I don't know about you folks, but I love my Accord, I'm even proud of it. I don't always have time to give it the care it needs or deserves, but I try my best!
So for all of us that try our best, what have you done to your Accord lately? Modification, repair, servicing, detailing or just good old TLC?
Perhaps you are planning something?
I'm giving mine a full detailing session... Eventually!
Over the course of this pandemic, I have upgraded all four shocks to bilstein b6's. Tremendous improvement in comfort and handling. I would describe it as polite, yet firm.
Changed my front door speakers out for coax JL 650x ones. and applied 2mm silent coat to the inside of the door for a better speaker enclosure and that german thunk
New brake discs and pads all around, upgraded to Type R calipers and braided lines in front.
Front lower ball joints replaced(pneumatic hammer is a life saver here)
New lower control arms with polyurethane compliance bushings.
Front D bushings replaced with Energy Suspension polyurethane ones.
New Meyle HD front stabilizer links.
Inner and outer rear shock mount bushings replaced with Honda Odyssey bushings from Siberian Bushing.
Shifter cable bushings upgraded to Acuity Instruments 1917 spherical bushings for further improved shifter after adding short shift kit and mounting the shifter ***embly with rigid bushings to eliminate slop.
Replaced whatever dark brown goop that was in the gearbox with 2.2ish liters of Honda MTF-3.
New drive shaft on the right.
New summer tires.
And then... I attacked the rust problem I've been semi aware of since I bought my Accord.
The workshop has been empty for a week over summer break, so I decided to go rooting around the underside looking for rust. by degreasing and pressure washing the entire underside with arches.
My heart sunk a little bit once I discovered that the previous owner had used a stopgap method like lanolin fluid film on the underbody which just came off in bits, revealing tons of surface rust on the sills and the majority of the rear end of the car. Both rear inner fenders were flaking to bits, and you cant fight that kind of cancer. I ended up just grabbing the angle grinder and cutting out the majority of it, including 60% of the inner and outer arch to get to clean metal. I have sand blasted, belt sanded and die grinded the ever living **** out of any rust I could get to without dropping the subframe and fuel tank.
I then coated everything shiny and bare with 60% phosphorous acid, rubbing it in with a wire brush or sandpaper to penetrate any remaining rust. I did this probably three times over, converting anything remaining into stable magnetite.
I then spent one day fabricating and welding new arches from L-profile sheets, cutting it to fan it out into an arch and welding the gaps, I overlapped on the inside instead of butt welding. I tend to get a little impatient, so of course I warped my fender above the arch profile by not cooling sufficiently. So I had to attach a stud weld and hold the panel out while shrinking and expanding it with oxyacetylene and a wet rag. Pain in the ***!
On the third day, I coated everything treated with two thick layers of epoxy primer, and once that was dry, I hammered a simple plate to conform with the now gaping hole in my inner fender, and used polyurethane window seal to attach it. If it's not a weld it's never going to rust again. Checkmate Honda! I also applied a thick bead of window seal to the entire length of the inner fender lip to create a flexible barrier between the arch and the elements.
I had to trim the lip of the fender liner slightly for it to fit after doing so, but it's not like the piece of garbage helps anyway so it wasn't going to hurt anything.
Then I applied two layers of body schutz to both inner fenders and the entirety of the underside of the car.
On the fourth day, I ground down my welds and lead loaded the warped or distorted spots and the now recessed weld, filed it flat, then applied vaku-60 aluminium filler to get the shape "right". For the fine shaping I used combilet polyester filler, sanded it to shape and then primed it.
Day 5 my girlfriend joined in as she's more attuned to the paint side of things. We sanded down the primer and remove sanding marks with an oscillating sander which is very important, especially so on black cars which are like mirrors and any imperfection is easy to spot. Silver too, where sanding stripes will make the metallic sink into the stripes and look darker. Rookie me still sands through primer on occasion so I had to apply some 1k primer, this is usually a bad thing, as single component primers do not like to be cleaned with thinner based silicone removers, and the chemical reaction makes it unstable and porous....... Which we found out when applying the first coat of paint. The paint simply ran off the 1k primer and caused drips and pinholes.
We say screw it, leave, and come back the day after.
We scuffed the paint back down, and she proceeded to paint it and put it on bake. other than a bit of dust, it's gone well.
Somewhere along the line there's been a blunder. Something under the primer and filler expanded into a small dome underneath the paint, nothing I can't fix in an afternoon, but it's a massive annoyance.
more pictures of progress/results in the gallery below
So for all of us that try our best, what have you done to your Accord lately? Modification, repair, servicing, detailing or just good old TLC?
Perhaps you are planning something?
I'm giving mine a full detailing session... Eventually!
Over the course of this pandemic, I have upgraded all four shocks to bilstein b6's. Tremendous improvement in comfort and handling. I would describe it as polite, yet firm.
Changed my front door speakers out for coax JL 650x ones. and applied 2mm silent coat to the inside of the door for a better speaker enclosure and that german thunk
New brake discs and pads all around, upgraded to Type R calipers and braided lines in front.
Front lower ball joints replaced(pneumatic hammer is a life saver here)
New lower control arms with polyurethane compliance bushings.
Front D bushings replaced with Energy Suspension polyurethane ones.
New Meyle HD front stabilizer links.
Inner and outer rear shock mount bushings replaced with Honda Odyssey bushings from Siberian Bushing.
Shifter cable bushings upgraded to Acuity Instruments 1917 spherical bushings for further improved shifter after adding short shift kit and mounting the shifter ***embly with rigid bushings to eliminate slop.
Replaced whatever dark brown goop that was in the gearbox with 2.2ish liters of Honda MTF-3.
New drive shaft on the right.
New summer tires.
And then... I attacked the rust problem I've been semi aware of since I bought my Accord.
The workshop has been empty for a week over summer break, so I decided to go rooting around the underside looking for rust. by degreasing and pressure washing the entire underside with arches.
My heart sunk a little bit once I discovered that the previous owner had used a stopgap method like lanolin fluid film on the underbody which just came off in bits, revealing tons of surface rust on the sills and the majority of the rear end of the car. Both rear inner fenders were flaking to bits, and you cant fight that kind of cancer. I ended up just grabbing the angle grinder and cutting out the majority of it, including 60% of the inner and outer arch to get to clean metal. I have sand blasted, belt sanded and die grinded the ever living **** out of any rust I could get to without dropping the subframe and fuel tank.
I then coated everything shiny and bare with 60% phosphorous acid, rubbing it in with a wire brush or sandpaper to penetrate any remaining rust. I did this probably three times over, converting anything remaining into stable magnetite.
I then spent one day fabricating and welding new arches from L-profile sheets, cutting it to fan it out into an arch and welding the gaps, I overlapped on the inside instead of butt welding. I tend to get a little impatient, so of course I warped my fender above the arch profile by not cooling sufficiently. So I had to attach a stud weld and hold the panel out while shrinking and expanding it with oxyacetylene and a wet rag. Pain in the ***!
On the third day, I coated everything treated with two thick layers of epoxy primer, and once that was dry, I hammered a simple plate to conform with the now gaping hole in my inner fender, and used polyurethane window seal to attach it. If it's not a weld it's never going to rust again. Checkmate Honda! I also applied a thick bead of window seal to the entire length of the inner fender lip to create a flexible barrier between the arch and the elements.
I had to trim the lip of the fender liner slightly for it to fit after doing so, but it's not like the piece of garbage helps anyway so it wasn't going to hurt anything.
Then I applied two layers of body schutz to both inner fenders and the entirety of the underside of the car.
On the fourth day, I ground down my welds and lead loaded the warped or distorted spots and the now recessed weld, filed it flat, then applied vaku-60 aluminium filler to get the shape "right". For the fine shaping I used combilet polyester filler, sanded it to shape and then primed it.
Day 5 my girlfriend joined in as she's more attuned to the paint side of things. We sanded down the primer and remove sanding marks with an oscillating sander which is very important, especially so on black cars which are like mirrors and any imperfection is easy to spot. Silver too, where sanding stripes will make the metallic sink into the stripes and look darker. Rookie me still sands through primer on occasion so I had to apply some 1k primer, this is usually a bad thing, as single component primers do not like to be cleaned with thinner based silicone removers, and the chemical reaction makes it unstable and porous....... Which we found out when applying the first coat of paint. The paint simply ran off the 1k primer and caused drips and pinholes.
We say screw it, leave, and come back the day after.
We scuffed the paint back down, and she proceeded to paint it and put it on bake. other than a bit of dust, it's gone well.
Somewhere along the line there's been a blunder. Something under the primer and filler expanded into a small dome underneath the paint, nothing I can't fix in an afternoon, but it's a massive annoyance.
more pictures of progress/results in the gallery below