I was just given this 83 Accord for Christmas. My friend just handed the title to me. It's the first car I have ever owned outright. I'm not an expert on the subject, but it seems to be in really good shape to me. It's had one owner the entire time, and he apparently took very good care of it before my friend bought it from him. I've tuned it up and such and it runs pretty good. Only has 77.3k miles on it. Had a little trouble with hills but I replaced some of the fuel hoses which looked like originals and the rubber was cracked and leaking. It ran better after that. A lot of my problem with hills I think is just I'm not used to driving a car this old and I've got a heavy foot. lol Anyway, I'm thinking seriously about trying to restore it myself. I've never done anything like this before so I'll probably be on here a lot asking questions. I'm starting out small and re-covering the sun visors first. I think I'm going to try and keep some of the original maroon and just mix it with black pieces. So the sun visors will be black, hopefully in a few days. I'm going to try and color the hardware for them black too, but I'm unsure what kind of paint to use on those plastic pieces. Anyway, here are some pics of the car as is. It needs to be washed badly, but that's also on the list.





The side molding needs to be replaced or I might do something else there. Body is in pretty good shape except for a little damage on the drivers side fender and the door where they meet. Definitely gonna have to replace that whole front fender piece over the wheel. But still, pretty good shape.



The upholstery is also on the list.





Anyone have any idea what that contraption under the steering wheel is? My Dad and I couldn't figure it out. I thought I had seen something like it before in a car with a problem with the steering column.







Headliner is in perfect shape, amazingly.



Anyone have any ideas how to fix these doors? I've tried looking to see if anyone had a how-to on doors from this kind of car...and I couldn't find anything.

 

awesome looking car, i had an 86 camry, these japanese cars from the era are indestructable. and build quality is really high. Things to look out for on these cars are rust, these accords highly resistant to it but rust kills cars like cancer. Check under the spare, the quarter panels and around the beams in trunk/hood/doors and fenders. if you see some you might wanna take care of it soon before it spreads.

The upholstery and seats look good you could probably steam clean them and youre ready to go.

Keep your oil level checked and enjoy.

 

Those door panels will have to be recovered with new vinyl. I believe the thing under the column is for people to operate the pedals via hand controls. It's a system that Honda has offered in their cars for a long time, and I saw one at the wrecking yard once. Obviously it's not all there, but I believe that's just a part of the system.

That's a damn clean car, just a little bit of elbow grease will get that thing mint! Looks like it sat in the sun quite a bit, I'm honestly surprised the paint isn't faded and peeling.

 

Ah, that makes sense. My friend told me the guy who had it before her who owned it the entire time was an amputee. And yeah, it's been sitting in the sun somewhere for quite awhile. I think it's been repainted in the fairly recent past though because you can see some places that weren't taped as well as they could have been, but you have to look real close.

I guess I'll pull off the door panel one of these days and take a look. How hard do you think it would be to re-do that vinyl? I have never done anything like this before. lol I've got to replace the weatherstripping on the outside of the doors too before I get too involved in redoing them. It isn't in real good shape and I'm having trouble finding the part at all, of course. There aren't very many how-to's on these old cars either, I've noticed. It's all the newer ones. I love these little hatchbacks though!

 

I'm not sure what exactly it would entail to repair the vinyl, but I bet it's pretty damn easy. I think you probably just take off that top trim and bottom trim after you pull the door panel. It's probably a single sheet just wrapped around the edges and glued. I bet you could just pull that piece off and glue a new one on after you cut it to about the right shape.

 

thats a very clean, period correct, plush red, retro looking accord. please keep it as it is. no silly modifications for this please

 

if you rice this out me and a crew will find and beat you. keep it as is and if anything do tasteful mods. i love that car, id almost be tempted to offer my cb7 for a trade but i need a reliable means of transport that can handle a winter cuz my other car is a 85 supra

 

I'm not changing anything in it, except maybe the color of a few of the interior pieces. I'm trying to find original parts for it, especially door weatherstrip as it needs those bad.

The engine runs great and I don't really see the need to pimp the body out with useless crap. It's gonna be all original with a little color change! I might repaint it...maybe...much later. I'm undecided. Of all colors, this one is my least favorite. It reminds me of all my mom's cars. lol

 

Well, I washed it and got it cleaned up a little. Here's some pics!

 

Looking damn nice. Just need those moldings!

 

And a new bumper. And weatherstripping for the doors. And a new drivers side front panel. lol I guess I'm gonna have to start looking at some salvage yards. I found some of the molding for the sides on hondapartsnow.com, but they don't have it all. I think I'm more concerned about the weatherstripping at the moment though. It's on it's last legs and I don't want any leaks. I suppose maybe I should see if anyone has any how-to's on making your own, since no one has the actual stuff that I can find.

 

Awesome car! I'm very partial to the color combination -- see below!

 

NICE!! I want your hood! lol

Have you re-done your door panels or are those originals?

 

The door panels are original.

 

Baulin'. Get some vinyl from a fabric shop and just redo it with the 3M spray adhesive.

 

You don't see too many of these running around. I hope you are a man of your word and will keep everything stock. If you keep this thing washed and waxed, you will be surprised at how much attention you will get with this car. You don't need to add anything to it. Looks great..Good Luck

 

Bah nothing wrong with some customization. There are about 203948230948309 of them here where I live. They're not that rare, just rare in good condition, still not worth a whole lot really. It's not like a drop and some wheels is irreversible. Hell, a nice engine swap (even something as simple as an A20A3), will make that car fly.

 

why the hell do you need 4 horn buttons?