Stezie's - 1988 Accord 2.0i 16v - OEM Restoration

[stezie]

Hi all,

After owning my CA5 2.0i 16v for almost 5 years now i decided to start into the restoration of the car. The reason why it taken me to now is that I only got a garage set up at the house last year and in the past year I was taking my EK4 civic to track days , so that was consuming a lot of the budget.

I will not be modifying any part of the car, I will use genuine Honda parts where available, and at a right price. If a part is needed I will try to source a second hand item on eBay and clean that up before I buy a new part. Ideally I will have the car in the condition it left the factory.

Unfortunately progress will be slow on this as I have limited time and budget to devote to this.. I will never see myself selling the car so I am in no rush to complete it. I just hope I have it done in time for my retirement. 

So here is a few pictures of what it looked like at the end of last year.

[stezie]

Job 1 - I thought I would repaint the cam cover a Matt black .



that tidied things up a bit.

[stezie]

I got the spare parts bit parked up outside. Basically I stripped everything and anything i could of that car so that i knew how to take apart my good one. I found out that even though the cars look similar there was a "facelift" from 87 to 88 year models and there is a lot of differences in the engine and gearbox.

[obdriver6]

oh man that looks so mint!

[Dr_Snooz]

Yes! Factory restoration FTW!!!

[Tomisimo]

Wery nice car, tidy and no rust. good base to begin with.
This is what I plan with my car as well. Alltho I dont mind extra power and better handling, so imo the internals could be made go faster.

[hondalude86]

I really do love these front ends... I'd almost like to have one for my accord so that i didn't hear the confusion between the coupe and the Lude.

[Hazwan]

I really do love these front ends... I'd almost like to have one for my accord so that i didn't hear the confusion between the coupe and the Lude.

But then people would be like, nice Civic!

[87roach]

I really wouldn't say this is a restoration.. at all.

Great looking car though!

[stezie]

Cheers for the comments guys.. in fact there is alot of rust on the rear arches. I took the bumper off and started cleaning up the drivers side arch. With the amount of rust I though the whole car was infected. Ill upload pics from my camera to show the cancer at work.. it doesn't look pretty from here on.

[stezie]

I just picked the stone chip protection off with my hands.. i haven't put any grinders to the rust yet...

[stezie]

Some more picking.. its just falling off in my hands.

[stezie]

I pointed the camera up under the rear wheel arch to show the extent of the rust peaking through.. ill need to completely re build these inner arches.

[stezie]

Passenger side wheel arch isn't as bad , but will still need attention. under the rear bumper looks rust free, thankfully. just a small bit of attention under the rear left taillight. the last picture in this series shows the size of the hole i picked with my hand.. this looked like a solid inner arch before hand. it appears that the stone chip protection done its job over the years, although the metal in behind was rusting away..

[stezie]

I have two new rear arches to order tomorrow. I just need to find someone willing to change them for me.

this is the first job on the car, and the rust i have found so far is making me dread what i can find later on...

[stezie]

These cars are getting really difficult to find in Ireland now for parts, and when I spotted an accord in the rear of a lorry at a local metal recycling yard last year I asked him if I could take a few things off the car before he crushes the car..

He said that I can take what ever I want off the car and only asked for 50 euro, which was a bargain.

Although it was a 12v engine with an auto gear box, the suspension is the same so I took all that, along with abs sensors, alternator, and full set of locks, and a working electric aerial, that wasn't broken!!

What annoyed me is that when the guy went to look at the car, he said there wasn't a mark on the car before he picked it up by the grab and threw it in the back of the lorry.. I could of helped myself to lights and panels.





I hope to have the spare suspension cleaned, painted and fitted with new bearing, and bushings where possible to drop into the car.

[Tomisimo]

Holy, from the outside it didnt look as bas as close ut, check out under the gas tank also and radiator support, these are usual places they use to rust where you font see before its to late. The most efficient way to get rid of bublerust is to use rotary brush on the anglegrinder.

just mark the rotation direction and always use it in the same direction or those steel hears will fly out og sitting.

[stezie]

Holy, from the outside it didnt look as bas as close ut, check out under the gas tank also and radiator support, these are usual places they use to rust where you font see before its to late. The most efficient way to get rid of bublerust is to use rotary brush on the anglegrinder.

just mark the rotation direction and always use it in the same direction or those steel hears will fly out og sitting.

Yeah if you stood close to the car the arches did not look healthy.


My plan of action is to remove the complete rear suspension and sub frame, including petrol tank. I will then remove all stone chip protection from underneath and identify any rust spots then I will re coat the under neath of the car in black POR 15, then spray red again.

[87roach]

I think I spoke too soon!

It's not a project without rust repair haha

[Vanilla Sky]

Do you have an air compressor? With a restoration and rust repair like this, you'll absolutely hate not having one.

[obdriver6]

I don't like rust but I do like the stack of parts you have!

[stezie]

air compressor?? naaaa i doesnt have one.. should i have one? ha.. na im just a novice mechanic.. all the welding and body work will be completed by a pro for me.

unless for using air tools like an impact gun?



Yeah spare parts are handy, i grab as much as i can where possible.. not many accords about now.

[Vanilla Sky]

Air tools are awesome to have, especially to run big impact guns and sand blasters. As a matter of fact, you would probably REALLY like a soda blaster. It uses baking soda as the abrasive media, and it leaves a protective coating on the metal. You can save a lot of money by taking care of the minor rust yourself. Same with the suspension parts. A few cans of Chassis Black or similar epoxy paint would make your suspension look brand new.

I have to commend you greatly for restoring one of these cars. Most people, myself included, only want to make them go fast. Thanks for keeping one in nice original condition.

[Tomisimo]

Air tool are must on a 20++yr old car. I had to cut damper fork, because the bolt was rusted shut inside LCA, you have some neat impact hammer tools for cars that wil shake anything out, but the bolt willlook like a mushroom tho. plus you can use it with point sand blaster to prepare your car in order to save some cash for a full body repaint. do as much as you can, learn the car.

[stezie]

air compressor is on the shopping list then so.. What size of compressor would you guys recommend? bear in mind I would like to keep as much floor space as possible in my garage and dont want to spend a fortune on a set up that will only have occassional weekend use.