Shaguar47

Alright guys! Some of you might remember this car, I'm sure most don't, but it's time! This is my 1980 RHD Prelude XR (All JDM) that I picked up last week from a Honda-tech member in West Virginia. Picked her up for a reasonable price and drove her 4 hours home to Virginia (with the help of my girlfriend) where she's slumbering in my garage! She's all original with the original EK1 engine and transmission to her unique fender mirrors and decals under the hood Her body is in not critical condition but not the best either, she desperately needs alot of TLC. She's as oldschool JDM as you could possibly get!

The story goes that she was originally brought over with a service man in Okinawa, Japan back in the 80's to Ohio and was completely registered in the United States. She then was passed down as a family car, sold to a friend for pizza delivery who than wrecked her front. She's passed a few hands since and now is with me! To find her is nothing short of amazing and she's going to get the royal treatment. Her body panels are rusty but amazingly with very little dents or dings. So with all that being said, not even being one week since I got her, I've already started body work and getting her rust spots taken care of first. Once her body is done, I'm working on getting her suspension worked out with new springs and bushings all around, then it's motor time! Hoping to snag a '82 Ek1 head as it's a 4 port instead of my '80 2 port exhaust design.










Stats:

Color: - Tudor Red Metallic (R-38M)

Engine - EK1 SOHC 8-valve 1750 cc CVCC inline four rated at 75 hp (56 kW) @ 4500 rpm and 96 ft·lb (130 N·m) @ 3000 rpm

Transmission - 5 Speed

Curb weight - 1,984.5 lb (Extremely Light)

Wheelbase - 91.32 in (2320 mm)

Length - 161.01 in (4090 mm)
Width - 64.38 in (1635 mm)
Height - 50.8 in (1290 mm)


1st Gen Short History(taken from Wiki):
On November 24, 1978, the Prelude which used the second generation Civic as a base, was launched. The four wheel independent struts, brakes and floorpans were all borrowed from the second generation Civic. The Civic family resemblance can also be seen in the front fascia of the Prelude. Japanese Preludes were sold exclusively through Honda Verno stores in Japan and held the position worldwide as the flagship Honda sports coupe model until the arrival of the Honda/Acura NSX many years later. Though the drivetrain was shared with the Accord, the Prelude found its home as a two-door, FWD specialty vehicle. At 4090 mm (length) x 1635 mm (width) x 1290 mm (height), it had quite a low and wide profile. The wheelbase was 2320 mm, and was 60 mm shorter than that of the original Accord. The Prelude sold much better abroad than it did at home in Japan, with about 313,000 total units being built during its four year production run with about 80 percent being slated for export from Japan. The total first-generation production for the U.S. market was 171,829 vehicles.

As the Civic/Accord of the era used a sub-frame chassis structure with a monocoque body (unibody), the Prelude used a one-piece sub-frame chassis with monocoque body that is setup as a two-pillar structure to increase body and torsional rigidity. The front suspension employed a MacPherson strut with a conventional coil spring mounted offset of the central axis of the damper which was designed and intended to greatly smooth the travel of the suspension, and rear suspension consisted of the Lotus-designed Chapman strut. The front mounted anti-roll bar served two functions on this vehicle, number one, to reduce body roll during cornering and number two, to act as the radius rod for the front suspension, this vehicle also featured a rear anti-roll bar as well. This design minimizes the typical front engine front wheel drive understeer while cornering near the limit and also limits the rear sliding behavior of vehicles with this drivetrain layout. Riding on P175/70SR13 Bridgestone radials, the Prelude with its all-independent suspension provided both good grip and an excellent ride. The Prelude received many compliments on its ability to handle well being very well balanced and rivaling anything put out by the competition. "It is," wrote Brock Yates for Motor Trend, "by any sane measurement, a splendid automobile. The machine, like all Hondas, embodies fabrication that is, in my opinion, surpassed only by the narrowest of margins by Mercedes-Benz. It is a relatively powerful little automobile by anybody's standards."

The engine sourced from the Accord was the EK SOHC 8-valve 1750 cc CVCC inline four rated at 75 hp (56 kW) @ 4500 rpm and 96 ft·lb (130 N·m) @ 3000 rpm. The Accord-shared engine made use of an engine oil cooler and transistor-controlled ignition system. 1981 saw the introduction of the CVCC-II engine which employed the use of a catalytic converter and several other refinements that improved driveability, the Prelude also received a mild facelift in 1981. Transmission choices were either the standard 5-speed manual or initially a two speed "Hondamatic" semi-automatic which by October 1979, had been replaced by a 3-speed automatic that used the final gear as the overdrive. The Prelude was quick when compared to most of its competition with Motor Trend measuring an early Prelude completing the quarter-mile in a respectable 18.8 seconds at 70 mph. In addition to the standard fabrics offered in most models, an 'Executive' option was offered in some markets which added power steering and Connolly leather upholstery which is typically only used in high end luxury cars. The Prelude was the first Honda model to offer a power moonroof as standard equipment, which eventually became a Prelude trademark. Honda used a single central gauge cluster design in this car which housed the speedometer and tachometer in one combined unit where both instrument's needles swept along the same arc. They also placed the compact AM/FM radio unit up high next to the gauge cluster intending to enhance the ease of use but consumers found the layout to be confusing so in 1980 Honda moved to a conventional mid dash mounted AM/FM stereo with cassette being offered as a dealer installed option. The Prelude featured a wealth of other standard equipment, including intermittent wipers, tinted glass, and a remote trunk release. Honda added some electronic warning bells for 1982, but otherwise the first-generation Prelude remained very much the same throughout its production life.

JDM vs USDM (as far as what's known):
- Right hand drive dashboard and controls vs. US left hand drive
- Fender mirrors instead of them being attached to the door (US models)
- Rear Wiper with fluid nozzle (no models in US had this)
- No emission equipment (but unfortunately has a Cat and possibly other things when it was being registered in the US)
- Unique Black/Red interior (US models didn't have an option for black interior)
- Floor mats have unique white black pattern that has XR printed on them (us models where very plain with Prelude written on them)
- Prelude XXR models has rear disc brakes (all US models had drum)
- Different VIN and Engine Plate design/layouts vs. US models.
- Rear and Front Bumper Supports are different. US spec (possibly other countries) used a fluid based shock for impact. JDM spec used an angled beam (X pattern). Car was converted to US.
- Optional power antenna (not available on US Preludes, US accords did) Not sure if my prelude has it.
- Possibly Different Brake setups (either sourced from accords or quints for other countries)

To Do list (Known Problems): Updated 8/13/10
- Extensive Body Work and reconstruction
- E brake cables are broken (back right is snapped)
- Turn signal display in dashboard keeps saying the back left bulb is out
- Front turn signals don't work
- Bulbs in dashboard need replacing
- Front Right fender needs to be replaced
- New Fender Mirrors (Springs in them are worn and the right one is cracked)
- Lowering Springs were cut at one time (Drivers side spring is out of perch)
- Temperature gauge is out of whack at times
- Carbs are badly out of sync
- US license plate won't fit, meant for a jap plate. Making a custom adapter bracket.

Shaguar47

Here is the tear down after the few days I got her! Wanted to see how bad the rust has progressed on her.
















Showing off my plate on the car!

Shaguar47

Today I started sanding her and prepping the rust on her sides and trunk. Figured the trunk would be a good spot to start to see how her paint and undercoat are.

Before (where they attached a reflector on the left rear with no rubber seal behind it. This is what happens when you take it off):


After:

Shaguar47

Had some more time and prepped up further, with starting to stand down the clear coat a bit.



Spot on the Hood: (someone either left their coca cola sitting here for too long, lol)



Circling all visible rust spots on the car:

NightRaven0930

You need to move it, it's taking up too much room in my garage. I wanna put my teg there :p

Lol jk jk

Shaguar47

^^^ I've been given permission (after sneaking it in for two days)

NightRaven0930

Yea, but I cleaned it. hahaha.

But yay! we have (two) preludes! The rate you're going you'll have the body restored by the end of next summer.

adouglas

I am 100% jealous right now.
I soooo want one of those.

minilogoguy18

Fender mirrors=win

Prudz_lude

iTrader: (1)

subscribed, this is a cool build.

NightRaven0930

It's probably going to be a slow build, mostly because it just needs sanding, some new parts and a repaint. That all takes money, so don't expect something new every day.

Then again I'm sure Nathan (Shaguar47) will say otherwise.

Shaguar47

Hence why I said "weekly"! Things will happen when they happen. There, I said something that was otherwise! ;P

NightRaven0930

143

Maybe if I can ignore the achievements for ODST, I can help with the sanding.

BlackCatt

Great to see a 1st Gen getting restored. She looks in not too
bad shape overall to me. GL with the body work etc.

InvaderTrax

That's gonna need more work or it'll come back quicker than you'd think. Also, look into the EL1 head. It's the Canadian nonCVCC model and it bolts right up to your EK1 block

Shaguar47

Its one of the worst spots on the car so probably the best solution is to cut it out and weld in a new piece. If it doesn't work out with time, would u think gridning most of it down even further and coating it with some strong rust convertor would hold it? Reason im thinking is because theres no rust on the other side so it seems to be spreading inward and not from behind.

Thanks for the tidbit dude, ill look into the el1 head

VTECepidemic

badass prelude man... goodluck with the rust repairs. i had a 89 i picked up from jersey. it didnt look as bad as yours but once i started taking off the lights and bumpers it was terirrble. almost every panel exterior wise needed work and the floor pans too. so i ditched it. took all usable parts and transferred almost everything to a 91 shell.

yours is def. worth the extra work though. rhd 1st gen....****. id give up my 97 for a fixed up one.

1grex

Wow survived being a delivery slave. Looks like in good hands now!

Prudz_lude

iTrader: (1)

My build has been going on for almost 2 years now. Builds take time, i'm not expecting to see this finished in 2 weeks.

double wishbone

Wow, awesome build. Good luck on all that body work and I'm looking forward to seeing it fully restored.

1994hondaprelude_dude

nice build, i'm gonna keep my eye on this one

prelude1897

In for the RHD rebuild....My GF's dad has one of these in his salvage yard the same exact color. It's actually in pretty good condition, but he can only part it out since it's such an old car.

Shaguar47

Wow, that's awesome man! I'm taking it being a left hand drive model? Cool if I ever needs parts, to hit you up?

Ludcifer

WOAH! I'll look forward to your progress

Honda4Life.

I so wish I had bought an 80 prelude I had a chance to get. It was mint with less than 80,000 miles on the clock. It was silver with the red interior. Everything works and like I said it was mint.

In to watch this build though. GL with it all.