'79 Hatchback restoration

[sapincher]

Howdy, I'm new to the forums and don't have enough posts to put up pictures right now, I think. But they will come in a bit.

I picked up a '79 hatchback with beige exterior and beige/brown interior that needs a decent bit of work done to it after its 160k miles on the road. It's the base model, so no power steering or A/C, exactly what I want. I retrieved it in a city 500 miles away - I drove out there in a Subaru and planned on driving it back because it was advertised as being in running condition. When I got there I learned it had a few problems but nothing terribly serious for its age - the hinge pins in the lower door hinges were completely ovalled and you had to lift the doors to shut them, the hood latch seized up so they pulled it off and stuck locks/latches like you would see on a farm shed to hold the hood down, the radiator had a small leak, the carb ran pretty lean when warm, and on and on. The top seam of the radiator was entirely packed with JB weld - the previous owner's response to a 2 foot long crack.

It was an interesting 500 mile trip back home. I have to say this car is the smoothest I have ever been in on the interstate - even if you tried to focus on them you couldn't detect any shakes, rattles, pulls, etc. After about 400 miles the carb of smooth sailing started running leaner and leaner, making the engine run hotter and the radiator leak grow bigger. It was going to blow at any moment, and the temperature was approaching the high side of the dashboard gauge. I live at 7,300ft altitude, and this car still had another 2,000ft to climb, to make things worse.

After hours of stopping to let it cool down every so often, I stopped for gas and the lean condition combined with a huge exhaust leak on the manifold caused the loudest backfire I've ever heard. Luckily I have AAA, so I pushed it into a parking space and waited to get towed the remaining 60 miles to home. I also found the engine to be liberally soaked in antifreeze.

It was a fun trip.

So now it's back home and properly registered, and I've been working on it the past few weeks. I found out the engine only gets about 90psi in each cylinder because the exhaust valves are shot, so I'm in the middle of rebuilding it with parts from RockAuto. The parts are so cheap for this car, I ordered about 40 different things easily - piston rings, valve seats, plug wires, pipes, filters, etc. . Man, I haven't been excited about a package coming in the mail since I was a little kid.

I have a small list of parts I need for the car that I can't find because there is only one 1g accord in a junkyard for at least 600 miles around, and it's been completely picked over. Let me know if you have any of these things lying around, because I'm not sure where else I can get them.

Chrome headlight bezels and the little chrome strip that goes underneath the grille
Rear washer nozzle
Left side rocker panel (the only rust patch on the car!)
Left side door panel (beige)
The door panel-type analog that goes on the side of the backseat
Rear carpet (beige)
Hatchback interior light cover
Right side front turn signal lens
Wheel trim rings


There's definitely more, that's just on the top of my head right now.

Thanks for reading, I'll show off the car's current condition tomorrow. I keep meaning to take "before" pictures ! :P

[sapincher]

Here's an imgur album of pics I took of the car - I wasn't very thorough and didn't get all the pics I wanted to take because my camera was at 4% battery life :P

1979 Accord Hatchback - Imgur (http://imgur.com/a/8SWLL)

Notably, I should have taken a picture of the exhaust manifold - it is so ridiculous. The EGR duct is completely open and the previous owner tried to seal it with duct tape, which obviously didn't work out. Now I have to figure out how to get the crusty baked duct tape off...

[sapincher]

What is the "proper" way to restore the massively cracked plastic dashboard? Has anyone done this?

[79cord]

That does look promising, glad to see you getting into the project.
Must do my sunvisors as well! Hazwan had a go fillering his dash with mixed results, it's frustrating the dash shape isn't shaped for covering with vinyl easily.
Shifter & handbrake boot sewing looks good though the vinyl does look horribly shiny.
Do like the '79 wheel styling (ours kept the original design through until '82). Thankfully the trim ring design was still used on 2g Accord & possibly later Civics as well (I don't think aftermarket designs & those of many other manufactures are as nice).

Take a template of rocker panel section shape for a metal fabricator to fold from sheet metal? ( Put some shiny packing tape on good area of rocker & cut some corrugated card so it fits fairly well, fill corrugations with body filler & stick to the tape & cut off excess filler from edges while still 'green'- part set.) Though new metal will obviously still have to be welded on & decision made upon how big the repair patches should be, since the whole side of the car from A-pillar to rear bumper was originally one panel.

[2ndGenGuy]

Pretty cool man! Glad to see you taking some time to fix her up. I was gonna say, Hazwan is the only one I know who tried to do a dash repair attempt. I think you might be a candidate for the dash cap. Someone sells one for these cars. I think there's maybe one place that has them. And none of us know anybody who has actually tried it. I think you should be the first.

American Dash Caps 1976-81 Honda Accord Dash Cap (http://www.americandashcaps.com/honda/1976-81-honda-accord-dash-cap.html)

I've definitely been curious as to how they look and the quality of them. Ideally, it will not look like some kind of cover. You might have to paint it to match, but I think it's worth a shot.

[sapincher]

I was actually looking into that exact same dash cap just before you posted. I would prefer to save the original material rather than cap it off, but I guess it's not as easy as I thought !

Thanks for the templating idea, I'm definitely going to do it as I don't think I can find a hatchback anywhere near me that isn't rusted there and there's definitely no way I can fabricate it myself.

[Dr_Snooz]

I'm loving your work on the sunvisors. You have a cool project there and I can't wait to see what you do with it.

[sapincher]

Sunvisors are definitely a lot more work than I thought they would be! In the future, I definitely would send them in to these guys (http://www.autosunvisors.com/restoration.htm). $60 per set is well worth it with how many hours of labor I've put into them so far :P And they're still not done!

One of my shifter bushings that connects the shifter rod to the shift fork fell out over the years, and resulted in the shifter being absolutely incredibly floppy. I spent forever trying to search for an appropriate bushing (#13 and #14 together on this chart (http://estore.honda.com/honda/parts/view-honda-parts-catalog-detail.asp?m=1979-accord-3-std-5mt&sn=&b=B++35&dl=208566)) before giving up. A friend was nice enough to mock up a 3D version of what I needed, and I had it printed at Shapeways. It works perfectly, except I had to drill out the inside hole a little more to fit the screw through when I got the piece. The white plastic material is definitely strong enough to act as a bushing. Here's the model (https://www.shapeways.com/model/1427189/1976-81-honda-accord-mt-shifter-bushing.html?li=my-models&materialId=6) if any of you also need it.

[2ndGenGuy]

Wow, that's awesome with the 3d printed bushings! I might have to send that to my friend and have them printed off. That's pretty badass! Can't wait to see how those visors turn out and the rest of your project! Keep us up to date!

[sapincher]

The past few days I've been fixing up the engine head - no bad rocker arms or cam lobes, but almost all the valves are trashed and pitted to heck. There were huge amounts of carbon deposits all over every valve and the valve guides and the piston heads, and I know for a fact this car was Seafoamed immediately before I bought it - just 500 miles ago. Seafoam in the intake, in the oil, and in the gas.

So I just want to say, Seafoam seems to be very ineffective at actually cleaning up the inside of your engine - either that or the level of gunk before Seafoam was absolutely ridiculous!

[Dr_Snooz]

I think we can definitely say that Seafoam is not a substitute for proper care and maintenance, even though it's often billed as such.

[sapincher]

I think I need to bore out my cylinders. I don't have much of a piston ridge at the top of the bore - I can just barely feel it - but I know compression is leaking past the rings on all four cylinders. On the walls of each cylinder there are several scratches that appear to run the full length of the piston's travel and can be felt with a fingernail. I'm not sure if they'd hone out. I hear these come from an engine overheat, which seems to be consistent with the P/O running it really lean for what must have been quite a while.

So darn.

[sapincher]

Due to other projects taking priority I've had to put this one on hold over the winter and spring, but I've started back up on it. I've got the engine fully rebuilt and am putting it back together. The previous owner did a very bad weld-job on the exhaust manifold for some reason, and it is leaking like crazy. I was just about to go to the junkyard in my city when literally the morning that I set off, they threw all the cars with parts I need in the crusher - 3 first-gen preludes and a first-gen accord. Unbelievably frustrating - as far as I know that was the only accord in a junkyard for hundreds of miles!

[2ndGenGuy]

Damnit! Well glad to hear you are still working on it! PICS of the engine rebuild! :D :D

[sapincher]

My camera died so unfortunately I can't take any pictures while I'm putting it back together :( But by the time it's back on the road I'll take plenty to show off! Unrelatedly, do you know how I can go about picking up a lower timing belt cover that doesn't involve a junkyard?

[2ndGenGuy]

You can look and see if Vintage Parts has it Vintage Parts - Your Service Parts Inventory Partner (http://www.vpartsinc.com/) Just get the part number from like HondaAutomotiveparts.com and then put them in on the Vintage Parts site.

Other than that, it's wrecking yard adventure time. Unless you can find someone willing to part out on Craigslist or maybe find the part on eBay. I've spent many hours in the wrecking yard pulling very small but difficult parts.

[Dr_Snooz]

If you don't leave thickly breaded in a combination of dirt, oil and sweat, you didn't do it right. Junkyards are where we can let our inner cavemen out. LOL

[sapincher]

If you don't leave thickly breaded in a combination of dirt, oil and sweat, you didn't do it right. Junkyards are where we can let our inner cavemen out. LOL

I would love to be able to go to a junkyard and be able to pull any part I'd like off, believe me.