Hello Honda family

Just wanted to stop by and introduce myself and my car. I have a 1987 Honda Accord Lxi Hatchback. I am the second owner and I knew the family that owned it from day one. I am at a crossroads with this car on either selling it or keeping it. I hate that it is automatic but I love the look of it and the nostalgia it gives in large doses. I'm mostly here for some validation and direction. Do I keep it? Do I swap the transmission? Do I keep it clean or do I build something unique. Nice to meet you all. Hope I can make some friends and some inspiration.

Well, you have an FI model, which is a lot better than dealing with a carb. You don't have the maroon interior, which hasn't aged well. You have a hatchback, which is sought after, and back window louvers, which are highly sought after. If it runs well, then you're starting with a lot more than many others around here. A manual swap is very do-able if you're good at wrenching, but parts will be very hard to find. FWIW, Honda autos are very livable trans'. They have snappy performance, are easy to power shift, and can last for 350k miles without any major problems. l swapped my 3g over to stick and am very happy with it. l haven't swapped my 4g over to stick, and am happy with it too.

What you do with it depends on you. If you don't have a big shop or lots of money, then doing a wild build is not practical. Be true to the car. There are things it does very well, like handling, being good on gas, being reliable and putting a smile on your face. Improve those things it does well, and don't screw them up when you work on its limitations. You can make it faster, but it will never be a 9 sec. drag car. If you try to turn it into one, you'll compromise handling and reliability.

Whatever else you do, have fun with it.

Thanks for the reply. I work as a teacher but our family has a mechanic shop that I grew up in. Been a Honda guy my whole life. Car has 120,000 and runs well. This car has always been on the back burner waiting for me to either sell it or invest time in its preservation. I went through a Honda scene phase with a 95 Prelude but now in my 30s I want to keep cars like Honda always meant them to be. I think I will probably aim at keeping it as period correct as possible. Hopefully this summer I get sometime to clean it up and fix little things on it: pop up headlights not working on one side, finicky accelerator issues etc. I hope this forum can help me source parts and some know how if I get stuck. Hope to share my progress and some of the other Hondas I hope to bring back. Cheers!

I find that niggling issues tend to go away if the car is driven consistently. You might start by driving it more often.