1985 Honda Accord few questions

[RitchieSR]

Hi all from New Zealand!

i purchased a lush 1985 Accord about 5 months ago now, and am loving it. Power steering model, 114kms. Previous owner was an old boy, and he kept it extremely tidy.
having never owned a honda of this vintage, i have noticed they are not similar with Civics and CRXs of the same vintage, which i had assumed with little knowledge of the models. it leaves me with a few questions about the car, and was wondering if you piners would be able to help me.

most are to do with the cooling system - where does your temperature gauge sit at operating temp? mine will sit just above or on the second line, immediately above the bottom line on the gauge. i thought it would sit closer to halfway, which leaves me guessing the thermostat is not opening. But the heater works fine and blows warm. on hot days in traffic it might creep up to about a third of the gauge. but will go back down once the car is moving.
Do you guys have any ideas on whether the may be thermostat is faulty or is this where the gauge normally reads?

also adding to the issue is the engine fan doesnt turn on. im unsure where operating temp is on the gauge so dont know when to expect the fan to turn on ? if anyone has any tips for troubleshooting the above that would be awesome.

if you guys have any links to good sites for parts that would be greatly appreciated. missing a small exterior trim piece on the front left guard if anyone can help me out with that!

thanks in advance, oh yeah and pix

[2ndGenGuy]

Nice whip! Your temp gauge sounds like it's working just fine. It has to go way up before you should ever have to worry about it. It always hangs out at the low end... I've driven mine in 46*C temperatures and seen the temp gauge climb way up there, but never had any issues with the car running. I still got 310,000 miles on the original engine. That cast iron block takes ages to warm up. My car could idle for ages and that fan would never seem to kick on. Won't hurt to test it though.

[Honda#1]

Yea my 83 hatch would go above the half mark and in case I'm idling in city traffic too long, I'd turn on the heater just to be safe but it has never gone up towards the HOT mark on the temp gauge even when I don't turn on the heat to help the engine get rid of that temperature. I'm just used to not having the temp gauge go a bit above halfway on my other Hondas so I just like to play it safe. I guess for this model, that's normal operating temperature.

[Honda#1]

Also my fan would come on at like 30 minutes of just idling