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I have the strange notion to clear my garage of 2 to 3 years worth of junk and unwanted bits & pieces and actually make room for another vehicle. This thinking has happened a couple of times over the last twelve months or so but it has never got passed the thinking stage I need to put that right and I think I might just make it happen this time with a bit of help from you lot  sorry I meant the good folk of retro rides  Seeing one of my old cars pop up on ebay a couple of weeks ago got me thinking again, that being the second one in about 6 months. the odd thing is that they were both Honda's. some of you may know my background has been mainly been VW's over the last 40 odd years, both air and water cooled but every now and then I wander off and buy something Japanese, American or "different" for want of a better word. This is where you guys come in if you don't mind current thinking is leaning towards early Japanese but am I just getting myself into a potential headache / money pit ? I know that will all depend on what I buy and how well or badly I buy and that applies to any make of car. One car that is on my wish list is a MK 1 Honda Civic, so if you know of one not being used too much please drop me a pm if you don't mind. I am quite open minded at this point and someone might just have or show me something I hadn't considered, let's see A few things to mention which might help with any replies, I do not want any projects, I want to drive & polish it, not rebuild it. I don't mind finishing off a few small jobs or replacing a few bits if needed. Now this probably will not go down too well I'm not a big fan of things that have been hit hard with the lowering stick ! sorry just not my thing. that is basically it in a nutshell . |
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awoo
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,504
Member is Online
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Japanese cars, as you probably know, are very reliable on the whole and well made mechanically. but the body work can suffer. I have a Honda, have previously had many Hondas, both cars and bikes, and the current one has been my daily since 2007, only issue has been rust in the arches and now elsewhere its starting to pop up. on 210k miles.
probably won't be a money pit but you may have to preempt a bit of rust treatment.
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Japanese cars, as you probably know, are very reliable on the whole and well made mechanically. but the body work can suffer. I have a Honda, have previously had many Hondas, both cars and bikes, and the current one has been my daily since 2007, only issue has been rust in the arches and now elsewhere its starting to pop up. on 210k miles. probably won't be a money pit but you may have to preempt a bit of rust treatment. very true they do generally suffer from the old tin worm / rust and I guess that is my biggest worry I have been quite lucky in the past with having owned relatively rust free examples but here we are 15 /20 years on and in a lot of cases the rust will have done it's worst. I am just hoping there are still a few solid ones or properly restored ones out there. I have also had a lot of Honda bikes over the years and I've got one in the garage at the moment but that might go in a deal with someone which will help a little bit of the floor space issue. |
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Jem45
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,021
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More love for the engineering integrity and innate reliability of Honda here. They drive really well on the whole too, which sometimes gets forgotten when people are banging on about their worthier qualities. If your budget is modest though, I saw this on Ebay last night and thought it had a lot of potential. Mazda 323: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224849195976?hash=item345a0e73c8:g:LogAAOSwlCliDRcS |
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Carbs 'n chrome
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More love for the engineering integrity and innate reliability of Honda here. They drive really well on the whole too, which sometimes gets forgotten when people are banging on about their worthier qualities. If your budget is modest though, I saw this on Ebay last night and thought it had a lot of potential. Mazda 323: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224849195976?hash=item345a0e73c8:g:LogAAOSwlCliDRcSthat is not a bad little motor for the money I can stretch to a bit more than that |
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,608
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People rarely remember that @ 910kg the early Prelude weren't far off the weight of CRX despite cast-iron engine, with far more refinement. Though Honda-matic certainly intended for a relaxed audience..
Parts availability & rust definately makes getting a good example of desirably interesting older Japanese cars a wise move.
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Ernie,
Absolutely the old rule of “Your Car, Your way” in this case.
Do what makes you happy.
That Prelude is rather lush in so many ways.
I say jettison all the tat in your garage and fill it with joy…….. and cleaning materials.
Do it.
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Ernie, Absolutely the old rule of “Your Car, Your way” in this case. Do what makes you happy. That Prelude is rather lush in so many ways. I say jettison all the tat in your garage and fill it with joy…….. and cleaning materials. Do it. That is my plan to replace current garage tat and "expensive items" and refill the space with a car / trike / milk float some smaller items have already gone this week I guess I could buy my old Prelude back but that would be too easy and I really want a new experience. please feel free to post any links. BTW, does anyone want to buy a woodworking lathe and tools, I'll put it up for sale over the weekend, which section do I use ? |
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The Doctor
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,434
Club RR Member Number: 48
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I'm not really into Hondas, but being into old Japanese stuff for a while learned me a couple of things.
Firstly, if you really want one, get one which is in the best condition body wise as you can afford/get.
Second, get one which is in the best condition body wise as you can afford/get.
I saw a question for a repro MK1 Escort bonnet on this forum this week, that's something that amused me a little bit. There is no (new) stuff available for most of the classic Japanese cars at all. I have a 1974 Corolla, which once was quite a common car, but i just cannot find panels for it. I got lucky 2 years ago where an old Toyota dealer had some old stock in a dark corner. I found and bought 2 new bumpers for my car there, but there's just nothing like that around anymore.
Also, because of this, i try to buy spare panels from parts cars (or complete parts cars) for my car whenever i find some. I might not need them right there and then, but when i do, i can just take them from my own stock.
Technical stuff isn't too hard to find/make/adapt to work, but panels/bumpers and trim stuff is just a nightmare.
I know welding is an option, but a crusty bonnet is just a lot of work i wouldn't/couldn't want to tackle.
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Will depend on your budget hugely and what you want from it (weekend car or daily), and as you will know Japanese cars have shot up since Covid. If it were me, and I was after a Honda specifically, I'd be after a DC5. Wicked chassis, modern enough to be reliable and not rusty, fast enough for a weekend car and comfy enough for a daily: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185299760102?hash=item2b24b9f3e6:g:XyQAAOSwliJiDiaB |
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Will depend on your budget hugely and what you want from it (weekend car or daily), and as you will know Japanese cars have shot up since Covid. If it were me, and I was after a Honda specifically, I'd be after a DC5. Wicked chassis, modern enough to be reliable and not rusty, fast enough for a weekend car and comfy enough for a daily: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185299760102?hash=item2b24b9f3e6:g:XyQAAOSwliJiDiaBI got it in my head a MK 1 Honda Civic would be a good choice for me after seeing a really stunning example which started this process all over again. I think if one came up for sale I would give it some serious thought but as you said prices have gone up quite a lot which could kill off that idea. I have enquired about one and they said they would send me pics & details but nothing has come through yet  I'm keeping an open mind at the moment and looking at other makes and see what I get offered or find online. the ebay link you put up, sorry but that is just not my kind of car but don't let that stop you, I might like the next one |
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I got it in my head a MK 1 Honda Civic would be a good choice for me after seeing a really stunning example which started this process all over again. I think if one came up for sale I would give it some serious thought but as you said prices have gone up quite a lot which could kill off that idea. I have enquired about one and they said they would send me pics & details but nothing has come through yet  I'm keeping an open mind at the moment and looking at other makes and see what I get offered or find online. the ebay link you put up, sorry but that is just not my kind of car but don't let that stop you, I might like the next one  Yeah fair enough, my problem with JDM stuff is that I have owned quite a few of them now and I just cannot agree with the prices people are asking for them. The whole lure of them was that they were fast and cheap despite not being all that good, now they're even older, slower and sooo much more expensive. I'm done with them now sadly. If I had the budget this would be in my garage. Not Japanese, not cheap and might need a bit of tinkering but it just looks fantastic, even more so in 4dr guise (for me anyways). www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125142175673?hash=item1d230e0fb9:g:6ScAAOSwK4BiDjrP |
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better , more old fart-ish just like me |
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better again |
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two steps backwards on this one next |
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sorry I meant the good folk of retro rides 
