Restoration, when is it too late for a car?

[stezie]

I have an 1988 registered b20 gold top CA5 accord. Its been lying in a field for over 8 years and was parked up in a driveway for 3 years before that.

Its had a very hard life and it has suffered from iron cancer very badly. I couldnt jack the car at the jack points as there was no sills or jack points remaining, and when I tried to jack the rear chassis leg, it started to make "crunching" noises...


so.. if one was to restore a rare car, how would one guage when the chassis hasnt a hope of restoration?

I could reshell the car, but then the engine and interior wouldnt be in the right ca5 shell number, so no point of restoration.....

here is a picture of it beside my black top, i will get more close up pics later

[fakeblod316]

well, its never too late to restore a car as long as you can justify it time/money wise for the end result. Honestly with that must of a rust problem I wouldn't bother. but that's completely up to you

[Vanilla Sky]

You could always chop the parts out of a solid car to restore yours. Tin worm likes to hide, though. I'd rebody the car.

[Dr_Snooz]

Honestly, it's hard to believe that these cars will ever be worth enough to justify the expense of a full-on numbers matching, frame up restoration, which is kinda what it sounds like you're planning. It will never make sense financially, so you'll have to see if it makes sense personally. If you can get/fab parts, you can restore it. It's just a question of time and money. I'm not sure how rare the car is, but if you can find a better donor, do it. It's a unibody car, so if the jack points are gone, you're going to spend a fortune getting those back. It would be easier just to replace the body. If the engine and trans aren't pristine, then you're kinda just trying to turn a turd back into a carrot.

As for the numbers matching business, I know that all gets pretty arcane. Is it even possible to know what interior belonged in what body? That might be a level of specificity that doesn't exist. The American VINs just tell the year, number of doors, engine type, producing factory and trim level. As long as those match on your donor car, then you should still have a numbers matching restore when you're done. Something to consider anyway.

Post more pics and let us know what you decide to do.

[lostforawhile]

just find another body, no one is going to pay attention to engine numbers on these cars, with a unibody that rusted you'll never get it right again, I grew up in Ohio, there we would call that a parts car, I've fixed my share of rust, and that sounds like a complete mess. you can fix bent sheet metal, and straighten a wrecked body, but if the steel is gone, there isn't much you can do