thegreatdanes Aerodeck restoration project

[thegreatdane]

I’ve had my Aerodeck sitting in a garage ever since I got it, which is more than 2 years ago now, just waiting to get some attention. Short after I bought the Aerodeck I found and bought my 2.0i-16 sedan leaving the Aerodeck in neglect since the sedan was the car I really wanted in the first place.
Sitting for more than 2 years has caused some rust to develop but most of what’s there was already there when I got it, it’s just worse than I thought.
I’m going to junk my prelude daily driver very soon so that’s why I have decided to give life to the Aerodeck. To be able to register it here in Denmark I have to pay tax of its value (decided by an instance of the public) because I bought the car in Germany and of course the car must be able to pass inspection. The car is born with an A20A3 engine but I’m going to swap in a B20A to be able to register it as B20A Accord.
Several things on the car are going to get addressed. The brakes are seized, both rear wheel well arches have some rust which was exposed when I removed the rubber lining, left side inner doorpanel rusted, and lots of surface rust on the rearmost underbody. Lots of small dents and scratches in the paint caused by the roof in the garage falling down on it in a storm lol.

So in the following time I’ll try to update with some pics of what I’m doing.

When I first got the car in 2004:





Rear suspension and fueltank removed to reveal the infected areas:

[thegreatdane]

The rear crossmember is also suffering from a lot of surface rust:



Getting ready to sandblast in a suit that’s a bit too short



After sandblasting:

[thegreatdane]

Getting ready to cut away the old:



In the process of chipping a P28 with the moates chipping kit:

[mkymonkey]

wow, i didnt know you had an aerodeck! i say swap the enigne in your sedan into that!

[MessyHonda]

wow nice.....good thing you got rid of the rust because it made it look ugly

[MECM]

I still think that I am really lucky that my car was and is in the shape it is now. Its crazy how much these can rust. Project is coming along well. are you planning on sand blasting the whole car or just under the car?

[carotman]

I love the suit man!!

I have to do the same thing to my Accord hatch. The only difference is that I don't have access to a car lift

What kind of air compressor do you have? YOu sandblasted a good part of the underbody. It looks great now!

You should treat it with an anti-rust paint (like POR-15 or something similar in Denmark)

[guaynabo89]

definately

some sealer and undercoating would do nice.

Is that your garage?

Progress looks good, along with the pictures.

looks like the drivers side is pretty bad. its amazing how much surface rust the underbody had. good thing you are taking care of it cause if not it would have eaten the car away lol.

[2ndGenGuy]

Holy rusted metal, Batman! Nice work you've got going there! I was also going to ask if that was your garage, because it's one hell of a nice setup!

Keep up the good work! I think it will look as sharp as your sedan.

[Hans]

Nice, it's looking really good man. What are the two circles in the metal above the rear cross member?

[carotman]

Nice, it's looking really good man. What are the two circles in the metal above the rear cross member?

These are the access holes for the fuel pump and the Fuel sender unit.

[thegreatdane]

Thanks guys

I love the suit man!!
I have to do the same thing to my Accord hatch. The only difference is that I don't have access to a car lift
What kind of air compressor do you have? YOu sandblasted a good part of the underbody. It looks great now!
You should treat it with an anti-rust paint (like POR-15 or something similar in Denmark)

THanks, for a reasonable amount I might consider selling you the suit lol
I dont know what air compressor it is, some kind of industrial compressor I guess, but it's capable of delivering a lot of air flow and pressure continuesly which is what you need to do some decent sandblasting. I painted it with an antirust/primer paint which is the red paint you can see in one of the last pics. I'm going to paint it with regular paint on top of that and in the end it will be treated with an oil/wax treatment.

[thegreatdane]

wow, i didnt know you had an aerodeck! i say swap the enigne in your sedan into that!

It wont be getting the sedan engine. For now.. But it will be getting a stock B20A engine to start off with.

I still think that I am really lucky that my car was and is in the shape it is now. Its crazy how much these can rust. Project is coming along well. are you planning on sand blasting the whole car or just under the car?

Mainly just the rear portion of the underbody. The rest of the car doesnt have any rust except from a few spots.

definately

some sealer and undercoating would do nice.

Is that your garage?

Progress looks good, along with the pictures.

looks like the drivers side is pretty bad. its amazing how much surface rust the underbody had. good thing you are taking care of it cause if not it would have eaten the car away lol.

It's not my garage, I stole a corner of the shop I work at.
Yea the rust areas I'm taking care of now are the weakest points of the 3rd gens, and will usually always be the areas you need to start loking for rust in first in a 3g.

I have to do the same thing to my Accord hatch. The only difference is that I don't have access to a car lift

Sandblasting is messy as hell and you need a crap load of sand. I used approximately 60kg for this lol.

[A18A]

Sandblasting is messy as hell and you need a crap load of sand. I used approximately 60kg for this lol.

is that garage near a beach? hehe

[epic1400cs]

Nice project! Great thread for us Aerodeck owners - funny most of the aerodeck I know, include mine, have bad rust on the left rear arch rather than right. Seems like you have managed to get hold of rear arch repair panel. Will you replace the side sill as well? Good luck and look forward the great finish. I like the 5 spoke wheel by the way.

[thegreatdane]

Thank you. Yes I bought patch panels for both rear arches and also a new fuel tank and fuel filler neck. (not oem honda). For the left side I will be replacing a long part of the inner side sill, a small part of the outer side sill(doorpanel), lower part of the panel that holds the fuel filler neck and a big part of the inner wheel arch. I will have to handmake all of those panel parts except from the outer patch panel ofcourse.
I dont fancy those 5 spoke alloys all that much myself to be honest, but I figure they can make for a good set of winter wheels.

Btw. let me know when you hear anything about that spoiler

is that garage near a beach? hehe

not according to my definition of near lol. But the sand you use must be clean and properly sized, so beach sand right off the beach wouldnt be recommendable.

[thegreatdane]

picture update..

cutting it to shreds:







Stitching it back together:

[thegreatdane]

It's taking a while getting properly rid of that rust. I'm putting on a new left side doorpanel afterall. The old one wasnt worth it to put back on.

[guaynabo89]

looking good

about how long until you are done patching it up?

Is this gona get special attention in the looks and engine dept?

[Legend_master]

I dont know how I missed this thread, but it looks like you project is coming along nicely. Good job .

[MessyHonda]

nice man. its almost a new car

[Hazwan]

Nice work.

I've been wondering for a while though, will the properly welded panel last for a long time? I've seen many half assed work starting to rust again after few years.

[Ichiban]

Hey, I don't know if you've seen these threads or not but check 'em out:

https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51210

and,

https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57373

We've done a lot of similar work, unfortunately a bunch of pics are on my phone, and I can't seem to get them off.

Enjoy.

[thegreatdane]

looking good
about how long until you are done patching it up?
Is this gona get special attention in the looks and engine dept?

I figure at least about 2 weeks more from now to get the rest of the rust sorted out. Then there's a bunch of other things I want to get done after that. Engine wise it's starting out on a stock B20A running OBD1 with crome, and later on it's going to get some more N/A power Regarding the looks I'm not sure yet how much I want to do, but I can promise that there wont be any toofasttoofurious rice styling if I can help it. It's getting a new paintjob obviously, I have no idea yet what color to paint it though. Any suggestions anyone?

I dont know how I missed this thread, but it looks like you project is coming along nicely. Good job .

Yea how could you! lol Thanks though!

nice man. its almost a new car

thanks it will be

Nice work.

I've been wondering for a while though, will the properly welded panel last for a long time? I've seen many half assed work starting to rust again after few years.

It all depends on the thoroughness of the job being done. You need to make sure that you remove all of the rust and dont cut any corners (not litterally speaking ofcourse lol). You also need to make sure that the weld is sealed off properly afterwards. You can never make a 100% perfect weld with a mig/mag welder, there's always going to be tiny tiny holes in the weld. So if the weld isnt sealed off properly before the paint is applied, then moist will be able to penetrate from the other side of the panel through these tiny holes and make it rust again.
To seal it off you can use either a filler intended for this or you can apply tin (Stannum) to the welds which is in my opinion is by far the best option and is probably what I will get done to mine but I cant do it myself.
It's also important to treat the inside of the panels with an anti rust oil product afterwards. This will seal the inside of the welds.

Hey, I don't know if you've seen these threads or not but check 'em out:

https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51210

and,

https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57373

We've done a lot of similar work, unfortunately a bunch of pics are on my phone, and I can't seem to get them off.

Enjoy.

I've seen your welding thread, and it definately looks like some nice work. Something you dont see much of on this board, the body repairs on here are often being performed with fiberglass instead lol which I -no offence- dont consider a repair. The other thread I havent seen. It looks like we enjoy doing the same kind of work.

[carotman]

Nice job!

Looks time consuming tough.... This scares me a bit for my next project