Restoring my old 3gee. Need advices/comments.

[rforce27]

It's weird, it's when i had almost given up on my old Accord that i feel the biggest urge to restore it. I have bought a new car (well, new isn't the right word, it's even older than this one), a Toyota Corolla GTS (my second one). Anyway, the initial deal was that i was going to get rid of my old ride, so it has been sitting at my parents home for a few weeks now... But i like that old rusty thing too much to just thrash it...

If you want to know, my old Accord is an old S, year 87. The unibody is still strong, but the outside look really bad from my poor skills at body work. The winshield need replacing, the two doors windows have been destroyed by vandals (the main reason i bought another car, didn't feel like restoring the car anymore when it happened) and rust is showing at a lot of places. The engine still run strong, i took good care of it (i'm much better at fixing up the engine than the bodywork). The transmission and clutch too are in good shape. The suspension have been restored to near new state (i can't stand a car that don't handle corner well). I've invested a lot on that car, even if i paid little for it and it was in a very sorry state...

Luckily, used parts for my car aren't rare or hard to find, so for this the cost won't be too high (just a lot of work). Why bother if i have another, much better car? Because i still like my old Accord. Lot of torque, good fuel economy, nice handling. Now that i have another car i can strip this one and rebuild it at my pace, not having to worry about needing it later. I could probably buy another one and swap parts to it, but i would not be the same car, one i have driven to hell and back. It's not dead yet and still hope to see it restored...

What i would like to do to it? After restoring it's body to something that look nice (and insurable :) ), i would like to install an LSD. Why, no power upgrade? After seeing what an LSD can do to a car (the GTS i got just have one), it would improve that old Accord 10 fold. After that i could possibly want to switch it's carb to a webber, or convert it to EFI... Convert the exhaust system to a performance one would also help, i heard good things about headers (much better flow than stock manifold), and that car need an new catalyser, the noise is sooo bad without one...

Why keep 2 cars? I need a daily driver, especially for winter. The GTS is nice, but cost much more fuel, and isn't that great in winter. I want to restore the GTS too, but to do any extensive work on it i will need another car to move around. Either way, i need 2 cars :).

Any advice or comments?

[k-roy]

Lot of torque

Wow thanks for the laugh. Just drive your other whatever and throw some money at the Accord from time to time when it needs it. I am kinda in the same boat. I have over $3,000 invested in repairs when the car is not worth that much, so I am going to drive the holy piss out of it untill I can somewhat justify the cost. That should not be too difficult with my insurance rate and the insane mileage it gets.

[rforce27]

Wow thanks for the laugh.

Hey, i truly believe that car has so mean torque (even if it doesn't compare much with mordern car). Yeah, it's difficult to justify investment on car this old and not that valuable. For most peoples, thoses car aren't worth anything, and most will suggest we trade them for something newer like a Hyundai :(. My old thing is worth more in my eyes than most econo-crap they sell today. At the very least my old Accord can run fast without revving sky high and costing a lot of fuel. Not that many cars that can run 140 km/h as if it was a cruising speed...

[Elijah]

Where do u live?I see in canada.

[Silver86LX]

Quebec? I used to live there until I was 12 and then I moved to Ontario. But anyways, if the car means that much to you, then go for it. You are right about one thing, they sure don't build cares like they used to. These old Accords are bullet proof when they are maintained properly.

[rforce27]

Lol, i would not say bullet proof, but they are tough. I got a few accidents with it, and it was suprising how much punishment that car ca take without serious consequences. Of course time and rust has taken it's toll on mine, but it's still a tank. If i take the time this summer, i'm sure i could fix all the surface rust, the few holes and the bad paint job i did over it. After that it would be more appealing to invest for mods and stuff since the car would not be at risk of being pulled over (even if the cops have been nice to me up until now). At the very least, that car is unlikely to get pulled over for speeding. Not because it's slow, but because it's "low profile" enough to not catch the eyes (and ears) of the ticket machine...

Silver86LX : You are lucky in a way to be in Ontario, at the very least the roads there are clean, unlike our pot holes and crack ridden poorly maintained road we have here. It's not sport cars we need here, but rally and offroad vehicules :).

[HondaBoy]

i'd say if your restoring it, get parts you can at the junk yard. i say put some prelude seats in there, i love mine. hey, got any pix to give us an idea of what your working with?

[rforce27]

I do have a picture of it, it's a few months old but the car hasn't changed much since. Still, i don't know how to get the picture on this site, don't seem to have an "attach" function. I have no where to host it right now. If you have a special way to do it here please tell me...

[KoNEY]

email me the pic, ill host it for ya [email protected]

[rforce27]

Ok, it's e-mailed.

[KoNEY]

ok, here is rforce27's accord hatchie....i personally think it still has LOTS of potential
http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/4/web/484000-484999/484343_190_full.jpg

[Not like a rock]

It doesn't look as bad as your description made it sound. If it is going to be a winter car, turn it into a WINTER car. Go to Princess Auto and get some big plastic fenders (well, not too big) for small tractors and stick them on. Then rust proof everything with the best stuff you can reasonably afford.

Make that 3G into a rust proof tank that strikes fear into your salty Quebec roads. (My first car was a 3G from Quebec, it was sooooo rusty)

Seriously, if the body rust is the worst problem with the car, it is definately worth the restore. I have to redo almost everything on my SE-i. Already got a new engine, need to fix rust, get a new trunk lid, redo leather, get new carpet, fix suspension, swap transmission... just can't let it go to waste.

[rforce27]

Well, i agree it's not that bad. The paint job look worst up close, but from a distance it's not too bad. There are a few dents and some rust show up where i have painted (the rust is more visible now than when the picture was taken). The windshield is cracked, but it's not visible on the picture, but then again it's only visible from up close. Mechanically speaking, this car still run fine, brake well and don't sway or rock while cornering.

One place it is quite bad is in the wheel archs, fixed most of the holes but there still a few left. Luckily the struts are in no danger of breaking through the chassis. There is one hole beneat the car under the passenger side, but no biggie if i put the time to fix it. All in all, it's mostly body work that car need, the mechanical side need very little...

I will start stockpiling body parts for my 3gee. I can't really work on my car before summer, but at least i will have spare parts to fix the car then...

Striking fear to the salty roads of Quebec... Hum... I like that :). BTW, what is the best stuff i could use to prevent rust underneat the car? I've tryied several spray stuff but none stick there for very long, it eventually peel off :(...

[Not like a rock]

I was thinking of finding some sort of rubberized spray. I don't really know what, something like Rhino Guard, and just going nuts in the wheel archs.

[HondaBoy]

hmm, is that sky blue? interesting. yeah, i doesnt look bad, nothing a bit of simple body work can do. dont see whats wrong, but then you said the problems dont show up in the pic. anyway, i'd say go for fixing it up.

[carotman]

Not a bad car to restore. If you need parts, just tell me. We don't like that far from each other :)

[rforce27]

Well, that's nice to see such support. Many peoples i know would say ditch the car and get something else. I don't think i can bring it back to it's glorious self, but at very least make it look nice.

I'm not sure how many of you noticed the rear "custom" panel, that part was rusted out (common Accord problem), wanted to get some scrapyard one, but in the end my brother made one from several metal plates. That patchwork he made was special, but don't really match the original forms. I dubbed my car "frankheinstein" at some point, and "bob rivets" after riveting a few plates on it. At the very least, that part of the car is very though :). Of course i might have to redo that part if i want it to look better...

As for the future upgrade subject, i wondered how hard it would be to install a power steering on that car? Also, is there any LSD that can be installed on 3rd gen (so far did not find any, searched the site and did not find much on the subject)?

Carotman : Yes, i might need parts sooner or later. I wonder what kind of parts you can get? For sure right now it's more body panels and such that i might need, but later i plan to do a few upgrades to the car (if all goes well with the bodywork, would be bad to invest in the car if it's still full of rust). And getting a new winshield is bugging me, quite hard to find a good used one, and i don't want to pay 150$+ to get it installed...