1986 Australian hatch- First post!

[Australian 86]

Hey guys i had joined this site a few weeks ago but i chose to just wait a while and read up on whats currently happening. So now i think i know a bit more about these cool little cars so im just going to say hi and ask a few, most likely newb questions .


I recently was bought for my 20th a 1986, 2L carb, honda accord hatch for my first car (and its red). Cheap price for here is Oz- $1,200 with 3 moths rego.


It was by no means in perfect condition, but it did have some very good aspects going for it. It came with a genuine 220,000 k's on the clock, but by the sounds of it, it could go for another 100,000 easily (being kilometers).


The issues the car had but i have fixed is;

suspension was shot- got replacement struts for $500 a set and replaced them myself (saved about $700)

Paintwork was as mottled as hell- took some cut polish and wax to it.
black trim around doors flaking and rusting- i have stripped it all off (to where it needs to remain) and have primed all the chrome surfaces with black etch primer (soon to have satin black enamel.)

Buggered muffler- got it replaced by a professional as the front half of the exhaust was custom. -$150

Shot speakers- (absolutely rooted as they were the original) 4x 6" clarion replacement speakers which i have mounted in the original spot, but taken the ugly cloth off the speaker mesh and now looks amazing with the black mesh while discretely showing the speakers. -$120


Some of the other things needing to be done to the car is most of the rubber bushings and components which i can do all myself.
Faded paint on the roof- there is a considerable amount of red missing on the roof, and im also not a big fan of the black bumpers, so my plan is to spray the entire exterior of the car with the original red (yes im am very scared about doing this!)

I WANT SOME RIMS! wow they are impossible to find here in Australia for the right price and spec... i will have to look for quite some time. (what is the Rim width specification Honda says this car should meet, beacuse supposedly here in Aus, you can only exceed this amount with the new rims by 25mm (or 1 inch), im hoping that its about 6inches because otherwise i wont be able to use the majority of 17" rims as they are mostly 17x7's...
White honda decals for the freshly sprayed bumpers. (and to match the rims im planning to powered coat white )


The inspiration for this car is from one of the other members cars on here which has a beautifully painted red body (inc. bumpers) with white highlights (decals and rims). If possible i am going to attempt to replicate this as closely as possible as it looks BEAUTIFUL!


Now... here's the part that im not sure about... performance modifications...
i am a little unsure how to go about all this as in Victoria (the state i live in) driving with ANY modifications the increase power is illegal on you P plates, which i'll have for the next 4 years ....
But, i know that most of the time its pretty had for police to tell the difference between a carb and an airfilter, so i think im willing to take the risk and if i occur too many issues ill simply revert to stock...
The modifications im keen to do is;

-Webber/ holley 32/36 carb conversion- (could someone possibly send me to the right page for this, i have got little bits of info, but not enough...)
-Civic airbox and K&N airfilter conversion. (once again, could someone please end me to the right page, i have searched for hours!)
-Possibly a sports extractor???
-Some better quality spark plugs

So all up i want the performance without the visuals under the bonnet, and a classic sporty look on the outside...

OK, that was long, i think i will repost some of this information in their relevant sections, but i thought it may be interesting for other newbies to see whats what... When i meet the required amount of posts ill post some pics and show my progress.

Thanks for your time guys!

[Dr_Snooz]

Good stuff. You probably want to spend some time in the How-To section. Here is the link for the Weber conversion. NGK V-Power plugs seem to get the thumbs up from most members here. Civic airbox is here. Post pics when you can.

Welcome to the board!

[visal911]

Damn that was a long first post

Pictaaaress please

Welcome btw

[forrest89sei]

Welcome Mate

[AccordB20A]

welcome1 and pics when you can

[Fedor B.]

Yes, pics, the long story made me curious.
Welcome, from the other side of the world.

[Australian 86]

Hey some good news since last time. The phantom electrical problem the car had has been fixed, the reason it was so hard to diagnose is because there were two issues. 1. the aftermarket top brake light was installed so poorly, as someone just stripped the wire back half way and wrapped the new wire around it, no solder or tape!. 2. one of the brake light bulbs was working, but faulty, and after about 2k's driving would heat up enough and fail, throwing on the brake error light . so hopefully the issue is fixed and i don't have to dish out over $100 for an automotive electrician.

The car now has all of its window trim quite successfully painted black, the muffler has been replaced, we have installed a billion different rubber pieces on the steering, the scratch in the windscreen has been buffed out, new wiper blades, 98 fuel in the tank, etc, etc, etc!

Now the extra good news that only just broke in the last few hours is that i just negotiated buying another 3gee car! This one is a prelude with some awesome 17" rims with enough tread left on them. i got the whole car for $480, which considering the rims are worth about $300 is pretty good.

Unfortunately there is no awesome wing on the back that i can pinch, but it has a sexy low front bumper that i might take of and modify to fit my accord (i read somewhere that its not too hard to do...) and as i was considering painting my whole bumper red anyway, its not that much extra work.

Strangely the car actually runs fine! But its got about 300k K's on the clock, considerably more than my accord, so im thinking its definitely not worth switching the motor, but i might consider taking the part for fuel injection. Does anyone here have suggestions for fuel injection conversion Vs. a 32/36 webber conversion???
Do you like the rims? Im considering getting them powder coated in white to match my colour scheme of total red car with white honda decals, just like Naf's 2.0i-16 Neverending project.

Ok so i just realised i cant post links so ill get them up with 1 more post (please ignore the comment on how do you think my rims look)

(BTW which other part should i scrounge from the parts car!??!??!? )

[Australian 86]

DAMN!!! i just read somewhere, according to regulations that we are not allowed to add a custom carburetor to our cars here in Victoria (Australia) If it does not accommodate for all the tubing leading to the original, i guess if i want more legit then EFI is the way to go...
Is it worth taking the risk/ much easier... i guess its highly unlikely the police will spot that a specific cable isn't heading in the right direction, i just wonder how this would work with insurance if i was in a serious crash...

[88LXi68]

i just wonder how this would work with insurance if i was in a serious crash...

I don't think it will have any affect. Most claims adjusters wouldn't have a clue anyway and you could probably pull it off before they came and looked at the car.

[carotman]

Yeah, these cars are getting older every day to the point some of then can get vintage plates now. Most adjusters wouldn't even notice.

[Australian 86]

Hey so just a little update, EVERYTHING IS DONE, for now...
since i last blogged soooo much has changed, i think i mentioned last time that someone was coming over with a 3G prelude that i was going to take the rims and bumper from, well the bad news is that 5 mins before they were supposed to turn up, they said she said that her husband had already sold the car to someone else! So i was absolutely raging at that point...
So i go screw it! ill just take it for its roadworthy and later on i can find some good rims and tires. Bad news, the tires i had, had plenty of tread left (around 80%) but were cracked right down in the crevasses, rendering them unroadworthy...
So there i was with two options, get a set of shitty chinese brand tires for my 13" steelies ($350) (luckily with the cool hubcaps (best looking hubcaps around i recon, shame they're on 13"...)) OR attempt to find a set of appropriate rims on the net, cheap enough, and within 20kms so i can pick them up, bearing in mind i had been searching for a good month for ANY rims that would appropriately fit my car (15-17", 40-45mm offset, 4X100 stud pattern, right aspect size tires, and hub gap!).
Amazingly i actually found a set that was everything i wanted, 16" 6 spoke Proton GTI rims that look absolutely kickass on my car! Only worry i had is the offset is 46mm, but now they're on the car so i know thats no problem. I got the rims for $250 with two good tires and two shagged ones that i would need to replace anyway because they were the wrong size (how about that! two mismatching tire sizes on one car...) SO, i simply get two other tyres for something like $220, et voila! Im really happy with how they look on the car, it looks sporty, but not too hoonish.
The spending goes on for a bunch of silly little problems that for some reason cost a bomb (replacing a stripped wheel nut ended up costing over $200!)
We have replaced more of the steering rubbers, and will continue to do so until... well im not really sure, dad seems to think that it cant have enough new rubber so we're going to get a shipment of part from the good ol' USA because you guys are so freak'n lucky having parts that cost virtually nothing!
Just a few moments ago i ordered some new number plates for the car because im pretty sure it had the original ones from the 80's Bleah, peeling green! So i ordered two slimline black background with white writing plates that cost me about $100 more than standard replacements... im still not sure if this was a good investment because it is a lot of money for something that's purely superficial, and will, if anything, make me even more attractive to the cops, if the rims weren't enough...
I still plan to spray the whole car (same colour) and get a bumper from a prelude or sumn and remould it.
Also somewhere down the track i would like to either go for a weber conversion or EFI, but i know that the EFI conversion is difficult, and the weber is illegal here (not that almost anyone would know...)
So yeah! the engine is still running fine, completely untouched! i plan to get some of those V-power plugs everyone seems to be going on about (aren't the iridium plus better???). So hopefully now i can stop spending money on things that need to be fixed, and start doing some cheap modifications!
(oh please clutch don't die any time soon!)

[Australian 86]

Just a quick question in relation to changing bumpers, i have done a bit of a search on the forums and i have discovered that the 86-7 model hatch's have a different bumper than the rest of the 3g accords, and i have to agree with the comments about how ugly it is (is the back bumper the same as the others as well? as it looks pretty shitty too...)
do the bumpers from the 88-9 models just fit on easily or does there need to be modification... basically i have searched, but not found what the best option for getting a better looking bumper is...
Thanks guys!

[Dr_Snooz]

Too many words. We need pics! LOL.

[Australian 86]

OH OK! im just really busy at the moment being in one of the most busy uni courses you can think of, and i spend most of my life at uni, so getting pictures of the car in the daytime will have to wait for the weekend...

[2oodoor]

Too many words. We need pics! LOL.

again, pictures please ... is this car RHD? would be pretty rare or even custom if it were.

[A18A]

cool avatar hahahaha

[charliekuney]

Is there still a chance that this is an aerodeck, or have we already learned otherwise or is this physically impossible due to location?

[Australian 86]

Haha custom rhd lol, don't japan use rhd? I'm assuming that we got most of our accords adopted from there... No its not rare for that reason, its just the age that makes it rare, and we chuck out our cars earlier here because if the ridiculous price for parts. Although, I don't think I have seen another hatch around, the sedan seem more common, I'm guessing if someone wanted something in a japanese sports back they would have gone for imo the best looking celica ever made...
Yeah I doubt we had the aerodeck here its not really a gap in our market with all the commodores and falcons we make. Its def a hatch.

[Australian 86]

well here are the long awaited pictures!
Ok i just realised i have no idea how to upload pictures for this site, but ill give it a go....
In the mean while ill point out a few things...

1. like the rims??? i think they suit the car really quite well, and i think 16"s were a good choice...

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2. why the hell do 3g accords have massive wheel arches!?!??! it makes my beautiful 16's look like 14's!

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3. notice the sun damage on the roof, over here in Australia the damage we get is more to the top of the vehicle due to the sun, rather than the bottom from snow. I know which one i prefer tho... (i think because of this and the bumpers that i want to spray, i might just give the whole car a once over)

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4. New Clarion 6" 2way speakers, VERY NICE !!! i took the ugly and modest cloth off the speaker covers and left the black mesh that came with the car and imo it looks SWEET! It still protects the speakers and hides them a little, but you can still spy them when you need.

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5. look at all the black trim around the windows, i had to do it ALL! it was flaked to hell, so i stripped it all back to a logical point to where it would still seal the windows, gave it two coats of black etch primer, masked it up, and two coats of satin black (all painted by hand).

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[Australian 86]

6. UGLY BUMPERS!!!! wow i am getting rid of these as soon as i can, i plan to get a bumper from a 88-89 model prelude or something and spray it all red, get rid of the dated two tone bumper/ paint combination! (and yes.... i am still an L plater

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7. Interior shot... (RHD :O)

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Tell me what you think!

[A18A]

oh ha i didn't know you guys had L plates as well! learners represent!

[J. McNeal]

Your car looks shockingly clean for how old it is and being an Aussie, then again.. An idiot with a sense of destruction had my car before me.. So i suppose anything with door panels and a headliner looks nice to me. ^.^ I like the hatch <3 i'm jealous.

[Dr_Snooz]

Very nice car! If you are going to paint the car, then just hit those bumper covers with some paint too and you should be looking pretty good.

[Australian 86]

Thanks for the support guys! i think i will go ahead with a full respray, or at least all of the black bits, i think they just clash a little too much with the red.
Is it crucial to spray the plastic parts with a special compound of paint? i have heard that there are something like 4 different types of plastic on the exterior of the car, and each of them need a different compound mixed with your paint...

[2oodoor]

that is pretty spectacular car no doubt, rims look good but have a vw wang about them imo..
I didnt think there were ANY RHD Hatches period so this the first one I have seen anyways.