Fixing up a 91 Accord EX

[im2smrt4u]

Long story short, someone smashed my old car, it was their fault, working on getting money from their insurance...blah, blah, blah.

In the meantime, I scrounged up this 91 Accord EX. It is in bad shape, poorly maintained, etc. Tires are good, engine runs alright, needs brakes, needs a windshield, and cosmetically it looks like crap. It's also the ugly brown-gold sort of color. Oh well, it was free.

Anyway, what should I do to make sure it doesn't fall apart on me? The guy who gave it to me changed the air filter (first time in years, and he lives on a dirt road! ) and put on new spark plugs and wires. Who knows how long it's been since it's had an oil change. Should I flush out all the fluids and replace them? Any other suggestions to help revive a poorly maintained car?

Cosmetically, it looks like crap. Everything is faded, fithy, and falling apart. How much would new seats cost? Where could I find good floormats to match the (ugly) interior?

Also, the headlights are pretty dim. What should I replace them with?

Thanks for any help. I know I can turn this car into something decent. LOL!

[FishyMan]

well look at the major compoenents like engine, trans like you say and go from there, of course do all fluids and then see how the car is...but its tough to restore a car that was never properly maintained, just saying goo dluck..

[ACCORDianate]

First off, change all your fluids- but do the oil immediately. The windshield can wait unless its required for state inspection.

Go to Walmart and buy a seat cover. Same goes for floormats. If the car's in as bad of condition as you describe it, don't dump a lot of money into froo-froo crap.

While you're at Walmart pick up a $25 set of driving lights. It'll do you a world of wonders. Snag a pair of new 9006s while you're at it. You'll have more illumination than you'll need.

If the car wasn't maintained, expect a whole plethora of things to go wrong. Here's a few examples: cam/crank/balance shaft seals, plug tube seals, torn cv boots, poor alignment, dead shocks, weak brakes, coolant leaks, oil leaks, rack and pinion leaks, etc. You name it, it'll go if the car wasn't maintained during its lifetime.

Like they say: You can't polish a turd.

If you're within 300 miles of Dallas I'll take that little gemstone off of your hands for you.

[dwf137]

if you want to upgrade your lights, you can do the 9006-9005 low beam conversion.. essentially putting a high beam bulb where the low beam can go..

change all your fluids, see how she runs.. Personally, I wouldnt bother with the floor mats if you're worried about the car running correctly. Get the engine in good shape first, because that's what matters. Clean floor matts dont do you much good when you're stuck on the side of the highway..

[im2smrt4u]

Well, it isn't a complete POS. My dad drove it for most of it's life (and maintained it), then gave it to my uncle. My uncle had it for the past 2-3 years and didn't drive it too much (he's a truck driver). The whole time my uncle had it, it did get anything done with it.

The odometer reads 276,000 miles ( ), but it had a rebuilt engine put in at ~225,000 miles. The rebuilt engine had around 50,000 miles on it, so the engine I have now probably has just a bit more than 100k on it.