Hello everyone, finally. I've been lurking here for quite some time but never got around to registering. Now that my car is temporarily out of commission, I am bored, and decided to register and break the silence, so to speak.
Up until now, at the age of 22, I never needed a drivers license because of the epic public transit we have here in Montreal. However getting a job here is very difficult if you dont speak french. Long commutes would soon become part of my work life.
A friend of mine decided to give me, for free, his old CB7. Its a 1990 Accord EX (canadian, so I guess the equivalent of the LX). He was half way thru repainting it when he was struck with health problems. The whole car spiderwebbed and cracked.
Anyway, I spend nearly 6 months on rust, fiberglass, putty, primer, paint, clear. I didnt like the color so I ended up spending a lot changing it from the puke tan color to a dark blue. Honda Eternal Blue to be exact.
The guy who gave it to me kept very good mechanical care of it, and used it mainly for testing alarms and audio systems, as that was his career at the time.
In the time I was working on it, I managed to fix the horribly, horribly rusted rear panels, change out the factory radio and speakers, which were shredded beyond recognition, replace the dash clock, replace the flex pipe, break two of the three bolts of the exhaust manifold then fix that, repaint the whole car, fix a leak in the gas line, another leak in the oil pan, and some other minor effects. When I decided to get my license, the car was in a condition relatively close to that of the day it was purchased. All that's left is the speed sensor, which is on it's way now from eBay.
Yesterday I suffered a horrible mechanical failure. It's no secret that Quebec has the worst roads in Canada, with pothole-dodging becoming a national sport, as well as falling overpass-dodging. They seemed to take a silent toll on my ball joints, though. And yesterday, one let go as I was rounding a corner. The car dropped to the ground and grinded to a dusty halt. I sat inside for a good ten minutes, just afraid to go outside and have a look. It turned out to be minor. The ball joint let go, and pulled the driveaxle out, tearing up the boot and throwing bearings in every direction. The wheel got wedged under the car. Luckily I was on my own street, and not flying down the highway. It cost $65 for a tow up the hill to my driveway, and will cost another $50 or so for parts.
So now I'm sitting around unable to drive anywhere, wondering what I'm going to do today.
Anyway PICTURES!
This is what it looked like when I got it. The insert is a closeup of the paint.
After rust removal, there was little metal left.
Extreme fiberglassing
All done this side
And after painting and reassembly
Now that the car is somewhat finished being made driveable.. what to do to make it more pretty.... ?
Up until now, at the age of 22, I never needed a drivers license because of the epic public transit we have here in Montreal. However getting a job here is very difficult if you dont speak french. Long commutes would soon become part of my work life.
A friend of mine decided to give me, for free, his old CB7. Its a 1990 Accord EX (canadian, so I guess the equivalent of the LX). He was half way thru repainting it when he was struck with health problems. The whole car spiderwebbed and cracked.
Anyway, I spend nearly 6 months on rust, fiberglass, putty, primer, paint, clear. I didnt like the color so I ended up spending a lot changing it from the puke tan color to a dark blue. Honda Eternal Blue to be exact.
The guy who gave it to me kept very good mechanical care of it, and used it mainly for testing alarms and audio systems, as that was his career at the time.
In the time I was working on it, I managed to fix the horribly, horribly rusted rear panels, change out the factory radio and speakers, which were shredded beyond recognition, replace the dash clock, replace the flex pipe, break two of the three bolts of the exhaust manifold then fix that, repaint the whole car, fix a leak in the gas line, another leak in the oil pan, and some other minor effects. When I decided to get my license, the car was in a condition relatively close to that of the day it was purchased. All that's left is the speed sensor, which is on it's way now from eBay.
Yesterday I suffered a horrible mechanical failure. It's no secret that Quebec has the worst roads in Canada, with pothole-dodging becoming a national sport, as well as falling overpass-dodging. They seemed to take a silent toll on my ball joints, though. And yesterday, one let go as I was rounding a corner. The car dropped to the ground and grinded to a dusty halt. I sat inside for a good ten minutes, just afraid to go outside and have a look. It turned out to be minor. The ball joint let go, and pulled the driveaxle out, tearing up the boot and throwing bearings in every direction. The wheel got wedged under the car. Luckily I was on my own street, and not flying down the highway. It cost $65 for a tow up the hill to my driveway, and will cost another $50 or so for parts.
So now I'm sitting around unable to drive anywhere, wondering what I'm going to do today.
Anyway PICTURES!
This is what it looked like when I got it. The insert is a closeup of the paint.
After rust removal, there was little metal left.
Extreme fiberglassing
All done this side
And after painting and reassembly
Now that the car is somewhat finished being made driveable.. what to do to make it more pretty.... ?
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