1977 Accord Restoration

[carver]

Hey guys, I have a 1977 Accord that I'd like to restore and was curious if anyone knew of a shop/person in/around Los Angeles
that does great metal work for a reasonable price. I'll be doing the mechanical stuff, but the roof/quarters will need some cutting and welding,
possibly a whole new roof panel. We are the original owners so we'd like to keep it alive and preserve an early original Accord.
Thanks
Andrew

[haridev]

cool. an early Accord restoration. do you have the fender, mudguards/inserts? it protect the inner portion of the fenders from being exposed to mud, etc... its available on newer model 1geez....

neway do post some pics of your car k???

regards, dev....

[Hazwan]

Can't help with the shop, but and post pics!

[Lil Mike]

Wow, there are so many new members that have older accords. post up some pictures.

[2ndGenGuy]

I wish I knew of a metalworker down in your area. I know a guy who can do it up here... Too bad it's such a distance.

You definitely should show us some pics! I think that 77 may be the oldest Accord on here?

[carver]

Hey thanks guys, appreciate the welcome.
Yeah this is a very early one actually built in 1976.
You guys would probably appreciate the story behind it.
In early 1976 I was 10 years old and riding Honda minbikes.
My mom got a promotion and needed a new car to get to work.
She decided to buy a Toyota Celica for reliability and started shopping the dealerships.
Toward the end of June, my August Road & Track came and the brand new "big" Honda
was on the cover, an Accord. I showed my mom and said she could have a
plain Toyota or a motorcycle engineered cool Honda! I bugged her every day for a month
and finally she went down and got on the waiting list for an Accord in Aug. 1976.
The short 1976 first run had already been spoken for, and the dealership said probably Feb.
or Mar. 1977 before she could have one from a shipment. The list was that long.
So she came home and we waited. While I was in school the week before Christmas,
the dealership called her at work and said a local lady had backed out of a early 1977
silver automatic with no options, one of the first of that config. in our area. He said
if she could be there with $3995 that day, it was her's. She left work, went to the bank
and snatched it up. I came home from school and was stoked! Well, that's the car I'm restoring.
Here's how it looked that day I came home, and how it will look again.

[2ndGenGuy]

That is a great story! Cool to see an original owner with the same car still! Incredible!

Unfortunately your image isn't showing up. I don't think that the other forum will let you use them as an image host. You should set up a Photobucket account and upload your pics there...

[carver]

Thanks man, yeah I can't bring myself to scrap it or sell it, too much history etc.
Pic should be up now of an identical one in a museum.

[2ndGenGuy]

Yay! Glad to hear you want to restore it back to like new condition! If you need any help, many of us members have resources to help you out, maybe put an APB out on parts and we can try to hook you up.

[carver]

Thanks all.
I'll definitely be asking for help once I get the parts off and can tell what can be saved and what needs replacing.
Will definitely need fenders, hood, hatch and maybe a roof panel.
Front and rear bumpers chromed, seats reupholstered, dash replaced or cracks fixed,
new carpet and all the trim/seals/gaskets around the doors and windows etc.

[79cord]

Congratulations upon having kept the old beast & wanting to keep it going.

Just a note of warning to say just how different the early Accords are the last examples of the 1st gen. when you go looking for parts.
Honda didn't rest on their laurels & was consistently revising details throughout the cars production, even where there was minimal obvious change. 1979 for example having different frt guards, gravel-tray/valance, radiator support panel, headlight mountings, engine, gearbox, clutch, wiring, handbrake linkage, rear suspension arms, struts & strut mountings...

At first glance most people would only notice its slightly flatter grille with extra horizontal bar in the center....

Some bits might fit straight on, others will need associtiated changes.

[carver]

Thanks.
Yeah that's funny because I'm looking at that silver '79 as a doner car in the other thread.
The stuff I need ie. roof, hood, fenders, bumpers, hatch, dash, side markers and tailight guts should carry over.
I either have to tow it 1150 miles or attempt driving it with the bad brakes, whatever that means...lol!

[79cord]

Thats why I mentioned it actually.
The '79 frt guards are a different shape around the front lower area of the wheel-arch in preparation for the longer bumper-ends of '80-1 with only the bumper-end mtg. holes differing.
Though if you replace both sides I don't suppose many would notice !

[carver]

So if I understand correctly the plastic bumper end is longer on the '79 and has different mounting holes?
Hmmm, what I might do is adapt the '77 ends to the '79 bumper.....I'd like to keep that looking the same.
Your rubber strip across the front has a gap in the middle for the plate right?

[79cord]

'79 frt guards are the same as '80-1 apart from their mounting holes for the shorter '76-8 style bumper end, so its wheelarch protrudes wider to be more flush with the outer surface of the bumper end, where the '76-8 frt guards wheelarch is flush with the area the bumper end mounts too. (So '79-81 wheelarches differ frt to rear, where '76-78 are more symmetrical.)
I think the Accords bumper metal was unchanged throughout its run with only revised rubber pieces for '80-1.
Though to confuse things for you my car is Australian spec. so has its frt indicators built into its bumper unlike North American & some Japanese model Accords whose indicators mounted below.

The bigger for '79 1751cc "EK" engine/drivetrain would also fit but it might be easier not to separate it from its transmission, since I'm not too sure how easily it would fit to the older transmission.

[haridev]

very nice story indeed. that is one truely old accord... i think 77cord is restoring similar version in the UK. and yes, its a good move finding a donor car instead of looking for just parts alone. as what 79cord has mentioned, honda made lots of minor changes that make it a true pain to restore the early accord. but im sure with patience and your love for the car. im sure the car would one day look just like the car in the museum..... regards and welcome on board...

[carver]

Thanks guys.
I'll try to find a '79 around here and compare the metal stampings apart from the trim.
I've never looked that closely at the actual metal and have to do that to be sure.
I can't use the EK comfortably in Cal. because if they discover it at smog, the car is flagged and illegal.
There is a nice blue '78 by me but with having to do the color changes on the body parts
and the incompatible blue dash/interior, it's just not worth it vs. getting a silver car.

[carver]

Did a little research on the car tonight, and it is a fairly early U.S. one.
The first Accords to come to the U.S. were mfg. in May 1976.
Mine is a November 1976 mfg. so 7th month of Accord importation to the U.S.
and it's vin of 7432 out of 83,941 total '77's says it was in the first 8.7% of the '77's.
Interesting. I wonder how many orig. owners have older ones in the U.S.
that are still being driven and in excellent condition?

If any of you guys see this stuff in good cond. or a '76-'78 silver doner car in California,
could you drop me an email/PM so I can check it out. I have located most of these parts
at yards across the U.S., but would like to locate them in state first.
Anyone have experience with UPS/FedEx shipping big stuff like this?

[2ndGenGuy]

I've shipped some pretty big stuff. Biggest being seats. The ticket is to break everything down as small as possible. I took the seats apart and stacked them in boxes. Made it very small! A dash, door, or hood will require it's own custom packaging. Just get a bunch of cardboard, and some sort of padding, and just kinda wrap the hood in the padding, and then wrap that in cardboard and tape the crap out of it.

As for your dash piece, there is a company that sells Dash Caps. I think "lostforawhile" found some. They're supposed to look just like the original dash when painted to match. And not look like someone has actually put a dash cover on it.

What color is your interior?

Man I just searched the Bay area Craigslist and the LA Craigslist. I can't believe you guys have NO 1st gen Accords for sale. Must be because of the Cali emissions takes them off the road. We have pretty loose emissions up here, and not a lot of rust either... must be why we've got em.

[carver]

Thanks.
Yeah I've located some dash caps and am considering which way to go.
The interior is black (silver car)
It was disappointing to find a nice '78 today that was blue, locally.
All the early ones interiors matched the paint ie blue was blue, gold was tan and silver was black.
That's why I really need a silver one as a doner car.
Even though I've located all the individual parts below at yards,
it is almost impossible to find some other parts, so imho I need a doner car regardless
and might be better off starting there and then getting yard parts afterwards instead of having two of things.

[2ndGenGuy]

Man, it's a shame, I just tore apart the perfect 1978 donor car for you. It was a bright red w/ black interior. Interior was mint, which I have stashed away in my garage. But it would have had some great body panels for you. Too bad it's been crushed now...

Here's the thread though:

https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66335

[carver]

Hey thanks anyway.
You guys do seem to have a bunch up there.
Who knows, I may still get a donor in Wash.
After thinking about that '79, I might as well wait for a silver '76-'78 for the mechanical compatibility.

Yeah the salt by the coast and the smog rules have killed many Cali. ones.
I still laugh when I go to get it smogged and the guy looks for the filler restrictor and cat.
One guy said "this thing won't pass" before he hooked it up.
Minutes later with 1/2 the max emissions he handed me the cert....lol.

[carver]

More pics of the goal
This is how the car looked when it came home in 1976.

[Civic Accord Honda]

got any pictrues of her in the current shape ?

[carver]

Yeah, I'll go snap some around 2 pm when I have a break.
Rust and all.