And a '78

[79cord]

The dangers of Ebay; its owner having listed it with no reserve. I had to make sure it didn't go to someone only wanting scrap metal didn't I ?!
Though I'd only bought one owner '79 to add to my problems a month or so ago.

Didn't even go & see it despite being fairly local.
Here was the full description:

Up for grabs is this 1979 Honda Accord. I bought this car 5 years ago for $450. Up until then it was registered and been driven by the last owner. Spent money getting the carburetor cleaned up and put back together, fixed a leak in the bottom end gasket, new battery. Then our first child arrived and this project got left for dead. She is a bit of a basket case and would need some serious TLC to get back on the road. Body and doors have rust. Rebuilt carburetor and new battery one year ago but have not run for one year. Have not tried to start as needs fuel lines tank cleaned first. right mirror rust. Brakes in reasonable condition. This vehicle would need substantial work to bring to road worthy. Bonnet has dents.
Paintwork in poor condition. Fuel cap cover missing in photo but I have it. Tape player removed. Windscreen needs replacing (I found a couple of places with replacements for around $450) I will try to answer any questions as best as I can. Please message me if you would like to view the car during the bidding process.

Though I know well enough to spot it's a '78 with a '79 grille (different frt guards, recessed headlights, black seat adjuster trim).
Went to see it afterwards & could see the 'recent' effort that had gone towards it, with fresh driveshafts, brake hoses, newer electric fuel pump fitted. But also the older work such as reupholstered seats that were coming apart again. Repainted body that had deteriorated badly since it's obvious PLENTY of body filler had been used and was starting to fall out with rust beneath. Bonnet looks a disaster with a very bent frame & filler used to reshape it before it was dented a few more times. Left door also has a substantial amount of filler, and rear panel also looks to have been replaced & filler used either side where Honda left a simple exposed overlap joint. All bubbling with rust.
Checking the basics there was NO oil in the sump & little coolant, but cheapest option was to try & drive it home. Seller wasn't too urgent about it going so they were replaced there another day, throttle cable had been loosely connected to the carburetors choke & fuel pump had to be run for a while to get fuel into the carb. But it started albeit waay off tune & with a seized waterpump, another job for another day...

Then I was suddenly offered another '78 I had heard about several months ago & expressed interest despite it's having serious engine problems. Also a 5-speed hatch in very nice original looking gold paint. Possibly just as well its owner changed his mind, though frustrating that he did so at the last minute as I had a friends tow vehicle & rental trailer planned to collect both Accord in one morning.

Finally have driven this one home now though & have started upon it.





Surprised how much the later '79-81 grille makes the recessed '76-78 headlights look more 'hooded', unless it's the failing reflectors on the Cibie hi-beam (inboard) lamps fitted.
And the SanRemo Green seems so much nicer than I first thought, rarely aging well compared to the slightly Bluer Hampstead green of '80-1 Accords that I had always preferred. Either way I think Metallics suit its image much better than White or Beige.

Obviously it's not without major problems.



Corners of roof somewhat rusty.
Naturally I had to pull the cracked filler from the left door. Undecided whether to replace the bottom of the door, or the whole door.

[lostforawhile]

subscribed

[PDXAccord79]

I'll swap you a USDM front bumper for one of those sweet JDM bumpers. That color does look surprising good on this car.

[79cord]

Naturally first thing to do was pull it apart & find repairs needed.


LH A-pillar base


Front of both sills.


Plenum chamber under the wiper motor (motor, bitumen sound-deadener & rust removed).
Since '77 Accord & Prelude had suffered there I kind of expected that.

[79cord]

I'll swap you a USDM front bumper for one of those sweet JDM bumpers. That color does look surprising good on this car.

I think I have better ideas for bumpers...if I ever get around to it..... It's already impossible to find good front bumpers, none of mine are really straight!

And the colour really has grown upon me, though I'm still not sure whether to keep it or go Hampstead green; cars going to need a full repaint eventually anyway with every panel needing some attention.
Since good beige interiors are not easy to find it wreckers here & problems of matching colour with door trims also needing retrim I'm considering looking for black leather seats, black vinyl for doors & painting the rest.

[PDXAccord79]

I've been able to change the color of panels with SEM Color Coat with little to no issues. It smells like death but is basically vinyl in a can. Once it's on plastic that plastic part is now that color forever. It doesn't seem to work like regular paint and seems to bond to the plastic. Light Oak is very, very close to the tan used in these cars.

[Hazwan]

OMG that rust

[79cord]

Ha Ha.
Not too surprising to find rust in a 36 year old car!
Though I was disappointed by the state of the ends of the sills & wish I had a little inspection camera to look at the rest of them without cutting them off.
No doubt the holes will be twice that size once the rust is removed by my wire knot-wheel on the angle grinder...
Rust under the wiper motor only betrayed itself by crunchyness under the bitumen pad, & even then didn't look so bad until the rust was removed. Probably wouldn't even have leaked noticeably.

With the holes in the roof & the car parked unsheltered it needed enough attention to jump my queue of cars needing work, to at least stop the water getting into it's structure!
So...


MIG Welded up the holes in the cowl vent.

Then peeled back the corners of the headlining & removed the roof ariel for access & so I didn't set fire to them when I started work upon the corners of the roof.


De-rusted the left rear corner of the roof (Rear hatch partially unbolted). Note the holes in the side of the roof weld channel... and the reinforcement beneath.


Cut out the thin & perforated metal of the roof skin & top of reinforcement beneath it.


Then cut & bent some scrap galvanized sheet (ex-building ventilation duct) to fit the hole, and welded up the rear-roof reinforcement.


Followed by grinding back the welds, a quick spray with a zinc based metal primer and repeating the process for the outer roof skin.

Unfortunately this corner of the roof did warp a bit with the heat of welding & will definitely require filler, just hope it doesn't end up too thick.
At least the other corners were not nearly so bad so their relatively small holes could just be filled with weld rather that new plates of metal. There was also room to fit a small copper plate (old plumbing pipe hammered flat) directly under the roof skin where I was welding to help absorb heat and hold molten steel weld in place.

Wiper-motor rust next, and the area was cleaned up as shown above, however further screwdriver probing into the reinforcement the wiper-motor bolts to seemed to go a bit too deep... there were also holes in the main panel beneath that reinforcement... Groping along that reinforcement under the cowl panel also revealed that it ended with more rust towards the A-pillars. That would mean removing the windscreen, welded-on cowl-panel and dash pad for access!

So I went to the local wreckers & spent an hour or two & $120 removing & buying a set of good 2nd gen Prelude rear disc brakes (discs, calipers, dust shield & mounting brackets) for encouragement.

[Hazwan]

I wish I could weld

[79cord]

So after discovering the state of the wiper motor mounting/reinforcement I pushed some 10mm cord between the windscreens inner seal & windscreen weld flange, and the windscreen was gingerly pushed out. Revealing some more rust at the right corner ( picture shown previously), were only a small scab in the paint was evident before.
Steering column, Heater & dash then unbolted and dumped in the front footwells before the outer cowl panel was removed; 34 spot-welds along the windscreen lower weld flange, another dozen on each side, and the front edge cut under the bonnets rear seal.
This was what lay beneath:

Right side.


Left (passenger) side.
The last 15cm of the mount/reinforcement completely gone on this side (it's symmetrical R&L), and the main plenum panel beneath that also quite perforated. Though there is yet another reinforcement beneath this so the cabin still wouldn't have been drafty yet.

So the left side of the wiper mount/reinforcement was removed after attacking its spot welds with an angle grinder (wanted to avoid drilling holes in main panel), the flange & 'cap' over the heater air intake also removed to reveal the state of the main plenum panel.

The far left of the plenum panel also gone as it curves around to join the side panel, as can be seen from the right side picture.

Rusty areas of metal at the base of the 'A' pillar also removed

[Dr_Snooz]

Good God! There's more metal gone than left!

[79cord]

So some cutting to remove thin & perforated metal. More cutting & some bashing to form replacement metal.


One side all patched up.

Almost. Found more rust in the corner.

[carotman]

Good Job!

This just gave me some motivation to finish my own project.

[79cord]

So on to the next, drivers side.

Here it is again after grinding off the remains of the wiper mount/reinforcement and attacking with the wire wheel:


And cutting out the area under wiper motor


And cutting/bashing a plate to fit, even if I left out a reinforcing depression.


And the RH corner



So it is now all patched up

[79cord]

But what to do about the Wiper mount/reinforcement? The original design clearly wasn't too clever and compromised its strength so it could be used upon both left & right drive cars, also making it a more complicated shape to reproduce.
So I started looking at some other possible shapes.


I wouldn't mind having something unique to show for all my efforts so wondered about concealed wipers. Extending the shape of the windscreen further downwards with a new reinforcement or trim panel so the wipers could be pulled down further out of sight and hidden by a revised or moveable outer cowl panel.

Many US cars of the late '60's and '70's adopted a system that once stopped, would briefly run their motors in reverse to engage a mechanism that would extend their normal travel to drag them back further off the windscreen so they could be completely covered by the cowl panel.





Notice how it actually pulls them off the glass on this AMC Pacer so might be adopted to some cars without extending the windscreen as is usually done for more common semi-concealed wipers.

Obviously these 'recessed park' motors are not so commonly or cheaply found any more, so I wondered where I might find some....

Apparently Legend coupe had them, so I'll be patient & wait until a wrecker has some on sale.

Since I would have to relocate wiper pivot points & need different wiper arms to suit I'll even look at some of Mercedes extendable mono-wiper setups. Though they are rather bulky.

Definitely would have to hide that!

Windscreen will also be bonded in rather than use the original seal for a smoother look, easier transition for wiper, and additional strength.

[Hazwan]

Oh shit this is going to be interesting! Is that Mercedes wiper gonna fit at all? They're huge and super heavy and rather complicated for what it is. Typical Germans..

[79cord]

Not at all sure about the mono-wiper yet -but will buy one if they are cheap enough!
Dual wipers still likely though will need to be slightly longer/ different shape/ flatter around their pivot to fit under cowl panel.
I have a spare 2g integra wiper set-up though those arms are super long!
Might take a while until they are on sale... but there's plenty more rust to keep me busy!

[Dr_Snooz]

Epic build going on here!

[79cord]

Certainly more epic than I had hoped... I should be doing other things/cars/shed!

[79cord]

Bought these 2g Integra seats a few weeks ago after I 'won' its brakes & exhaust very cheaply on Ebay.. though the brakes wouldn't be directly applicable to this car... except perhaps the frt calipers if I get some 4x100 frt hubs..


Wondered about swapping the torn drivers seat cover with a passengers since they're almost symmetrical, & dying them black.. though back seat is several inches too narrow.

Then wreckers advertised half price seats & dad also said he wanted some for his Alfa so...


'01 Volvo S40 leather seats


'01 Audi A4 leather seats


Saab 9-5 rear, a bit wider than the others which would be useful.

Not sure which ones I want yet.

S40 seats are shaped to hold you better but sides are quite obviously vinyl where A4 have more leather.. or at least significantly better vinyl. Neither has a lever to recline which would make rear access difficult & both have side air bags I would probably want to strip out. Might even be heated.

Try fitting Honda reclining mechanism to seats or adapt cushions & leather covers to Honda frames? Accord or Integra frame? Integra's more curved backrest probably better for rear passengers.

I'd like some appropriately SanRemo green cloth for the door & 1/4 trims. Green carpets would be interesting too, but that's probably not available so black would be more likely, along with everything else. Don't think we ever got the green/grey interiors offered elsewhere.

[79cord]

Ok, this already makes me wonder about the grey-black seats instead of Honda's original beige & ginger!


But I wouldn't even consider wheels that big anyway.

[79cord]

So with work upon the cowl area stalled until I get some wiper parts & ideas upon mounting them work moved on to the next obvious rusty area.
front left sill/door pillar.


So it was cleaned up with the wire knotted wheel & screwdriver to reveal its holes.


Then the obviously perforated areas removed.

Revealing more holes.

And more.

So the rusty metal was removed, the visual end of the sill kept in place for reference.


And new metal formed to take its place.

The inside of the sills also cleaned & painted with a deliberately mangled brush jammed into an old broom handle.

And welded in place.

The thicker metal of the door hinge mounting reinforcement a dream to weld compared to the usual thin steel.

A template made for the correct shape of the sill.

The filler trimmed with a blade before it set fully.

And more replacement metal bashed into shape with the aid of cardboard templates & any odd shapes of steel I could find -including dumbbell weights.

I left out the flat circular bulge Honda would have used to help position the body side, and drilled holes where I would be plug welding the pieces to others beneath them.

And everything welded into place & the welds ground smooth.

[79cord]

After all the effort bashing new metal into the required shapes I wish I could say it was perfect.



But some filler will be required.
I patched the smallest visible area of the sill possible, and got the shape of the replacement metal perfect. But it still warped inward as I welded it.

[Dr_Snooz]

Incredible workmanship and dedication. Hats off to you.

[gp02a0083]

incredible workmanship and dedication. Hats off to you.

x2