Mad JDM dash yo!

[Hazwan]

I got this dash for free from early 1gee from a friend of my father whos parting out his car for free.

Bad news is, it cracked. And the wiring is hacked to death.

But the good news is, it came with many cool JDM stuffs like remote side mirror controls and chrome trims around the gauges and vents. Sucks that someone tried to pry the mirror controls and broke the bezel. Not that I can't fix that with some fiberglass though. I still need to see what else he has for sale.









My plan is to dye the dash black and do whatever I can to hide the cracks to replace the one in my car, which is in even worse condition than this.

Also, what is that little light above 'Door' indicator?

[A18A]

thats mad cool yo!

[carotman]

The light could be an overheating light warning?

[Dr_Snooz]

Not that I can't fix that with some fiberglass though.

I find that Krazy Glue is the perfect, nearly invisible repair for most plastics. Just be sure to let it sit overnight so it can cure completely.

Those dashes crack like crazy. If it were mine, I'd try wood dough. It will hold stain and not be so hard (like Bondo) that you can't sand it. Unless you avoid all sunlight though, expect the cracking to continue. Your best bet might be simply to buy a cover and just keep them hidden.

Don't know for sure, but I'd bet that light is typical Honda safety overkill. It's probably really bright and accompanied by a very loud buzzer and comes on whenever the door is open or your safety belt unbuckled. Can't remember if mine had one.

Killer find.

[2ndGenGuy]

Man, I saw that light in some pictures of some other 1geez the other day. I can't figure out what it could be.

Thats a cool dash though man! The chrome is bling around the gauges. I would love to pimp out my gauges with some chrome rings. They just add a touch of elegance to the dash. Those electric mirror controls are sweet too! Must be for the fender-mounted mirrors!

Also dig those heater controls!

[Civic Accord Honda]

thats sweet ! now get to work making it mint again

[Lil Mike]

wow i love the gauges on that dash, so old school. hope you post some pictures when you start working on it

[Hazwan]

I find that Krazy Glue is the perfect, nearly invisible repair for most plastics. Just be sure to let it sit overnight so it can cure completely.

Those dashes crack like crazy. If it were mine, I'd try wood dough. It will hold stain and not be so hard (like Bondo) that you can't sand it. Unless you avoid all sunlight though, expect the cracking to continue. Your best bet might be simply to buy a cover and just keep them hidden.

Don't know for sure, but I'd bet that light is typical Honda safety overkill. It's probably really bright and accompanied by a very loud buzzer and comes on whenever the door is open or your safety belt unbuckled. Can't remember if mine had one.

Killer find.

Heh the thing is the original broken part is missing. I'll have to hack another good piece to fit the new one, that is if I ever wanted to keep the controls. I don't know if I like the fender mounted mirrors. They are nice as 'OMG rare JDM' piece but I don't think it will suit my car's theme.

Last time I found a mint dash with really tiny hairline cracks, where the cracks are bigger after few days being under the sun. Thanks for the wood dough tip. I might try that.

I did try fiberglassing over the old one but I think I need to take the old hardened vinyl off first, leaving only the foam as it cracks with the fiberglass over it lol. Anyone has experience with interior, especially dashboard fiberglassing?

[lostforawhile]

the light might be a choke indicator,didn't the early cars have manual chokes? I know i had a 600 and it had a manual choke and a warning light.

[Hazwan]

On my car with manual choke it has choke indicator next to the left turn signal indicator, which is missing in this cluster. I guess it has electric choke? Do 1g ever come with electric choke?

Also I forgot to post this:



Looking at the JDM brochure, that RRDOOR LOCK indicator is for the cable actuated remote rear door lock. Cool stuffs!

[79cord]

Sounds exciting.

EL has manual choke, EK inc. JDM had automatic choke.
Didn't US/Canadian sedans also get the remote rear door locking (lock the kids in!)? Generally other EL didn't.

Could it also have the Full Auto 'Climate-control' air-con supposedly offered for the JDM?

I was also wondering about experimenting with one of my old cracked dash's, removing vinyl & fiberglassing & gluing new vinyl over the top, breaking the panel up into seperate panels like the 4th gen Civic to make the shapes easier. (entire dash temping but probably more difficult to fit). Also possily covering over/removing the center speaker grille & clock bezel (both of which can also become warped by the sun).

But I'm also tempted to re-arrange the radio heater area as well, relocating choke to outside of dash, move heater controls over & move radio up (standard size radio might fit better there?) with big cubby hole beneath. But I'll probably never get around to any of it.

[Hazwan]

Sounds exciting.

EL has manual choke, EK inc. JDM had automatic choke.
Didn't US/Canadian sedans also get the remote rear door locking (lock the kids in!)? Generally other EL didn't.

Could it also have the Full Auto 'Climate-control' air-con supposedly offered for the JDM?

I was also wondering about experimenting with one of my old cracked dash's, removing vinyl & fiberglassing & gluing new vinyl over the top, breaking the panel up into seperate panels like the 4th gen Civic to make the shapes easier. (entire dash temping but probably more difficult to fit). Also possily covering over/removing the center speaker grille & clock bezel (both of which can also become warped by the sun).

But I'm also tempted to re-arrange the radio heater area as well, relocating choke to outside of dash, move heater controls over & move radio up (standard size radio might fit better there?) with big cubby hole beneath. But I'll probably never get around to any of it.

Ah that makes sense with the choke.

What is that Full Auto 'Climate-control' air-con thing? Sounds cool!

I'd like to relocate my head unit away from the stock location as well as no head unit would fit properly in that opening and mount a single din pocket in there. I was thinking of 2g center console and mount the head unit there.

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah the US model sedans had the cable actuated rear door locks too.

I just noticed your mirrors, Hazwan. What are they? Not stock I take it? My hatch has the mirrors mounted on the sheet metal part of the door.

[79cord]

"What is that Full Auto 'Climate-control' air-con thing? Sounds cool!"

I've only seen a reference to it on the Honda japan webite as having been added to the top spec Accord in '80 or '81.
My '89 CR-X SiR has it. So temperature & humidity sensors are included to try & automatically maintain a chosen temperature.
So when starting on cold mornings it opens the heater & turns on the fan full blast even though there's no heat to be had from a cold engine, & I want to add a lock-out on the Air conditioner too so I can just get fresh air!

[Hazwan]

Yeah the US model sedans had the cable actuated rear door locks too.

I just noticed your mirrors, Hazwan. What are they? Not stock I take it? My hatch has the mirrors mounted on the sheet metal part of the door.

They are generic aftermarket mirrors. Rattles at high speed and pretty crappy. I had to put those round convex mirror thing to get rid of the blindspots. I like the stock ones in black better, maybe I'll get a set of those someday. Or maybe retrofitting something newer (power folding mirrors anyone??)

[79cord]

Sorry I didn't get to see the pictures earlier.
I'm guessing a 1978 dash, ours had a slide instead of rotory heater fan switch after that... & no sedans before.
Never noticed before, the absence of the recess around the direction control lever my '79 has.

Is the chrome round the vents painted on? the '77-'78 grille "chrome" around the central air-intake opening within the grille was, before Honda added the separate die-cast metal trim to the '79's grille.

If the bonnet is rusted out you might still want its removable hinge pins. Saves removing the grille to unbolt the bonnet.

[Hazwan]

Sorry I didn't get to see the pictures earlier.
I'm guessing a 1978 dash, ours had a slide instead of rotory heater fan switch after that... & no sedans before.
Never noticed before, the absence of the recess around the direction control lever my '79 has.

Is the chrome round the vents painted on? the '77-'78 grille "chrome" around the central air-intake opening within the grille was, before Honda added the separate die-cast metal trim to the '79's grille.

If the bonnet is rusted out you might still want its removable hinge pins. Saves removing the grille to unbolt the bonnet.

I'm pretty sure the only JDM 1g that imported here are he early ones, and I noticed JDM '81 model came with similar AC/heater controls with mine, with the exception we don't have heater installed.

The chrome vents are plated on the plastic. As for the bonnet, he junked the car already What a shame.

I never realized 1g came with auto climate control. I kinda like how the system works in newer Honda I sat on, but I found its pretty useless as I always keep the AC and the blowe in high and the exterior temp never drop enough for me to put the heater on lol.

[haridev]

actually if you use some light abbrasive material and go over the a/c vents, you would realise that the chrome would appear from under the black paint. i realised this by mistake. it looks like an amazing dash and its a pity that the car itself has left the roads for good.

my stock 81' accord has both an electronic and manual choke. however i can count the number of times the manual choke has been used. regards, dev

regards, dev....

[haridev]

yea, my accord has the light above the door indicator as well. however my older accord did not have it. it works weirdly and is rather dumb actually. when you open a door, trunk, or even if the brake lamp bulb is blown, the this light (orange) would light for about 5 seconds then it would go off followed by the door indicator lighting up. gosh! it was severly over-engineered...i think they found this pointless and decided to remove it in later accords. this feature ws also mentioned in the handbook.

i do not mean to hijack but by brake lamp indicator comes on for no reason once in a while. any ideas how to handle this issue? regards....

[haridev]

and yea i was thinking. u ever used underseal before? it is a rubbersize paint used to paint the undercarriage for older cars and it has some anti-rust propeties. it is black in colour. those days people use to call this flint coat. you could get this paint from any hardware store.

anyway, since you are planning to paint ur dash black. you could use this flint coat to paint up the cracks in the dash as a filler. since it is rubberized, it could handle the expansion and contraction due to heat. give it a shot and tell me how it worked out. after filling the cracks, you could prep it for the final paint. i feel that you might have an excellent finish if you would try this. regards, dev

[Hazwan]

yea, my accord has the light above the door indicator as well. however my older accord did not have it. it works weirdly and is rather dumb actually. when you open a door, trunk, or even if the brake lamp bulb is blown, the this light (orange) would light for about 5 seconds then it would go off followed by the door indicator lighting up. gosh! it was severly over-engineered...i think they found this pointless and decided to remove it in later accords. this feature ws also mentioned in the handbook.

i do not mean to hijack but by brake lamp indicator comes on for no reason once in a while. any ideas how to handle this issue? regards....

Ah that makes sense. Even the door, trunk lid and brake lamp indicators are useless IMO. The little lights on the car icon should be enough.

As for the brake lamp indicator coming on for no reason, I used to have the same problem and I assume the unit itself in the cluster is bad as I swapped another one and the light never comes on, except when the brake light is out lol.

Good idea with the rubberized paint. I never thought of that althrough I never actually used them. The underseal I used is tar based and its sticky and uneven. I might give the rubberized paint a try.

[haridev]

i might not totally agree with you on the fact that the entire door/trunk/brake lamp cluster is useless as to me the only thing useless would be the little light on the top of it which flashes annoyingly for about 5 seconds. i find the cluster interesting as it is special to older accords. however it grew decreasingly smaller in the later generations till it finally dissappeared. besides, friends of mine who notice the cluster tend to be amazed by its function and the fact that it still functions. hehe.... guess i am a sucker for useless items/ frills.

anyway, as for the brake lamp indicator, my older accord use to have the same issue. my dad decided to run sum electric tape on the cluster to blind it off. hehe...cheap fix. in my current car, it seldom has the issue but when it comes on, all i need is to switch the engine off and turn it back on and it would be gone. a little dumb actually. sometimes i wonder if it was because i ran an auxillary brake lamp from the wiring or because of faulty wattage on the bulbs itself. regards, dev....

[haridev]

and yea, my 88' merc hasnt got the little car icon or trunk lid indicator. all it has is the trusty dome light which comes on. that is good enough actually. i guess honda had to go the extra mile.

[Hazwan]

i might not totally agree with you on the fact that the entire door/trunk/brake lamp cluster is useless as to me the only thing useless would be the little light on the top of it which flashes annoyingly for about 5 seconds. i find the cluster interesting as it is special to older accords. however it grew decreasingly smaller in the later generations till it finally dissappeared. besides, friends of mine who notice the cluster tend to be amazed by its function and the fact that it still functions. hehe.... guess i am a sucker for useless items/ frills.

anyway, as for the brake lamp indicator, my older accord use to have the same issue. my dad decided to run sum electric tape on the cluster to blind it off. hehe...cheap fix. in my current car, it seldom has the issue but when it comes on, all i need is to switch the engine off and turn it back on and it would be gone. a little dumb actually. sometimes i wonder if it was because i ran an auxillary brake lamp from the wiring or because of faulty wattage on the bulbs itself. regards, dev....

The extra indicator for 'Door', 'Trunk' and 'Brake Lamp' is useless IMO. The icons should be enough, like the one in newer Accords. And yes, many people amazed by the little lights telling which door is ajar, instead of one little light telling one (or more) door is ajar.

I doubt additional lamp from the wiring/bulb would make a difference. I tried swapping all three new bulbs, including the 3rd brake lamp and disconnecting the 3rd brake lamp as well.

[tomatofiasco]

i think the general "theres a bomb on this bus" light that comes on is AWESOME because its a little lens like a brake light and looks cool.

if you dont know what it does you can pretend its a turbo light like in a pod racer and you have to hold forward on the control stick and then tab B and a circle runs around it and then BWOOOOOOOSH you are actually going as fast as you expected to without the afterburners.

anyone know what it means when the oil light comes on for a second then goes off again? happens mostly on drift mountain battling the redsuns.