Nice to see a lot of the old school guys keeping their cars mint or working on new shells. Also nice to see so much progress with the B20A swap (info wise) and all the new members from inside and outside North America as well! I'm sure a lot of people on here don't have a clue who I am as I've been away from this board for so long.
This was my 86 EXi back when it was still respectable 10 years ago.
I gave up on it after the rust was killing the body (major hole in the trunk and all 4 jacking points had collapsed). It's sat for over 9 years now. But amazingly, even after all that time, the a20 still purrs quietly when I start it up once in a while.
Anyways, I needed another daily driver and came across an 89 SE-i for $500 on Craigslist last month. Completely stock minus the SE-i rims/Bose system and the leather seats were trashed. I can tell it was in a light front end accident as the hood, fenders and headlight buckets needed some alignment. Plus the 86/87 bumper and mismatched door moldings totally gave it away. The rear right quarter has been repainted as well. But it's really hard to find any 3rd gen EX-i/SE-i's around here let alone one with minimal rust so I jumped on it. Compression was 175 across so that was a good sign.
Gave it a much needed major tune up, fresh fluids, brake flush, right axle, new oil seals, o2 and coolant temp sensors, engine mounts, and the usual iacv/fiv/tb clean up. Almost everything I needed was sitting on my shelf for the 86 so that was a huge bonus. Was still getting horrible mileage so after some diagnosing, turned out the vacuum advance diaphragm was toast. Had 3 distributors on my shelf so I just swapped the best looking one over. Now it runs like a new car. Also spent a lot of time shimming and realigning the front end so everything lines up. The suspension was bothering me and it turns out the radius rod bushings were shot along with the the fact whoever worked on it before put the damn things in the wrong way. But the good thing is, so far none of the suspension bolts were seized.
Spent the last few weeks doing that along with slowly transferring the good parts from the 86 EX-i. Oem sunroof and window visors, mint SE-i rear seats and door panels, Prelude seats in the front, painted and mounted a 4th gen spoiler I had and converted the harness plugs to make it plug and play with the 3rd gen taillights, and clear front bumper signals. Also installed a spare 2 way alarm. I'll eventually transfer my Lude arms with Koni reds/GC's over to it but for now, I'll enjoy pummeling over speed bumps at stock height without worrying about scraping.
Made a front lip out of an old 87 bumper (cut off the bottom half of the junk one and mounted it upside down), a chrome finish pipe for the muffler, converted all the moldings to the thin 86/87 style, and threw some Civic wheel covers on it for now. Still looks crappy and needs a good wash/wax but it's a start. I have some 5th gen side skirts and rear lip so I might try mounting that on if I have time.
You can see my poor 86 looking sad in the back slowly starting to get stripped.
As much as I still like the 3rd gen, I need to finish my true project car which is the 1990 EXR. It was the 4th gens that originally got me liking Accords and I still love the thing. I find the overall shape and design of the exterior and interior still appeals to me after all these years even compared to the newer ones (have a 5th, 6th, and 7th gen in the family). I already got rid of the f22a4 and put in an f22a6 while converting it to a 5 speed. I've done a few h22 swaps for friends and I had the chance to throw one in as well but for whatever reason, I never felt like it. Maybe I'm just happy with the f series or I'm just weird lol. I'll be rebuilding the tranny and throwing an LSD in it so it'll be ready for the summer. Got some side skirts, front lip, Corbeau seats, CF hood, and JDM fogs for it too. I've already upgraded everything else and got all the rust cut out and a full repaint so I don't have much left to go til I can call it done and be over with it.
This the engine bay after swapping in a fresh f22a6 with the double stacked manifold spacer and 5 speed conversion. All I can say is the hydro clutches are great but installing and bleeding it is a huge pain in the ass. I missed the simple cable clutch in the 3rd gens.
In the late spring, the SEi will be next. I'll convert it to 5 speed and then throw the B20A in finally. I'm sure the B20A hates being used as a coat hanger/place to put boxes full of parts as it has the past 9 years. I'll eventually transfer the Xenon kit over to it as well. But I know for sure I won't be going too hardcore on it.
Anyways, it feels good to be back on here again. I've always had a soft spot for 3rd gens and this site as well as it's the car/site I spent a lot of time on. I've had a 88 SI and 91 Special Edition CRX, 97 Acura EL, and a 99 Mustang GT convertible which were all great cars in their own way but I always fall back to the Accords.
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Originally Posted by Hondamonster
I did take it for a bomb the other day and it started even before I turned the key(she want's to drive!!). It'll be back on the road this summer I hope, I have to get it in the shop asap for that to happen.
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