Connie, 2002 EX-V6 Coupe (56K)

[Connie]

Body:

-"Road Warrior" look
-Bottom half of front bumper missing.
-Loads of rust (weight reduction?)
-front bumper held on with scraps of metal and self tapping screws
-rear ended 18 months ago, so rear bumper held on with self tapping screws
-New OEM replacement headlight housings (because I couldn't see)
-OEM plastic sunroof spoiler
-Hood piece of a bra (because it's for a 2000 Accord coupe, so the rest doesn't fit; but it hides some of the rusty hood)

Engine / Performance:

-JDM J30A
-Intake
-Muffler and dual exhaust delete
-Slotted front rotors
-Brembo pads

Suspension:

-New quick struts 2 years ago, otherwise stock. Squishy.
-Running 205/55R16 tires (better acceleration)

Interior / ICE:

-OEM 6-disc with casette
-Stock torn leather and stained carpet

Cosmetic:

-The opposite of anything (this car is HAGGARD!)

The plan with this thing is to keep it going as long as possible, but if I find a cheap CL-S or TL-S with a good drivetrain, I'll probably jam it in either this car or my black 2000 Accord, "Midnight". This car has been to Mexico twice, South Carolina 11 times, and I put over 200km on it every day at the moment while commuting. It's been great over the past 4 years, and still hauls *** with the J30A. Few months more and it'll hit half a million km.

Recent work includes new gas tank (old one rusted out), new rear motor mount, new exhaust flex pipe (because motor mount), and replacing the heater core.

Thanks for looking at my beater! Tell me what you think!






























2017-06-17 New tires and new rust!

 

[604ACCORD]

Road warrior look indeed, funny thing is no matter how beat to crap the 6th gens are they still run like champs.

 

[Rusty Accord]

I like it. Its an anti showcar , and it has charactor. Add in that it see's 200km a day shows how reliable it is. I'm not really a coupe guy, but I like it. It's a true "salt belt" car to judging by what's been replaced. I'm really surprised it doesn't have more rust showing on the outside, as I expected to see some at the rear arches.

And the big bonus of all, it's got pics to prove it happened.

 

[Connie]

Road warrior look indeed, funny thing is no matter how beat to crap the 6th gens are they still run like champs.

Haha, that's quite true.
I have been checking to make sure the VTEC works right up until redline every day when getting onto the highway before hitting traffic. Still works, lol. And the noise she makes with the intake and exhaust is not something you would expect from something that looks as it does, hahaha.

Still doesn't burn oil (although the valve cover does leak, but not enough to warrant adding oil between changes). The Transmission is getting a little lazy when upshifting or downshifting into second gear (sounds like I'm driving stick and I don't know how to drive when leaving traffic lights sometimes), so looking at a parts car with a freshly rebuilt one tonight. It'll be its second transmission replacement, first one did 344000km, and the junkyard one that's in there now probably has about 400000km on it now.

Classic V6 Honda

 

[Connie]

I like it. Its an anti showcar , and it has charactor. Add in that it see's 200km a day shows how reliable it is. I'm not really a coupe guy, but I like it. It's a true "salt belt" car to judging by what's been replaced. I'm really surprised it doesn't have more rust showing on the outside, as I expected to see some at the rear arches.

And the big bonus of all, it's got pics to prove it happened.

Thanks man
I like it too. My girlfriend says I'm never allowed to sell it. I think she loves it more than I do.

The drivers side has some rust starting in front of the wheel, but the passenger side is still almost perfect. It's rusting in weird places. Like under the back window on the driver's side. And the hood is ROTTEN lol. And both front doors are rotting behind the mirror. Every coupe 6G coupe I've seen up in my salty homeland does this. My old civic coupe did it too, the drivers door got so bad that the window would fall out if you rolled it up and the door was open.

The car was definitely repainted before I got it. But whoever did it did a good job. That's the only reason it still looks as good as it does. I'm as surprised as you at how good the passenger side still looks.

Maybe the time it spent in Mexico and the Southeast helped the rust situation; I've basically skipped 2 of the last 4 winters. I had this car north of Atlanta 3 years ago when it snowed and the whole world shut down with brand new snow tires on the car. This car was a friggin HERO down there. I remember being the only car on I-85 driving through snow drifts like moguls on a ski slope. And dragging lots of stuck people. Stuck people who tried to go out in the snow with 24" or 26" rims are fun people.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[Rusty Accord]

Thanks man
I like it too. My girlfriend says I'm never allowed to sell it. I think she loves it more than I do.

The drivers side has some rust starting in front of the wheel, but the passenger side is still almost perfect. It's rusting in weird places. Like under the back window on the driver's side. And the hood is ROTTEN lol. And both front doors are rotting behind the mirror. Every coupe 6G coupe I've seen up in my salty homeland does this. My old civic coupe did it too, the drivers door got so bad that the window would fall out if you rolled it up and the door was open.

The car was definitely repainted before I got it. But whoever did it did a good job. That's the only reason it still looks as good as it does. I'm as surprised as you at how good the passenger side still looks.

Maybe the time it spent in Mexico and the Southeast helped the rust situation; I've basically skipped 2 of the last 4 winters. I had this car north of Atlanta 3 years ago when it snowed and the whole world shut down with brand new snow tires on the car. This car was a friggin HERO down there. I remember being the only car on I-85 driving through snow drifts like moguls on a ski slope. And dragging lots of stuck people. Stuck people who tried to go out in the snow with 24" or 26" rims are fun people.

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah, the salt belt really destroys nice cars.I got my 99 cheap, partly because it was rusty, and partly because the PO didn't know what was wrong with the engine.
You're looks like it'll be needing a LF fender, as the edge on it is getting rough. But then, do you fix it? Or leave the "patina" as it matches the rest of the car. That's the big question.
What's wrong with the Black coupe in the 1 of the shots? That looked pretty good. Or is it a parts car?
I saw that you're looking at getting another parts car for the trans. Is it as rusty as Connie?

 

[Connie]

Yeah, the salt belt really destroys nice cars.I got my 99 cheap, partly because it was rusty, and partly because the PO didn't know what was wrong with the engine.
You're looks like it'll be needing a LF fender, as the edge on it is getting rough. But then, do you fix it? Or leave the "patina" as it matches the rest of the car. That's the big question.
What's wrong with the Black coupe in the 1 of the shots? That looked pretty good. Or is it a parts car?
I saw that you're looking at getting another parts car for the trans. Is it as rusty as Connie?

The LF fender does not have me worried. I'm going to just let it get as bad as it wants to. It's going to feel exactly the same from my seat whether or not I fix it, so why bother? It's not structural, hahahaha. Like an hour work for literally no gain lol. In Ontario, once you have a car inspected, it never has to go through tech again unless it changes owners or gets yanked off the road by the ministry.

The black coupe, "Midnight", I picked up two months ago for $800 CAD because it was leaking gas and power steering fluid. It was supposed to be a parts car. But I can't find anything else wrong with it. Like it must have had new pads and rotors all the way around since its last oil change. It only has 200135km on it, less than 130k miles. I had to put a fender and a mirror on it because it got sideswiped, but believe it or not I was able to save the fender and mirror I needed from the smashed up silver car I paid $200 for. It's in my garage right now, and unfortunately it came with a full tank of gas. Plan is to drop the rear sub-frame to get the tank swapped and fix the power steering leak. The power steering line is rusted and leaking at the top of the rack, and it looks like a gigantic pain in the *** to replace. Haven't looked into that one yet, but one thing at a time.

I haven't seen the other parts car yet. I was supposed to meet the guy last night, but he had to work late. Hopefully I'll see him tonight. He says he'll be home for sure this afternoon, so we'll see.

 

[Rusty Accord]

The LF fender does not have me worried. I'm going to just let it get as bad as it wants to. It's going to feel exactly the same from my seat whether or not I fix it, so why bother? It's not structural, hahahaha. Like an hour work for literally no gain lol. In Ontario, once you have a car inspected, it never has to go through tech again unless it changes owners or gets yanked off the road by the ministry.

The black coupe, "Midnight", I picked up two weeks ago for $800 CAD because it was leaking gas and power steering fluid. It was supposed to be a parts car. But I can't find anything else wrong with it. Like it must have had new pads and rotors all the way around since its last oil change. It only has 200135km on it, less than 130k miles. I had to put a fender and a mirror on it because it got sideswiped, but believe it or not I was able to save the fender and mirror I needed from the smashed up silver car I paid $200 for. It's in my garage right now, and unfortunately it came with a full tank of gas. Plan is to drop the rear sub-frame to get the tank swapped and fix the power steering leak. The power steering line is rusted and leaking at the top of the rack, and it looks like a gigantic pain in the *** to replace. Haven't looked into that one yet, but one thing at a time.

I haven't seen the other parts car yet. I was supposed to meet the guy last night, but he had to work late. Hopefully I'll see him tonight. He says he'll be home for sure this afternoon, so we'll see.

Yeah, I understand on the fender, just make sure your tetnis shot is current/up to date in case you inadvertantly rub up against it. On my rusty Geo, I replaced both front fenders, and it made the car look good.

"Midnight" sounds like my 99 Accord. Leaking fuel tank and replaced power steering return line. Mine had a rust hole about 3 inches from where the line entered the steering rack. It took me a while to get the fitting out of the rack, as the body got in the way, along with having hardly any room. I broke the line off flush with the fitting, then used a socket and an extension, and a wobble just to get it out. The new line I got from Honda, and it went in easier than the old one came out. I replaced the whole return line set up using genuine Honda parts (off e-bay and thru the dealer), as I didn't want to get back in there again to keep replacing sections (I hate doing that). I think all the bits and pieces cost 125 US though, so it wasn't that bad for genuine Honda parts.
Still got the fuel tank to do, but I'm waiting for warmer weather.
You'll have to let us know how the "parts car" turns out.

 

[Connie]

Yeah, I understand on the fender, just make sure your tetnis shot is current/up to date in case you inadvertantly rub up against it. On my rusty Geo, I replaced both front fenders, and it made the car look good.

"Midnight" sounds like my 99 Accord. Leaking fuel tank and replaced power steering return line. Mine had a rust hole about 3 inches from where the line entered the steering rack. It took me a while to get the fitting out of the rack, as the body got in the way, along with having hardly any room. I broke the line off flush with the fitting, then used a socket and an extension, and a wobble just to get it out. The new line I got from Honda, and it went in easier than the old one came out. I replaced the whole return line set up using genuine Honda parts (off e-bay and thru the dealer), as I didn't want to get back in there again to keep replacing sections (I hate doing that). I think all the bits and pieces cost 125 US though, so it wasn't that bad for genuine Honda parts.
Still got the fuel tank to do, but I'm waiting for warmer weather.
You'll have to let us know how the "parts car" turns out.

Thanks for the advice. I was worried about access to that fitting like you said. Mine is rusted out almost exactly where you said, but I'm not sure if it's the return line or the pressure line yet. I can barely see anything from the top or the bottom. I'm probably way better off ordering new ones as the ones on any of my parts cars are likely to be in the same-ish condition and the chances of getting any of them out without breaking them are slim to none. Besides, new lines will go in nice and easy and definitely last the rest of the life of the car.

As for the parts car, I bought it. $400.
It's a 1998 V6 4-door. Dark green.
It's about as rusty as Connie, but with only 250000km and a rebuilt transmission in the last 50k km. I've never seen a 6G that the tranny fluid was this clean and bright red, so I'm pretty sure I got what I want out of the car. I hope I don't run into any issues putting the 98 sedan transmission into an 02 coupe, but we shall see. I won't attempt it until the black car is up and running just to be safe.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Thanks for the advice. I was worried about access to that fitting like you said. Mine is rusted out almost exactly where you said, but I'm not sure if it's the return line or the pressure line yet. I can barely see anything from the top or the bottom. I'm probably way better off ordering new ones as the ones on any of my parts cars are likely to be in the same-ish condition and the chances of getting any of them out without breaking them are slim to none. Besides, new lines will go in nice and easy and definitely last the rest of the life of the car.

As for the parts car, I bought it. $400.
It's a 1998 V6 4-door. Dark green.
It's about as rusty as Connie, but with only 250000km and a rebuilt transmission in the last 50k km. I've never seen a 6G that the tranny fluid was this clean and bright red, so I'm pretty sure I got what I want out of the car. I hope I don't run into any issues putting the 98 sedan transmission into an 02 coupe, but we shall see. I won't attempt it until the black car is up and running just to be safe.

Yeah, I thought it was the very rusty looking line that ran down the frame rail, but it was the curved line at the rear of the steering rack. The high pressure side of the rack has a pressure switch, and high pressure hose going to the rack from the steering pump. That's how you tell the difference between the 2 hoses.

Your new parts car sounds like my 99, other than the engine trans combo, in that mine has a 4 cylinder 5 speed. I only say that as mine is Dark Emerald Pearl (dark green), which is a good looking color on 6th gen Accords. If the fluid is brite red, I wonder if the rebuilder used Dextron fluid in it, rather than Honda fluid (it does make a difference from my research into AT failures).
I don't blame you for waiting until Midnight is up and running good with no leaks, afterall, you do drive 200km a day. You'll have to post some pics of the new one up.