Worth the work or should I sell it? 1988 Accord LX sedan. *pics*

[Aggressive Kitten]

Newbie here! Got this a few months ago for $1,000, 150,000 miles on it, original owner sold it to me, was just going to use it as a temp. car until I could find a more up-to-date car, but it turns out I love the damn thing! I wanna keep it, but it's OLD. Recently replaced the brakes, calipers, air filter, valve cover gasket, and did a full tune-up, runs like a dream, and the interior is VERY NICE.

Here are the problems:

The shifter knob really needs to be replaced, it's loose, and I have to twist it around to make it tight, so it's not straight.

The car:

http://tinypic.com/68a4a0.jpg

The minor accident:

http://tinypic.com/68a6ns.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68a7ph.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68a7ut.jpg

The rust:

http://tinypic.com/68a81j.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68a8b8.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68a8hg.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68a9uq.jpg
[Pics continue on next post]

[Aggressive Kitten]

http://tinypic.com/68aa0z.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68aa7d.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68aalc.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68aauc.jpg
http://tinypic.com/68aazo.jpg

http://tinypic.com/68ab6e.jpg

No rust!

http://tinypic.com/68ab90.jpg =]

Pics are kind of big :sad2: Sorry, gotta learn the ropes.

Should I put the work into it? Estimated cost? Would it be worth it?

Thanks in advance. =]

[MrBen]

It would take a lot of work... in my opinion it's not worth it. I'd keep it mechanically sound and forget about appearance; it would take a lot of money and work. Maybe try and sell it and obtain a 3g without the rust.

[Vanilla Sky]

unless you can weld yourself, don't bother with it. do like ghetto said and not worry about it.

[Busted_Blue]

just use it as a temp car as you originally intended it to be.

[PortugalFocus]

Bondo, new hood, NOS and stickers and you are good to go. It's so worth it.














or not. Daily commuter it is...... That's alot of rust. Not that it's all in 1 area, but all over the place.

[SteveDX89]

Only you can really determine if it's worth it. If you love the car so much and would be sad to see it go, then keep it and slowly fix it as the extra funds come in.

[HostileJava]

To much money to drop into it. If you really like the 3g's find another one with a good body to work with.

[AccordEpicenter]

lol... if you think thats alot of rust you guys need to move to NY... What exactly do you want to fix, the rust/body?

[Aggressive Kitten]

Thanks for the replies!


lol... if you think thats alot of rust you guys need to move to NY... What exactly do you want to fix, the rust/body?
Yes, or I at least wanna stop the rust, and get a new hood. I could bondo it myself--Or try ;] done plenty of things under the hood, i'm sure experimenting on the body wouldn't be too bad?

[HostileJava]

If your just concerned about stopping the rust cut out the rusty area as well as about .5-1" beyond that and start welding and/or bondoing. Make sure to paint any exposed metal immediately though. If you just cut out the rust and don't get some surrounding area it's likely it will come back. On the other hand you may start remvoing rust and end up taking half of the back quarter panels off. I know mike(bloodlust) had a small amount of rust in his rear quarters, at least it seemed that way, once the bodyshop he took it to to fix it started removing rust from the inside of the quarter panel he was suprised to see how little of the metal was actually healthy.

[AccordEpicenter]

Word ^^^^ That is the correct way to do it. Using lots of bondo gets you in trouble fast, bondo traps moisture against the metal and makes it rust. I dont think that the car is in bad shape, it just has alot of dents. You can use fiberglass instead of welding new metal over but you still have to cut out the rust entirely, then go over everythign in the wheelwell with an underbody spray/coating to prevent it from coming back. I say if the car is mechanically sound, go for it!