Well, time for a pic dump.
Like Connie, I had to break out the sawzall, as there are no flanges on this exhaust (except for the muffler connection). Yes, that's the OE Honda muffler built out of stainless steel.
Here's the top side of the muffler. You can see some holes and some nasty looking rust forming on it.
Here I'm getting ready to drop the rear sub out. At this point, only the 4 main bolts are holding it in place.
And now it's dropped.
Another view of it dropped out.
Top of the tank. Sure looks nasty, and yes, those are acorn shells on top. But you can see the coating Honda put on it is flaking off in spots, and bubbling in others.
Here's a better look from the top. The tank and sub are now out from under the car. AS you can see, it's mostly rust and void of paint.
Another angle of it all.
First of a couple of shots of the underneath, really dirty and some rust. I'm thinking I might take a wire brush to this, and see if I can clean it up some. I know if I have to do any work under there I'll get an eye full of dirt.
Some really nasy looking rust on the rear support beam. The pocket on the right has some too. can't really see the left side as it's got the emissions stuff in the way. Yes, the lines look rusty too, but I might try and leave them for now, as I've got a full plate around here without adding more work.
Tank out of the sub, and you can see a wet spot on the wall above the seam.
One of 2 wet spots on the seam.
The other side rear seam leak. Just like Connie mentioned, seam leaks are common rust, and common spots for fuel tank leaks.
And finally the bare frame ready to accept the new parts (old link ends are gone now (cut them off with a Metabo).
All in all it went fairly smooth, I followed Connie's tips, but I still had to completely disassemble the drum brakes to get the cables out. Unfortunately I did have 1 problem, and that was the left rear shock bolt (bottom bolt). It was welded/rusted to the bushing in the shock. No beating would free it, so out came the hot wrench, and it was sliced off. Not what I wanted to do, but there was no other choice. Rear shocks (not lowered) will get done this summer (moved up on the list) to fix it though, as the bushing is gone now. All the other bolts came out like they were supposed to. Connie, there's the 4 main bolts, a brake cable to bracket bolt (2), the shock thru bolt (2), the 3 hoses, and the brake lines. Plus drop the exhaust off the rubber hangers, and a sawzall (with a good blade). In my case I ran the tank down until the low fuel light came on, versus punching a hole in it. I still might do that though.
I started scrapping off the industrial rust, then I'm going to wire brush it and shoot some primer and paint on it so it might last a few more years. I'll work on prepping the tank with the sender and stuff, so it'll be ready to go together. I also want to knock some of the dirt off the bottom of the floor, as I can see that'll be a problem for me down the road. I only saw 1 compression fitting under there, but don't know if it was a supply line or a return, but someone fixed something under there.
Someday I might restore it (like Blazin did to that Acura), but I don't know if I'll go to his level of finish or not. I mostly build drivers, as I prefer to be able to get into something, put the key in it, and drive off for many hours.
I'll post up some more progress pics as I go along.