Just another 1979 Accord LX

[tof]

53000 fully documented miles
Full ownership history back to original window sticker
Everything works except the clock
All original except paint and upholstery

(Almost ready for paint)



EDIT: Scroll down for fresh pics

[Febr]

Sounds great. We want more pics.

[Honda#1]

More pics of the Honda baby! Keep her classy! And get some historical plates! Keep us posted.

[tof]

So, the shop that did the paint screwed up the headlights somehow. All four come on with "high beam" but none come on with "low beam". Just the parking lights. When I get the car back from the shop that is sorting out that issue I will post pics.

Paint turned out ok. Shiny but far from perfect. No noticeable runs but some imperfections and some tiny "trash" that should buff out (or "color sand") if I can find a paint correction specialist I can trust. Plenty of orange peal but no more than a new Nissan. Work included sills and underside of hood. They also restored the black on the various badges, although I need to fill in the red on the "LX" and the "5" on the 5 Speed badge. All in all I'm pretty happy. Primary goal was rust prevention and that should be good. Only rust, other than that nasty upper front skirt (behind the bumper) was spot rust in places were there was very minor body damage, like the sill where a previous owner shut the door on the seat belt buckle. All fixed now. The upper skirt was almost a total loss but it has been media blasted and what's left has been zinc treated and painted.

Upholstery turned out great. Original stitching pattern was used. Vinyl color is almost perfect. Rose interior fabric color is nearly impossible to find now. So '70s. But the fabric we ended up using looks really good.

[Oldblueaccord]

So, the shop that did the paint screwed up the headlights somehow. All four come on with "high beam" but none come on with "low beam". Just the parking lights. When I get the car back from the shop that is sorting out that issue I will post pics.

Paint turned out ok. Shiny but far from perfect. No noticeable runs but some imperfections and some tiny "trash" that should buff out (or "color sand") if I can find a paint correction specialist I can trust. Plenty of orange peal but no more than a new Nissan. Work included sills and underside of hood. They also restored the black on the various badges, although I need to fill in the red on the "LX" and the "5" on the 5 Speed badge. All in all I'm pretty happy. Primary goal was rust prevention and that should be good. Only rust, other than that nasty upper front skirt (behind the bumper) was spot rust in places were there was very minor body damage, like the sill where a previous owner shut the door on the seat belt buckle. All fixed now. The upper skirt was almost a total loss but it has been media blasted and what's left has been zinc treated and painted.

Upholstery turned out great. Original stitching pattern was used. Vinyl color is almost perfect. Rose interior fabric color is nearly impossible to find now. So '70s. But the fabric we ended up using looks really good.

Those cars used reprocessed steel back then and they spot rusted everywhere.

I think the car looks great!

[tof]

Back on the street with minor rust taken care of and ok paint...

[Dr_Snooz]

Sweet! More pics! Interior pics too.

[79cord]

Looking classy & surely attracts attention.

One of my clocks had a tooth or two broken from the rotating number 'drums' that I was able to glue back on (or carve some plastic to glue on). Though another had electrical problems.
Though they looked the same & were interchangeable Honda also used at least two different 'digital' mechanisms (& earlier traditional analogue clock).

[tof]

I was looking through the fat folder of documentation on this 79 and ran across a mint condition sales brochure for the 1979 Accord Hatchback, LX Hatchback and Sedan. Too bad it doesn't list available color combinations. I'd be curious.

It does indicate that the flush mounted rear speakers like those found on my LX were only an option on the base hatchback and sedan. The only option for rear speakers on the LX were "pocket speakers" that occupied part of the rear storage bin recess on either side panel. So either someone (and it may have been the dealer) applied the rear speaker upgrade from the base model or someone (like a previous owner) performed a badge upgrade on a base model. The latter seems unlikely as the car also has the variable assist power steering, digital clock, full tricot interior trim and "tonneau cover" (hatch area cover) that were only available on the LX. Badges and a hatch cover wouldn't be much effort and the clock would be doable but switching to power steering and swapping out the whole interior seems like a lot of trouble.

[79cord]

I thought the rear pillar speakers were standard fitment for the LX (not optional).
Australian Accords were only ever delivered in a standard 'mid-spec' with clock, parcel shelf & no-pwr steer.
Dealer fitted optional A/C common enough but the dealer fitted speakers & passenger mirror rare & hard to find. When found the rear speaker covers usually look pretty bad as they did not like suns UV, fade & start to disintegrate.

[tof]

Just double-checked the brochure. There are two different style "flush mounted" speakers shown. One is specifically identified as Accord 4 Door Sedan Flush Mounted Speakers and these are the ones mounted on my C-pillers. There is a different style flush mounted speaker shown which I assume is the option for the base hatch. Then the pocket speaker is shown and is listed as only optional on the LX hatch. All this is a bit confusing as the options are pictured with descriptions only and the available options by model are shown in a grid which lists simply "flush mounted" as optional on the sedan and base coupe. Of course a) Other years might have been different or b) Since these may well have been dealer installed options maybe some dealers installed the surface mounted ones rather than the pocket ones or c) the brochure may be wrong or d) maybe the pocket speakers were an option vs. standard surface mounted c-pillar speakers. I seem to recall seeing these speaker covers on the parcel shelf of 1G sedans, though.

I hear you on the rear speaker covers mounted flush on the "C" pillars. On my car, which spent most of its years in the deserts of California and Utah, the surfaces were disintegrating. I sanded and painted mine. They are OK although the color is not all that close to the original. Still looking for a proper color spray paint to match the plastic bits in the "rose" interior.

[tof]

More pics. Just crummy cell phone pics but I think Old Grey is looking good. Paint will need some leveling and cleaning the engine bay is an ongoing project. But she runs really well and is starting to look the part.

[tof]

Couple more...

[Leadpepper]

Sweet

[tof]

So, got some new shoes for the old girl, and a Kamei front spoiler which I have only test-fit so far. Wheels are RS Watanabe Eightspokes Very old. They are OEM size (13x5) and offset with the 4x120 lug pattern.

[Shane86]

So, got some new shoes for the old girl, and a Kamei front spoiler which I have only test-fit so far. Wheels are RS Watanabe Eightspokes Very old. They are OEM size (13x5) and offset with the 4x120 lug pattern.

Looking good

[Dr_Snooz]

Very nice!

[Honda#1]

She's such a beauty!