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[The Law]

Hey guys, my name is Lawrence.

A little background info. This car us to belong to my dad when he lived in canada. Then after he came to california he gave it to my aunt. After driving it for a couple years they stopped driving it. My aunt has had their 1981 Honda Accord 5spd in their backyard. It has been sitting in their backyard for at least 7 years or more. They have offered it to me if I wanted it and I accepted their offer. But first I have to do plenty of things to it first to get it up and running. I am looking forward to finally getting it up and running as it is still a very good conditioned car. The car only has 91xxx kilometers on the speed odometer which calculates to around 56xxx miles on the car. 56xxx miles for a 1981 car!? Yes, I did say 56xxx miles. These are all original miles never rolled over.

Pics of the honda

















With 91,xxx km which is about 56,xxx miles





The rust in the engine bay isn't as bad a it looks. The camera settings were set differently which makes the rust look a lot worse than it really is. At the moment, I have gotten the car to start and run. I am about 75% done with the car with only trying to unfreeze the passenger side rear brake, take the front rotors off and bleed the brakes as well.

If somebody could please inform me of how to take the front rotors off that would be great. My friend and I tried it last week and couldn't get the rotors off at all. We even used a hub puller but to no extent.

[Hazwan]

Looking good. Doesn't look that bad. Some TLC and it should be good as new

Any full exterior pics?

[lostforawhile]

i'll send you to a carb person,that cvcc carb sitting is not good for it, go to importcarbs.com his number is up there, he is very reasonable and has been in buisness forever, get with him,he probably has one in stock, once you check out everything else, that would be the first thing i would do. you need to do stuff like drain and refill the oil, change all the filters,drain and fill the coolant, flush the brakes and check them for corrosion and frozen calipers, basic stuff,battery needs to be trashed. the rust on the engine looks bad, has it been in the weather? does the engine turn over? as far as by hand? you need to get some marvel mystery oil, squirt a little bit in each cylinder,just a teaspoon maby, and turn over the engine by hand. this will help prevent scoring due to the cylinder walls being totally dry. change the oil before you do this, you don't want nasty oil being pumped through the engine. when you are ready to start it, disconnect the coil lead wire,ground it to the body, then crank it over until you get some oil pressure, this will stop the valve train from being wiped out on startup, the cvcc cams are prone to this on certain lobes. once it starts running ,drain the oil again,change the filter again, then in a couple of hundred miles change it again. there will be a lot of crap in there from condensation, it will mix right in there with the oil.

[Hirst]

Nice car, looks very similar to mine except the steering wheel being on the other side. Even an 81 too!

[carotman]

i'll send you to a carb person,that cvcc carb sitting is not good for it, go to importcarbs.com his number is up there, he is very reasonable and has been in buisness forever, get with him,he probably has one in stock, once you check out everything else, that would be the first thing i would do. you need to do stuff like drain and refill the oil, change all the filters,drain and fill the coolant, flush the brakes and check them for corrosion and frozen calipers, basic stuff,battery needs to be trashed. the rust on the engine looks bad, has it been in the weather? does the engine turn over? as far as by hand? you need to get some marvel mystery oil, squirt a little bit in each cylinder,just a teaspoon maby, and turn over the engine by hand. this will help prevent scoring due to the cylinder walls being totally dry. change the oil before you do this, you don't want nasty oil being pumped through the engine. when you are ready to start it, disconnect the coil lead wire,ground it to the body, then crank it over until you get some oil pressure, this will stop the valve train from being wiped out on startup, the cvcc cams are prone to this on certain lobes. once it starts running ,drain the oil again,change the filter again, then in a couple of hundred miles change it again. there will be a lot of crap in there from condensation, it will mix right in there with the oil.

Since this is a Canadian car, it doesn't have that CVCC crap!

[2ndGenGuy]

Word. No CVCC there, yo. If it were CVCC you wouldn't even be able to see the carb!

Interior looks great! Car looks pretty clean overall. I know what you mean about the camera making everything look worse than it is! Like when you clean your interior and the flash makes your car look dirty again! I hate that.

Welcome to the site, and keep us updated on your project!

[lostforawhile]

my bad, i saw the cali in the signature, disregard the carb,but follow the rest of what i said to get it started smoothly with no issues.

[2ndGenGuy]

Oh yeah, is this a Canadian car living in California? That would be pretty sweet!

[The Law]

my bad, i saw the cali in the signature, disregard the carb,but follow the rest of what i said to get it started smoothly with no issues.

Almost everything you have said has already been done. All I have left to do it the brakes. But I am stuck right now since I can't get the rear passenger side drum to get loose. The e-brake cable is stuck.

[The Law]

Oh yeah, is this a Canadian car living in California? That would be pretty sweet!

Yes, it is a canadian car that will be living in california.

[Ichiban]

The brake rotors on this car are stupid. You need to undo the spindle nut, press off the hub, and then I believe the rotors are bolted on to the back of the hub flange, or are just held on by the wheel studs, I can't remember. I got rid of my 81 almost two years ago.

Yeah, to get it running, pull the plugs, shoot in some regular clean engine oil, change the oil and filter, and run it on the starter until it shows oil pressure. If you want to be really picky about it, pull the valve cover and add your threee litres of oil by pouring directly onto the valvetrain. I personally wouldn't bother. Don't use stupid mystery lubes or seafoam or anything other than engine oil in your crankcase. It was designed for engine oil, use engine oil.

See that picture of the carb you posted? That thing with the 3 bolts hanging off of the bottom right of the float bowl is the accelerator pump. After sitting dry, the diaphragm likes to dry out, and when you fill it with gas again, it pisses it all over the exhaust. Simply unstaking the 3 nuts and snugging them back up usually fixes it.

[2ndGenGuy]

Man, I hope you don't go to all this work to find out you can't get it into California. I don't think that it will pass emissions as an 81 Accord, because the US models were CVCC, and burned quite cleaner. It might be old enough to be exempt, but really look into getting it licensed in California first. You might be able to import it into the country easily enough, since it's probably got the same crash standards as our car, or is close enough to fool the USDOT. But you might not get it through the California import laws. But you COULD keep it licensed in Canada, registered to a friend or family member and drive it down here. But there is like a 90 day limit to keeping an out of country car in the US. But I doubt customs will find it down in California.

[The Law]

Man, I hope you don't go to all this work to find out you can't get it into California. I don't think that it will pass emissions as an 81 Accord, because the US models were CVCC, and burned quite cleaner. It might be old enough to be exempt, but really look into getting it licensed in California first. You might be able to import it into the country easily enough, since it's probably got the same crash standards as our car, or is close enough to fool the USDOT. But you might not get it through the California import laws. But you COULD keep it licensed in Canada, registered to a friend or family member and drive it down here. But there is like a 90 day limit to keeping an out of country car in the US. But I doubt customs will find it down in California.

Well the car is actually in california now. I just need to try and get the car to smog.

[The Law]

The brake rotors on this car are stupid. You need to undo the spindle nut, press off the hub, and then I believe the rotors are bolted on to the back of the hub flange, or are just held on by the wheel studs, I can't remember. I got rid of my 81 almost two years ago.

Yeah, to get it running, pull the plugs, shoot in some regular clean engine oil, change the oil and filter, and run it on the starter until it shows oil pressure. If you want to be really picky about it, pull the valve cover and add your threee litres of oil by pouring directly onto the valvetrain. I personally wouldn't bother. Don't use stupid mystery lubes or seafoam or anything other than engine oil in your crankcase. It was designed for engine oil, use engine oil.

See that picture of the carb you posted? That thing with the 3 bolts hanging off of the bottom right of the float bowl is the accelerator pump. After sitting dry, the diaphragm likes to dry out, and when you fill it with gas again, it pisses it all over the exhaust. Simply unstaking the 3 nuts and snugging them back up usually fixes it.

Well the car is running now. I just need to fix the brakes on the car. I can't get the rear passenger side drum to spin as I think its frozen. The e-brake cable won't release for the passenger side.

[Pico]

Welcome to the forum.
Looks like a fun project car

[Rendon LX-i]

Welcome.....Thats a clean car man..some TLC and you should be good to go

[Joay]

Yes, I did say 56xxx miles.

Dude!
Congratulations, that car will be tits once you get everything sorted out. You could easily get another 15 years out of that thing. Keep it around and welcome to 3Geez.

[Ichiban]

Well the car is running now. I just need to fix the brakes on the car. I can't get the rear passenger side drum to spin as I think its frozen. The e-brake cable won't release for the passenger side.

Beat the outer corner of the drum with a dead blow or rubber mallet. It will eventually free up and expose the mess that your brakes are.

[The Law]

Beat the outer corner of the drum with a dead blow or rubber mallet. It will eventually free up and expose the mess that your brakes are.

I'll give that a try

[redr2]

It should pass smog ok even down there. The CVCC's did not burn that much cleaner anyway.....it was more of a way for Honda to by pass the need for a catylitic converter and the leaded vs. unleaded fuel.

[Civic Accord Honda]

sweet car man!!!! i love it, keep up the work man looks like an awesome car!

[79cord]

It should pass smog ok even down there. The CVCC's did not burn that much cleaner anyway.....it was more of a way for Honda to by-pass the need for a catalytic converter and the leaded vs. unleaded fuel.

You might need to fit a Cat. converter though to meet the stricter rules the CVCC engine was conceived to achieve without one.... If it still has to match those rules...


& As said The front disc rotors are a pain to replace most easilly achieved by taking the entire knuckle assembly to a brake place to press the hub apart, replace the wheel bearings &re assemble. And thus best avoided

[2ndGenGuy]

Well, the 49 states models wouldn't pass California emissions. Their emissions were so strict there, that there was a separate California model with extra emissions controls. And at least the 79 and up CVCC cars already had cats on top of that. That's just what I was thinking.

[The Law]

Oh I see. Well I'll go try and get the car smogged first. If it doesn't pass smog then I will try and figure out ways to get the car to pass. Cause I really want this car to drive around as I just find it very fun to brag that it is older than most people but has less miles than the newer cars

[Civic Accord Honda]

Oh I see. Well I'll go try and get the car smogged first. If it doesn't pass smog then I will try and figure out ways to get the car to pass. Cause I really want this car to drive around as I just find it very fun to brag that it is older than most people but has less miles than the newer cars

good luck man im sure your get it to pass even if you have to pay extra if you know what i mean