Another '79 hatch project.

[79cord]

Yes I've done it again, in spite of the fact that I would like to be giving the engine of my favorite beige '79 Accord a refresh after 300,000 km I have probably distracted myself again.
Near the beginning of the year I spotted an advert for a 1-owner 100,000km 5 speed Accord hatch, & had the briefest of glances at it's pictures knowing I already have enough cars & projects lined up, & had just put my 'new' '88 Integra on the road, so it wouldn't be advisable to get another.
For some reason I mentioned the ad to my father knowing the 5-speed Accord was soo much nicer to drive & more practical than the 67,000km automatic '81 Subaru Sedan he has 'inherited' from a friend of his mothers (no-one else wanted it, but he still felt obliged to pay good money for it). And he rang up about it!
Emails followed between she & I. She had had someone see it though they suggested they wanted to clean it up & sell it on, where I was obviously an Accord fanatic... She was currently working interstate though.. Then she broke an ankle and various other delays ensued as emails continued & she put me in the awkward position of asking how much I might be willing to pay without ever seeing the car, given that it would be unregistered & had not been driven for many years, regardless of, if not due to low mileage it would need plenty of attention so I had to guess at $1000-1200 hoping for a nice car.
I finally had a chance to look at it & I must admit I was scared. Despite being white the paint was stuffed with surface rust all over the place having only been kept in a car port alongside the house for almost its entire life. Worse still it had been roughly repainted at some stage which was splitting and peeling from body filler behind the left door, thick bubbles of filled rust at the top corners of the frt guards, & rusty bare metal at the rear of the roof weld channels. Flat & cracking tyres and large rust holes in the bonnet reinforcement for the right bonnet hinge.
The interior is really nice though the top of the rear seat is split & scratched by a cat, & the car was given a wax protection treatment when nearly new, leaving the engine bay black.. I was a bit frightened feeling obliged to stick to my estimate, even as she was hoping to push me yet higher having supposedly been offered a little more previously, but bought it anyway....


Though I'm not going to admit that to my parents until it is going & looks at least a little more presentable.

[Hazwan]

That looks pretty rough but then I've seen worse. More pics!

[Dr_Snooz]

Rough indeed, but you'll get it fixed. Congrats!

[79cord]

Obviously I wouldn't have handed over much money unless I thought it was fundamentally sound, though am taking a leap of faith since it isn't running and after 35 years, with the last few unused I am not even going to try until all fluids, tyres & engine timing belt are changed.
So far I have given the Accord an oil & filter change & turned the engine over by hand; battery dead flat & dating from 2005. I also replaced the engine coolant that was still encouragingly green, and brake fluid. Odometer suggests it has done 105,512km, though service sticker dated feb 2002 indicated it would next need service at 9,755. Assuming 10,000km intervals it has done 5757km since 2002!
Would have done the transmission as well but found both front driveshafts need re-newing so should wait until they could be done at the same time. I think I already have some spare ones I can swap in.
Will have to swap over the wheels as well since tyres are flat & cracking with age. I took a photo of the tyre markings that did not come out well but suggested they might date from 1986? must recheck.
No jack or factory toolkit in the car so will have to keep a lookout for those, and the rear portion of the luggage cover that is normally mounted to the rear hatch (but often breaks its mounting tab).

I measured the front discs which seemed nearly new with 12mm thickness despite surface rust. (minimum thickness is 10.5mm).
Rubber bump stops for the rear hatch & doors are missing so I will have to look for some old ones. Hatch must have rattled quite annoyingly without them, support struts also inoperative.

Car is still at original owners place since she is still mostly working interstate in Sydney, hoping to get it home under its own power once appropriate, & hoping a housemate will find a new home for his old '83 Sigma. He doesn't want to let go of it but it doesn't have a straight panel & he doesn't even change his own engine oil. I dismembered my '80 Prelude parts car last month to make more room.

[79cord]

More bad pictures

Messy engine bay thanks to the protective treatment it had many years ago; didn't stop bonnet reinforcement rust by right hinge. Double skinned for difficulty as well.


Barely shows the cracked paint falling off the rear 1/4 behind the door.
Though you can see the rusty primer & urethane sealant/adhesive that I pulled out of the roofs weld channel with its covering trim when investigating. Showing it has had someones rough attention previously.

I'd better share its uncommon adventures as well, since this car was actually delivered new to the Pacific island of Nauru to a young NewZealand lady stationed there for the NZ embassy. The position had allowed her to get a loan to buy it, but as she was packing up to return home several months later it was realized she would still be liable for N.Zealands significant import duties of the time, which far exceeded her finances and would force her to sell her terrific new car with no chance of being able to afford anything similar. So to keep her car she decided to emigrate to Australia, which would waive duties upon importation of a personal car under such circumstances! Co-incidentally as she was walking around exploring the city of Melbourne she then came across another embassy workmate who had also moved here & had just rented to house, so with her furniture & car to get around in, they moved in together as they searched for jobs, & eventually married.
Later they bought a house and he bought a Civic to get around in as well, though was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, deterring them from having children. Various company cars also limited Accord's use before she ended up getting a job in Sydney and more recently a new Civic with power steering left the Accord largely unused at her Melbourne residence.

Anyway, I have now fitted it with my Beige Accords old driveshafts (removed during 4x100 conversion) and thought I should probably replace the seal for it's g/box selector shaft since it looked like it may be leaking & I'd replaced it upon '77 Accord & Integra easily enough so ordered one @ $32 + 12 delivery. '77 Accord & Integra use a little roll-pin to join g/box selector shaft to the floor shift linkage which is invariably difficult to remove where '79 uses an easier bolt at a pivot joint, so I'd always wondered why the Integra reverted to the older concept. Now I know. The g/box seal cannot fit over the '79's bolted pivot joint, so the w/shop manual indicates the g/box must be removed and dismantled to remove the selector output shaft before the seal can be replaced!
Maybe I won't replace that seal just yet! Refill g/box oil & see how it fares.
I've started upon changing its (original?) Honda engine timing belt now.

Oh yes, there have been a few other silly purchases I was tempted by recently, not really related to this, but anyway :
Adjustable cam pulleys for the ZC/D16A1/3 of early CR-X & Integra @ $30
'86 Accord A20 injected 2l sohc 12v & transmission for $80... at the very least might provide a cruisier 5-gear for Integra
'75 Civic 2-spoke plastic steering wheel and chrome window winders.
'77 Civic 3-spoke wood steering wheel

This being quite a rare find here having never been offered locally, this one having been bought from the USA by a Civic fan. I couldn't resist.
Does need refinishing though.

[Dr_Snooz]

Cool story! She must really have loved that car to emigrate in order to keep it.

[79cord]

Removed rear muffler & welded up a number of hole. I know it's a bodge that probably won't last long but it's the original muffler with "HONDA" stamped into the metal of its rear face.


Removed the rear bumper & straightened its bent mounting and warped rubber trims. Not quite as easy as it seems, since coach bolts are used from bumper to mount that happily turned in their holes, so bumper & mounts were removed together. On one I was able to cut a slot in the bottom so a screw driver could hold it from turning. I had to cut the nut from another though. Once the mounting was bashed straight, painted & refitted the bumper looked much straighter. Its warped rubber trims also removed & straightened enough to look respectable with the aid of a hot air gun.


Frt bumper trim support is going to need attention.

[PDXAccord79]

Did you swap the taillights or did it come light that? I thought 79's all got the horizontal lights.

[Dr_Snooz]

Would brazing be more appropriate for a thin metal muffler?

[79cord]

I don't have any experience doing brazing so used my MIG welder. Removed the lower pipe-to-muffer reinforcement, then cut out & patched areas at the lowest points of the muffler outer cylinder, front end piece, and pipe (were the reinforcement welds to pipe). Before tacking the reinforcement back on. Removed rusty rattley bits before patching. I think the pipe especially will give further problems as there were layers of rust between good metal.

'3rd' market cars; those other than the prime Northern American & Japanese markets, kept the early rear lights for '79, the early wheels throughout and the '79 grille for '80-1. Sedans also used the same hood & grilles as hatches.