Thought I’d start a thread on my latest addition to my collection of cars... 1965 Honda s600 roadster. I've been a huge fan of these cars for the longest time but as we all know they were never imported to the states so finding one isn’t as easy as we think.

I had bought the car roughly little over two years ago. But hadn't picked it up until this past October. I didn't really know much about the car other than a few small details & some pictures the original owner sent me. I bought the car from the original owner grandson. His grandfather did a lot of business in Japan & while out there he fell in love with the s600 and bought one. From the docs that came with the car it seems the car was driven while he was in Japan. Then he had it shipped to the states. He drove the car around until 1969 when he decided to change the clutch. He got as far as pulling the motor motor/trans but never finished the job. The car was pushed into a corner of his garage for the next 40 years. Waiting for me to be born and bring new life to this amazing car.

The car is all original with 36,000 original miles. The best part of it all its all complete & in the same condition the grandfather left the car back in 1969. Also from what the grandson told me the car was used in a bunch or rally’s here in the states after it arrived. The interior tells all with all the plaques of the rally’s it competed in. It appears to also been a member of the Wisconsin corvette club. In a glove box there also was a Exxon mobile map from 1967 and a log book with a bunch of other original documents.

After many failed attempts due to faulty shippers. I took some time off to go pickup the car myself. My father & I made the trip cross country from northern California to Wisconsin. I’d have to say this trip was one of the best experiences ever. I had time to bond with my father & visit states I had never been to. It was a very stressful week but well worth the reward.

In the pictures the car is filthy as it had been sitting in a garage for few decades. The main damage to the car is on the right front headlight & some rust near the bottom of the fender. The driver side fender also has some damage from being moved around in the old man’s garage. Luckily when I opened the trunk I found a N.O.S. headlight still in the box. The top is still in really good condition except for a small tear in the window plastic. Im hoping I can have that repaired by my local upholstery shop. The interior is all there it just needs a good cleaning. Oh and the dash is CRACK FREE!

I have over 600 pictures that I took of the trip and when I got the car home. Also of all the documents that came with the car. Ill post them as I post them on my photobucket.

Enjoy…



I knocked out the 1st 200 miles & woke up when we were reaching RENO.




Salt lake City




Boring Nevada desert







Some random jail in the desert in Nevada. If you look closely you will see the guard on lookout.





One of my biggest fears came true. Damn truck over heated!! Good thing we brought 4 gal of Coolant just in case we ran into some problems.





After pulling over two times & re-filling the oxide color coolant with fresh coolant we were back on the road.





Wish gas was this cheap in the bay area





Entering Wyoming





Nebraska





Super long train. There must have been over 100 boxes attached to this thing.







Mississippi river






As I got closer to the guys property I couldn’t believe the time had finally come. The owner lived near a huge lake and had at least 10 acres of land. When we go to his property we I drove up this long dirt road. We came across this large industrial building that housed about 7-10 other cars. Not to mention all the other cars parked outside. I get out of the car and walk around looking for the owner. Around the corner of the building out comes the owner. He was exactly as I had imagined him. He was a super nice guy. He told us to drive around the other side of the building as the car was parked out front. As we came around the corner of the building I saw the lil S600 peeping out of the garage door.




Since the trailer didn’t have ramps we had to back the trailer into the building & slide it forward.




Finally it’s in the trailer.




The car sat in the garage for 40 years that’s on a road called “Sleepy dragon rd”. :lol:





We stopped by a local gas station to meet up with some guy I had sold some quarter panels to that lived nearby. I so excited to finally have the car in my possession I had to take some more pictures. As you can see proof the car sat for 40 years as the trans sit under the car and if you look closely you can see the last registered date on the plate is 69.





Waking up to snow in Cheyenne Wyoming. Now I had specifically planned to make this trip to WI before the weather started to get bad. Unfortunately the forecast said rain & snow after we passed Iowa. We decided to sleep through the night and woke up to this.




We didn’t bring any chains with us so were hoping the weather doesn’t get any worse.




Strange Rock formations





Abe Lincoln.. weather is starting to get bad again





Kind of scary as the downhill grade was getting pretty steep and the ground was getting icy.









After we got to the base of the mountain the weather cleared up.



Smooth sailing from here on out..









Feeling like a trucker hauling cross country



Salt factory in Utah



Leaving Utah



If you thinking that’s snow your wrong. Its huge mounds of salt!







Bonneville salt flats. Very amazing place. I’d love to go back.














Casino on the border of Utah & Nevada.




Finally we got back home. Car & its decade’s worth of filth!






From what I can see the old man bought a lot of optional parts for the car. You can also see all the plaques from the rally’s that he was in.











Door panels are in good condition just need to be cleaned up.













Some original docs. The guy told me he though all the documents were lost in a fire but my luck they were stored safely in the glove compartment. I will post more pictures. I also have records of what I think are service records of when the car was serviced at the dealer in Japan.






For now I think that’s enough pictures. Im sorry if I bored everyone. My plans are to do a complete frame off restoration. I own a shop where we specialize in restorations. Do check back as I will post more pictures of the car and of the build itself.


Thanks
Hako

 

Looks like a nice solid car. Best of luck with the restoration.

As for the literature, wow, very cool that all that came with the car. I'm very jealous of the radio manuals, those are extremely rare. And is that the original Japanese title, how cool is that, I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those (I would absolutely love it if you could scan that and email me a copy, I'd like to try to photoshop my cars info onto it, and print it for my collection). What are the two items on the right (one with red bar on right side, and the smaller item above it?) I love literature on these cars, and seeing items I've never seen before is like discovering hidden treasure, even if it's not mine.

 

How much did you pay if you don't mind me asking? This was like a half hour from me. I'm sad now.

Good luck with the restoration.

 

what a great story, thanks for sharing/

 

sweet ride. i hope you're going to keep the stickers that are on the dash. that's awesome history.

 

X2

 

I don't know how much rust is on the car, hard to tell from the pics. If possible, this would be a great car to NOT restore. Just clean and service the car but don't repaint it. This car has a history and patina that you just don't find. Good luck with it no matter which way you go with it.

 

Congrats for that beautiful find and thanks for the story.

That´s a great opener to another restauration-threat. Keep it up.

The car (esp. the interior) seems to be in good shape and I guess Sikocivic has a point. You should preserve as much of the original substance as possible...

Greetings, Mark

 

That was a really fun post! I enjoyed it thoroughly! Good luck with the restoration! All those tour stickers on the dash are pretty cool. Shows the car was actually driven by someone who enjoys driving. It's kind of a heritage, and history of the car. Awesome!

 

smithenhiven thank you for the kind words. I take it as a huge complement coming from you. I was also very excited when I saw the car had history & documents to back it up. As for the two other items on the right. One of them is a small sheet a paper w/Japanese writing front & back. Since I dont speak Japanese I have no idea what it says. The second item is a small booklet with a huge list of what I image are dealers in Japan who service these cars when new. From what I recall it has the address & contact numbers. I have more pictures of both but I wasn’t sure if I was going to bore everyone with a ton of pictures. If there is anyone on here that can read kanji. I’d be glad to post close-ups to identify what the documents say.

I know you have a vast amount of literature of these cars and various other vintage Honda related items. I do envy your color optional parts booklet/catalog. As we discussed before Im still trying to identify what optional parts came with my car.

I’ll try and post more pictures tonight.

 

Your fear of boring anyone around here with details is way unrealistic...

Looking forward to new pictures. Mark

 

Wow!

 

Super cool!

 

Norcal, such an information read. Too bad I didnt document my drive back with me trying to catch up a tow truck that has already left! The owner has not signed out the transfer documents while the car was being towed away, LOL! but it was a fun 3-4 hours trip from the north to central malaysia, haha! But yeah, your car is way complete. Even my car keys are missing. I dont know how they look like

 

very awesome... i want moar...

 

Great start to a fabulous journey. I've subscribed and will follow with great interest.
Cheers, John

 

What a great find, and lucky you! Lots of work ahead but a fantastic starting point. I'd agree with the post above about not restoring the body and cabin except for the rust. And once you start taking the rust out, where do you stop?

That chrome snake screwed to the dashboard is a "Butler flexlight", a piece of period rally equipment. These are pretty rare and it should be saleable if it doesn't figure in your restoration plans. The extra lights on the front are Lucas 576 spots, which look to be bolted through the bumper. If you take them off you'll have to fill the holes. I'd be tempted to leave the rally stuff on board, though the navigational equipment is missing and I don't see where it attached.

When I rallied our S600, I took out the glovebox door to mount the navigational equipment on a fill panel. Here's a picture from the start of the 1968 Thunderbird Rally, which was part of the Canadian national championship. I hated to drill holes in the bodywork even then, so removed the grille and mounted the extra lights to a bracket bolted to the bumper mounts.

 

I paid a lot less than most current market prices. There are some still out there. Did you see the coupe that sold on ebay not too long ago?

 

From what I remember they are all metal plaques so Ill probably clean them up a little & leave them on the dash. I'm currently trying to research the history with the Wisconsin corvette club. I'm hoping someone in the club remembers the owner & the car.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

"A car is only original once". Honestly I never really considered cleaning up the car and keeping it in its original state. I totally agree you can never reproduce the patina & history a original car has. You have given me something to think about.

On the other hand car does have a rust spot on the lower passenger side fender that will need to be replaced. So for that reason I "had" made my mind to restore the car. We will see what I decide to do.

At the current moment Im trying to sell my 71 N600. Once thats gone. Ill focus my time on getting some work done.


Thank you for your feedback its much appreciated.

 

Yes, something worth thinking about. Maybe I'll polish the existing areas with good paint & see how it looks.

 

Thank you

 

Your restoration is coming along quick. Looks great. Here's a pic for you.

 

WOW!! That's such a cool picture. I'd love to hear more about your car and any stories. Do you still have the car? Butler flexlight.. hmm I thought it was factory Honda. haha Im glad you noticed what it was. Do you have pictures of the navigational equipment on your s600? About the fog lights/spotlights I was just talking to smithenhiven not too long ago about those. So where did someone purchase these lights new back in the day?

Do you have more pictures or yours?

 

Here are some better pics. I have no idea what the docs say. Anyone read Japanese? Can anyone tell us what it says?








Im guessing this lists the dealers in japan. There are multiple pages of info just dont know what it says.