"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
08/07/2015 at 12:05 • Filed to: carbagerun, Honda Prelude, duurtlang
7
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"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
08/07/2015 at 12:05 • Filed to: carbagerun, Honda Prelude, duurtlang | 7
| 11 |
After being parked for at least 6 years both my BIL’s Honda Preludes were moved out of their overgrown park places and moved onto his property this week. We’re going to use one of these for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rally through Europe this winter. The red one (an ‘83 I believe) will be restored, eventually.
Carbagerun
In February 2016 my brother in law and I will be participating in the Carbagerun through Europe. Route:
start: The Netherlands
finish day #1: Basel (Switzerland)
day #2: Turin (Italy)
day #3: Avignon (France)
day #4: Toulouse (France)
day #5: Andorra (finish location)
The route as indicated in this map is the shortest route. We’ll obviously not be taking the shortest easiest route. It’s not a rally for nothing, the rally officials are sure to have a nice route planned for us. Mountain passes and snow chains will be used, weather permitted.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
You’re supposed to use a <1999 <€500 car for this rally, which will take place on public roads and in which speed is not an issue while adhering to traffic laws is. The car will have to be ready some time in December. We initially wanted to rebuild the red Prelude for this rally, but our current plan is to use the white one and keep it as ratty looking as is. We can then restore the red one without hurry or stress.
!!! UNKNOWN HEADER TYPE (MULTI-LINE BREAK?) !!!
The red Prelude is a one family car, it was his grandfather’s last car and his first car. It has some emotional value and seems to be the least rusty one of the two Preludes. It’s got about 23x.xxx km on the odometer, and the (AT) transmission and the engine are out of the car. They’re rebuilt and have been in his garage for all these years. The white Prelude was bought as a €200 donor car. The 4th gear of the 5 speed (MT) transmission didn’t work when the car was bought. It has rust issues, but it’s got a pristine interior (save for some minor mold) due to the extremely low kilometers. 63.xxx km, so about 40k miles. It was said to run and drive fine when parked. Both were parked on a paved parking lot in 2009 or earlier, and hadn’t been touched since.
Despite being parked on paved parking lots, the cars were overgrown. The weeds, which grew in between the tiles but not underneath the cars, ended up completely filling two large garbage bags.
The move.
The red Prelude doesn’t even have a drive train and the white one hadn’t run in many years. As a result we had to trailer them out of there. We used my father in law’s Dodge Magnum RT as a tow vehicle to get the cars from the parking lot and onto the street, where they could be put on a trailer. I sadly don’t have a picture of the Dodge in action, but it’s visible in the background of one of the pictures. Once on the street we winched the cars on a dual axle trailer and recruited a neighbor to tow the trailer home. The Dodge wasn’t up to the task as it’s a gray market import with weird US market wiring, so its tow hook isn’t able use the lights of a trailer. We used the more conventional Renault Espace diesel minivan of the neighbor as a tow vehicle for the trailer instead. Note the VW Transporter T3 (‘Vanagon’) wheels on the trailer.
Luckily the cars don’t weigh much, so they were easy to push.
Up next: Inspecting the cars and indexing what should be replaced/fixed. Also important: which of these cars can be made ready for German inspections the easiest before December this year? To what extent will rust be an issue?
GhostZ
> duurtlang
08/07/2015 at 09:16 |
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“Preludes back to life? He must have blown an engine or something”
*click*
“...oh man I feel so old.”
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duurtlang
> GhostZ
08/07/2015 at 09:26 |
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The red one is 32 years old. As am I. This type of car has been absent from our roads since, well, a long time. This whole century probably.
Cé hé sin
> duurtlang
08/07/2015 at 09:36 |
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I’m surprised that either of these is still (apparently) intact. I haven’t seen Preludes on the road for a very long time and even the following models have all rusted away by now.
My own ‘94 FTO is on its last legs, rust wise - it’s fine from above with not a trace of rust visible but the chassis rails are rotting away.
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duurtlang
> Cé hé sin
08/07/2015 at 09:47 |
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I am afraid of what we’ll find as well. We’ll sort out the mechanicals, I’m sure that’s feasible. But it’s rust that kills these. I’ve seen Hondas of similar age in junk yards that were nothing but rubber, plastic, glass and brown powder. But, apparently, neither was too far gone rust-wise when they were parked.
Regardless, the red one will be restored no matter the cost (apparently, I’m not paying). I just hope we can get either of these road-legal before the end of the year due to the rally.
Hondas of all generations have disappeared here. The last gen didn’t sell well, the ones before have all been killed by a combination of rust and the type of owner that rather spends his limited budget on questionable modifications than on oil changes. I really never see a Prelude of any generation on the road anymore.
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Cé hé sin
> duurtlang
08/07/2015 at 09:57 |
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Yes, rust is always the killer and especially on Japanese cars. The 1990s Prelude was common here as a Japanese import (because rhd) and years ago I was surprised to see one with a hole about the size of a €2 coin on one of the panels, and that on a car that probably wasn’t ten years old at the time.
I could look under my car to see what’s happening but I’m scared to do so...
brianbrannon
> duurtlang
08/07/2015 at 10:03 |
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Your biggest issue is going to be the dual carburetors and their 80 or so vacuum lines. I had an 84 that I took all the emissions parts off and rejetted the carbs with motorcycle parts
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duurtlang
> Cé hé sin
08/07/2015 at 10:05 |
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Is that a fair comparison though? I thought, but might be wrong, that Japanese market Japanese vehicles had worse rust proofing than their European market siblings.
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Cé hé sin
> duurtlang
08/07/2015 at 10:09 |
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Well yes, it’s always been said that JDM cars are only designed to last until the first “shaken” test and then they’re sent to somewhere less fussy. There was a time when EU market Japanese cars would rust while you watched but they’ve improved now. Still rarely see old ones though.
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duurtlang
> brianbrannon
08/07/2015 at 10:13 |
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I’m totally inexperienced here, but we might be helped by the fact that these are European market cars which might (I’m guessing here) have less of those emissions parts than the US versions did. Whatever we do, it will have to be able to pass inspection/emission testing.
v8corvairpickup
> Cé hé sin
08/07/2015 at 10:59 |
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This generation of Prelude is rare in the US, also. The used to be pretty common but aside from my 91, I almost never see one on the road.
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brianbrannon
> duurtlang
08/07/2015 at 11:18 |
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I hate to be a downer but see if rebuild kits and new floats and carburetor to intake manifold isolators are still available. If not the chances of getting it to run well enough to pass inspection are very low