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Hey Eric!
Fantastic find. I’d say it’s in pretty damn good shape.
My Prelude was in a collision on that side too – luckily you can’t really tell except for a slight bend in the core support from them using the frame straightener on that side – but its well aligned.
That rust doesn’t look too bad. I’d get on it though soon. I’m sure you can fix that rust the proper way with your much better welding skills.
One recommendation that would be badass – get a JDM Hood, Fenders, lights and bumper and make it JDM, example here has some body kit on it but you get the idea: http://image.superstreetonline.com/f/59615307+w+h+q80+re0+cr1/1994-acura-integra-gsr-jdm-itr-hid-front-end-conversion-11.jpg
Overall I’m jealous of your collection. I almost would want to buy the purple Vigor off of you if I had the money and the time.
Hey Eric,
I just had a thought. Regular Car Reviews just finished his V8-swapped 1961 Falcon, called the Vagabond Falcon. You and him should plan a track day with the Fairmont and the Vagabond Falcon together. Yes, I know the Fairmont is much faster, but the meet up would be glorious. He could also review your Fairmont 🙂
I know they were. Its a great car though. The B20A engine is one of my favourite DOHC engines.
I’ve decided to go out on a limb and try a 4th gen accord hood cable, if its too long I can always tie a knot in one end of the cable to artificially make it shorter ( I got the idea from an integra forum post )
I’d rather keep this restoration of the Prelude as stock as possible you know? But sometimes improvising is needed.
The hood was closing fine. The latch was rusted, and I thought the cable had stretched so I cut a section of it to try yanking from the fender well. I ended up having to remove the front bumper. I rebuilt the latch and applied lots of antiseize and new springs. But the end result is the cable is stretched, so I need a new cable. Called them and they were out. The search goes on. You’d think with 300,000+ 88-91 Honda Preludes sold worldwide the parts would be as prevalent as its Accord and Legend Coupe siblings, but NOPE.
Alright, I’ve been looking for ages online and offline but I finally managed to find a place that claims to have them in stock. Hopefully, a call monday will confirm before I place an order. This has been going on for a month and I’m tired of bungee cording my hood.
Where should you find a hood cable for your Honda if its discontinued, besides junkyards ( none of the car in question are in yards near me )? Know of any places that sell hard to find Honda parts?
Congrats Eric.
Would you say this is a more challenging repair vs Barbara’s Chrysler or Jeff’s Contour, or less so?
I loved Jerry’s enthusiasm for his Sentra – you really gave that man something to smile about. Good on you man.
Just a note:
If you go to a Pull A Part for a new engine, bring the following stuff:
A spark plug wrench
Compression tester
Breaker bar/long handled ratchet with extensions and socket for crank pulley
Bore scope.Remove every spark plug from a prospective engine, look down in it to ensure there’s no dropped valve seat, and use the following trick to check compression:
Put your breaker bar on the crank pulley with all the plugs removed, screw your compression gauge into a cylinder, and spin the engine as fast as you can, I suggest putting some penetrating oil in the cylinders and letting it soak will help even more, but if you spin quickly, you should build SOME compression, I did this on a Civic SI motor from the junkyard and successfully got 60PSI in each cylinder, verifying the long block was likely to be good. Took it home and put it in my friend’s SI, the compression with the starter motor cranking averaged 120/cylinder PSI.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=162312]You keep leaving 2 things out of the equation. I have spare parts for Odysseys, and I was a Honda tech for many years. This means I know what problems may come up and fix them before they become problems. Not to mention, I could also use it as a ‘camping van’.
I have my reasons for making that choice. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, I need to fix the Jeep. It may be some time before that happens. Then I need to sell it. Although the guy that has the trucking company that parks trucks next to my shop is very interested. Then I need to find a loaner vehicle.
In the time it may take to do all of that, something else might come up and this entire discussion would be moot. Remember I have a Fairmont to build.[/quote]
Spares for the car does help, I’ll give you that, and you’ve owned one and have brought up plenty of good points.
And of course. As I said, looking forward to your Fairmont.
It depends on your clientele I suppose. Just for reference, at the shop I most recently did work at, we used early 2000’s Camrys as loaners.
If you want to use a minivan, your shop your rules man. If I was in your position, though, I’d go for a station wagon or a large sedan as I said, The LS400’s combine fuel economy, BTW, is better than an Odyssey of the same vintage, same with a Subaru wagon. But with fuel prices low as they are that is a very secondary concern. It just seems a little excessive if, for instance, you get someone who drives a small car that gets 30MPG citynormally and they have to go to a van as a loaner that is going to cost roughly twice as much in fuel around town. Something that my old shop had to consider. Of course, we had people with vans and SUVs complain they were too small for their needs, and thus we ended up partnering with a local rental company to offer nice discounts if they didn’t want to go for the $10/day loaner fee from us.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=162188]Defiantly(sic) not a Mazda around here. They tend to rust up pretty bad and are difficult to service as they age.[/quote]
Keep forgetting you live in Ohio, AKA road salt central. My 2008 3 has no rust except on some suspension parts, and I cleaned that off today with a wire wheel and paint. I don’t know if you’ve serviced a Mazda 3 but as far as engine-transaxle-type motors go the motor has a lot of room in the engine bay for getting to stuff, they don’t have many common problems besides stuck open thermostats and intake runner solenoids going bad, neither of which is necessarily dangerous, and I’ve been surprised at how little work mine has needed to stay roadworthy. But okay.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=162188]I was thinking a Honda Odyssey similar to the 2001 I used to own. Swap out the transmission and it’s good to go. It would make for a good video as well since it’s such a common issue.[/quote]
Besides their weak transmissions, I simply don’t see a minivan as being practical for FiF people who don’t normally drive a car that big, plus the fuel economy isn’t stellar, and I’m hesitant to recommend a car that has known problems and get beaten on. If you do consider non-minivan cars, I’d recommend either a big sedan or a station wagon, like the LS400 that is known for being extremely reliable ( See Matt Farahs Million-Mile Lexus ) or maybe even another Subaru Outback. In the latter especially, you appeal to both people needing extra storage space, and people needing to haul kids or other people, but watch out for those cardboard headgaskets.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=162188]I can’t stress enough however that all of this won’t take place until after I complete the Fairmont.[/quote]
Of course, take your time and get the Fairmont up and running. Looking forward to the V8 rebuild vids.
I’d argue that with better pedal feel, you can better control the car during a stop, and if your car doesn’t have ABS, then you can better threshold brake instead of inefficient pumping.
