the guy had a cash offer for $1500 while I wasn't around so I matched it for him to hold it another week for me to get back. Oh well, still a pretty good deal in my opinion.
The primary running issue turned out to be an O2 sensor, even though it wasn't throwing a code for one until after I fiddled with the EGR. $20 sensor fixed that and we were off to the races. Pretty quickly I replaced the power steering pressure hose, all engine mounts (I'll come back to that one), cleaned out the EGR vacuum control stuff, did a full tune-up, new fuel filter, fixed all the bulbs that were out, new cheap speakers and head unit (the factory one had eaten a cassette that I couldn't retrieve), repaired rock chips, valve adjustment and repainted the valve cover while I was at it, fixed the AC, etc. The actual list is a bit longer and more boring (I ended up including it further down) but tl;dr I brought it up to snuff in most regards. There were some complications on a few accounts but so far they've all been sorted out.
The goal here was to bring it back up to daily driveable condition. Even though it's a bit old to be a daily by many folks' standards, I managed to daily a first gen RX-7 for over six years so this thing is luxury compared to that. As the car got further along I started noticing some other, more annoying problems. Up until recently one was a highway vibration (turns out a radius arm was loose and I never noticed), as well as an idle vibration. The new mounts helped the idle significantly but that darn front 87 LXi mount, why do they have to be unobtanium? I ended up with a used one off eBay so at least the engine sits level now, but it's still on its way out. I'm trying to track down the bracket for the 88-89 fluid filled mounts but missed the only sale I've seen of one. And yes I want the fluid filled, I want to stop rattling at idle in gear even if it's less durable.
Anywho... A few new ball joints and more later and here we are. I recently did a quick cut and polish on the car to see what the paint had left and it's really not too bad for the age. Plenty of minor digs and scuffs but it's an old car; still in good shape over all. I'll deal with the fender dent eventually but at least the rest is shiny (photos below). A simple spray ceramic sealant helps keep it clean too. I also used some bumper paint on the front and rear black trim sections to help the fading tops (Back To Black didn't stand a chance).
11364
11365
Today I finally tore out the trunk plastics to unclog the rear sunroof drains so I can park facing uphill again. Very excited about that.
Since this is becoming sort of a jumbled mess with me trying to spout off everything I've done since purchase, here's a little list to sum things up.
- EGR system cleaned, valve replaced (that darn canister loves to clog)
- Full tune up
- O2 sensor replaced
- New speakers and head unit
- New engine mounts*
- New drivers outer tie rod end (boot missing)
- One door jamb switch replaced
- TV cable adjusted (still fiddling with it)
- Windshield rock chips filled
- Valve adjustment and valve cover painted
- Power steering pressure hose replaced (system hasn't lost a drop now)
- AC repaired
- Tail light assembly replaced
- Repainted wiper arms
- Driver's window adjusted to stop wind noise
- Central locking system inspected (seems I need a new control box)
- Bumper trim painted
- New front brakes
- Front left lower as well as both rear ball joints replaced
- ATF cycled through with Honda DW-1
- Exterior detail and polish
- Dizzy o-ring replaced
- Filter pedestal o-ring replaced
- TW sensor replaced
- various interior rattles remedied (more to go)
- sunroof drains unclogged
Based on my excel sheet I believe that's most of it.
Couple more random photos, here's from when I had just redid the valve cover and was painting the bumpers.
11366
11367
Last photo for now is today's project, the sunroof drains.
11368
Anyway, hopefully going forward there will be smaller, more incremental posts. Not sure what the end goal for the car is, but for now it's to keep as a comfy and unique (by today's standards) daily driver. Cheers!
Starting with a little back story, I purchased this car around six months ago I believe and haven't stopped fiddling with it. It was for sale on the side of the road back in my folks' neighborhood and they shot me a message asking if I was interested. Made it over there one weekend and did some poking around - the car is an 87 LXi four door auto. At the time it had 149k on the clock and had been parked for a couple months due to a few issues that had arisen. I've never worked much on Hondas (I was daily driving my 1980 12AT RX-7 at the time) and didn't really know what I was in for. Turned out it was running horribly, could barely accelerate once up to temp, power steering fluid was pouring from the pressure hose onto the header (quite the smoke show), it had some serious vibrations, and had a couple fixable body dings. Other than that however, the car was in surprisingly good shape. Here's a some photos of how it was when I first picked it up.
11361
11362
11363
The interior is in gorgeous condition
$1500 and a couple more trips and I limped it 80 miles back to my place to start toying with things (it was quite the trek not being able to accelerate consistently). I nearly got the car for $1200, but the guy had a cash offer for $1500 while I wasn't around so I matched it for him to hold it another week for me to get back. Oh well, still a pretty good deal in my opinion.
The primary running issue turned out to be an O2 sensor, even though it wasn't throwing a code for one until after I fiddled with the EGR. $20 sensor fixed that and we were off to the races. Pretty quickly I replaced the power steering pressure hose, all engine mounts (I'll come back to that one), cleaned out the EGR vacuum control stuff, did a full tune-up, new fuel filter, fixed all the bulbs that were out, new cheap speakers and head unit (the factory one had eaten a cassette that I couldn't retrieve), repaired rock chips, valve adjustment and repainted the valve cover while I was at it, fixed the AC, etc. The actual list is a bit longer and more boring (I ended up including it further down) but tl;dr I brought it up to snuff in most regards. There were some complications on a few accounts but so far they've all been sorted out.
The goal here was to bring it back up to daily driveable condition. Even though it's a bit old to be a daily by many folks' standards, I managed to daily a first gen RX-7 for over six years so this thing is luxury compared to that. As the car got further along I started noticing some other, more annoying problems. Up until recently one was a highway vibration (turns out a radius arm was loose and I never noticed), as well as an idle vibration. The new mounts helped the idle significantly but that darn front 87 LXi mount, why do they have to be unobtanium? I ended up with a used one off eBay so at least the engine sits level now, but it's still on its way out. I'm trying to track down the bracket for the 88-89 fluid filled mounts but missed the only sale I've seen of one. And yes I want the fluid filled, I want to stop rattling at idle in gear even if it's less durable.
Anywho... A few new ball joints and more later and here we are. I recently did a quick cut and polish on the car to see what the paint had left and it's really not too bad for the age. Plenty of minor digs and scuffs but it's an old car; still in good shape over all. I'll deal with the fender dent eventually but at least the rest is shiny (photos below). A simple spray ceramic sealant helps keep it clean too. I also used some bumper paint on the front and rear black trim sections to help the fading tops (Back To Black didn't stand a chance).
11364
11365
Today I finally tore out the trunk plastics to unclog the rear sunroof drains so I can park facing uphill again. Very excited about that.
Since this is becoming sort of a jumbled mess with me trying to spout off everything I've done since purchase, here's a little list to sum things up.
- EGR system cleaned, valve replaced (that darn canister loves to clog)
- Full tune up
- O2 sensor replaced
- New speakers and head unit
- New engine mounts*
- New drivers outer tie rod end (boot missing)
- One door jamb switch replaced
- TV cable adjusted (still fiddling with it)
- Windshield rock chips filled
- Valve adjustment and valve cover painted
- Power steering pressure hose replaced (system hasn't lost a drop now)
- AC repaired
- Tail light assembly replaced
- Repainted wiper arms
- Driver's window adjusted to stop wind noise
- Central locking system inspected (seems I need a new control box)
- Bumper trim painted
- New front brakes
- Front left lower as well as both rear ball joints replaced
- ATF cycled through with Honda DW-1
- Exterior detail and polish
- Dizzy o-ring replaced
- Filter pedestal o-ring replaced
- TW sensor replaced
- various interior rattles remedied (more to go)
- sunroof drains unclogged
Based on my excel sheet I believe that's most of it.
Couple more random photos, here's from when I had just redid the valve cover and was painting the bumpers.
11366
11367
Last photo for now is today's project, the sunroof drains.
11368
Anyway, hopefully going forward there will be smaller, more incremental posts. Not sure what the end goal for the car is, but for now it's to keep as a comfy and unique (by today's standards) daily driver. Cheers!