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.
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