Photos of Arislan's 1981 Accord

[Arislan]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I'd like to introduce myself through these pics. These were taken today, the 1981 Accord was washed yesterday. Photos of problems areas will follow. I need advice on making this car look better. Is actual colour matching possible? I live in Los Angeles, CA.

The loose cables in the cabin are because someone stole our stereo.

[Arislan]

[Arislan]

These are the problem areas. What should I do? I'm really new to this hobby and appreciate advice. Thank you.

[PDXAccord79]

All of that off color is respray. The fender has weird dots because gravel or sand pitted the respray exposing the much harder original paint below. The solution to this will be sanding it down and repainting the car.

Your interior looks really good and you have a passenger mirror, awesome! Did you just buy it?

[Arislan]

All of that off color is respray. The fender has weird dots because gravel or sand pitted the respray exposing the much harder original paint below. The solution to this will be sanding it down and repainting the car.

Your interior looks really good and you have a passenger mirror, awesome! Did you just buy it?

Thank you! We've owned it for a couple years but only now we repaired it to pass smog. It sat for two years in our garage. We're the second owners.

Here's a video walkaround I made this afternoon. http://youtu.be/Sfr03QxpnR0

We live in LA and haven't looked for a body shop just yet but we're open to suggestions.

[PDXAccord79]

If you have a driveway and are willing to buy a orbital sander you can sand it yourself then take it down and get a inexpensive paint job. A huge amount of paint cost ends up being prep. Bring it in there ready to paint and cheap jobs can turn out nice.

[Arislan]

If you have a driveway and are willing to buy a orbital sander you can sand it yourself then take it down and get a inexpensive paint job. A huge amount of paint cost ends up being prep. Bring it in there ready to paint and cheap jobs can turn out nice.

It's a good idea, I'll ask the body shop about it. The main worry is colour matching. I still don't get how the previous owner's body shop could have been so bad. That respray doesn't match at all.

[Arislan]

This is the colour code. I'm getting a bit worried about all the rust I keep seeing.

[SylusMk2]

looks like surface rust...unless you find a hole i wouldnt worry about it.....defanetly a nice car man

[Arislan]

looks like surface rust...unless you find a hole i wouldnt worry about it.....defanetly a nice car man

Thanks, Sylus! Wife and I might be buying a house in a couple of years and once I do have a driveway and garage, I want to restore that Accord to as near showroom quality as I can. It's a shame the Melon Farmers who stole our stereo damaged the plastic on the dash around it. I hope they got cut removing it.

And I sure hope I get the body fixed up before that rust spreads. But first I need to fix the air conditioner and see if I can put a cheap temporary stereo on it. Also the idle is around 1000 in the mornings and the car dies often right in the beginning. I think I need that checked out. Like I said, I'm very new to the hobby and just now in my 40s discovering a lot about cars. Better later than never. :-)

[SylusMk2]

mine does the same thing...but it idles at 2k....im putting a new carb on it...should fix the problem

[lostscotiaguy]

Depending on the temperature outside, your car SHOULD idle high when you start it. These old carburated cars have chokes on them.

A choke is another butterfly valve (Besides the Primary ,Secondary, and that tiny auxiliary one) It sits in the primary throat of the carb.
When it is cold it is mostly closed, and as it warms up it will open to the point where it no longer effects/limits the air entering the throat of the carb. I could explain WHY it does this but this post is too long anyhow.

The choke is automatic, and will stay on till the car is up to running temp (usually after a few minutes of running).
When the choke is on (Mostly closed) your idle will increase. "High Idle" or "Fast Idle" is anywhere from 1500-2500 RPM (Maybe more or less, it varies by car).
After running a while your car should drop down on it's own and idle between 7-800...ideal idle is 750, but anything around 1000 or less is probably OK.

When you get in the car in the morning (Engine Cold) you should be able to press the gas to the floor once or twice, which will set the choke and high idle. Then you should be able to start the car with your foot off the gas, and let it run till it comes down on it's own. If you press the gas during this time you will disengage the choke, and the car may not want to idle...resulting in that little dance where you keep feathering the throttle till it'll idle on it's own.

It's a pain in the ass, but that's just the way it is. Most people don't realize how lucky they are with Fuel Injection. Growing up in Canada I can always remember going out on cold mornings to start the car and let it warm up for 5-10 minutes before hopping in and driving off. I now officially sound like an old man (Back In MY day...blah blah blah get off my lawn!) so I'll leave it at that.

So, just to check everything is working OK try this:
On a cold morning, go out, give it 2-3 pumps of gas (To the floor), then try and start it.
DON'T touch the gas at all. It should start...then idle uncomfortably high.
Fight the urge to touch the throttle and let it do it's thing for 5-10 minutes.
When the radiator fan kicks on that means it is up to operating temp (about halfway up on the temp gauge), and the idle should be dropped down to normal by now.
If it is still high, give the throttle one tap and it should drop down to normal idle.
Assuming you follow these steps and it behaves as described, that means it is operating properly.

To Summarize: I wouldn't sweat it guys... your car SHOULD be behaving like that. All of this is obviously IMO. Sorry for the lecture, but I get carried away.....

=

[SylusMk2]

i understand that but once it warms up it just dies....i tried adjusting it with the plastic screw on the back but it didnt help....i have to keep jazzing the gas pedal to keep it running....

(sorry dont wanna hijack your thread)

[Dr_Snooz]

Welcome! The car looks very nice. I don't think you have to worry about rust, at all. This is California. Cars don't rust here, unless you live on the beach...and drive through the water...everyday...for a few years...

Most of your concerns involve the paint. I imagine the respray matched the car much better when it was first done. Being a different paint, however, it aged differently than the original paint over time and stopped matching along the way. It might grate on you, but it looks fine overall. If it shines up nicely, then I say keep it for now.

If a full factory restoration is in your (and the car's) future, then you will want to address the paint at that point. In that context, you will tear the car down to the bare body, media blast all the old paint off, spend days replacing damaged panels, priming, guide coating, bondoing and sanding until it is all glass smooth and then do a complete paint job. That's the official process, of course. You can dial that down to a manageable level and farm out as much or as little as you want.

Anyway, think carefully about what you want to do with the car and then chart your course from there. If you paint it now and then decide later to do a lot of mechanical work to it, you'll have a good chance of damaging the paint. Do things in the right order for the best results. A full showroom, factory restoration is long and expensive and will mean that the car is not driveable for a long time.

[Arislan]

Thank you all who replied. We currently live in Studio City but we'll be getting a house in a couple of years. I think that Honda will be worked on heavily when I do get a garage. Then I'll be able to strip it down, media blast the paint, etc.. Mechanically, it will be difficult to keep the car original as so many original parts are no longer made by Honda. You'll notice it's missing the air cleaner intake hose. I ordered a replacement made by Dorman. It won't look as good as the real Honda hose but it will have to do.

I'm thinking of giving that air cleaner cover a bath in some sort of rust removal solution. Any ideas? I don't really want to paint it since it's not the way it's supposed to be.
My wife uses the car for school every day and the gas tank needle barely moves! What a difference!

Does anyone hear frequent the Sun Valley Pick-Your-Part? I've been thinking of going there to look around for suitable parts. Mostly I'm interested in the roof console that I've seen in some pictures, as well as the hood emblem that my car is missing.

Great to meet you all!

[Dr_Snooz]

The air cleaner came painted gray from the factory. I would think you could hit it with a wire wheel and repaint it without too much trouble. That's just surface rust.

[Arislan]

I found some rust under the bonnet. This looks bad. I never noticed it before.

[SylusMk2]

can you just cut it out and have a new piece of sheet metal welded in?