Matlida Hits The Road!

Matilda at the Harris Covered Bridge

I have been dreaming of this day for a long time. Is she done? Is she shiny, smooth and beautiful? Is she the museum-quality show piece she will someday become? No on all counts. Did we have a blast driving her anyway? Totally.

Last weekend we took our little foray to the gas station for her first fill up. I discovered shortly after, Matilda is rather picky about her choice of beverages. This little car barely runs when fed 10% ethanol pump gas. I did a little asking around, and there is a place in Tangent, about five miles from here, that has ethanol free premium. Fortunately, a five gallon Jerry can is practically a full tank for Matilda. She still managed to sputter a bit, even with the new fuel. As a last-ditch effort for a simple fix, I changed the spark plugs. That was all she needed. Now, she ran more smoothly, all but stopped stalling and even idled! This gave me the confidence to venture across the highway to visit a few friends who live about a mile away. The trip went very well. It did die once, while I was decelerating from the fastest speed (55) she's seen in a long time. Luckily, a quick pull of the choke, a few accelerator pumps and we were under our own locomotion again. We did a little more running around and visiting, and then headed for the barn. This was all Saturday. Today the forecast kept promising that the fog was going to burn off at some point, and we would see the sun again. No such luck. Finally, we decided to bundle up and hit the road anyway. There is a covered bridge a little over ten miles from our house toward the coast. This seemed a little risky, since in addition to being farther from home than Matilda's been since she became Matilda, it was foggy, there was highway traffic and there is no cell service at the bridge. With all that in mind, we decided to have Carley and Josie follow me in the pickup, just in case. Turns out, we needn't have worried. Matilda made the whole 22 mile trip like a champ. She even climbed the hills at 55. I had an '87 Civic hatchback when Carley and I met that wouldn't even do that. I'm sure once the interior is in, and I have a passenger and a half (Josie) it will be 45 and third gear, like that old Civic. But for a two cylinder 36 hp engine, I was tickled. We started the weekend with 14 miles on the odometer, and now have 56.

I have taken pictures, and filled out the paperwork for the classic car insurance company. I realized when I saw that I needed to provide proof of ownership, that the parts car is the one that is titled. I've effectively changed the body, and therefore the VIN, so I will have to drive down to the DMV sometime this week to do a title transfer. Any excuse to drive her...

Let's Get Street Legal!

Not too pretty, not too proud.

I've been collecting informal estimates to get the final body and paint work done, and keep getting asked to, "Bring it in, so can see what we're working with." So it occurred to me I could put the doors and fenders on, get the lights working, install some seat belts and drive it in to the shops. I realize that almost everything I put on, will have to come back off for the paint job, so I have to keep my improvements to a minimum. So far, I've been getting figures between three and five thousand dollars to make this little ride smooth and shiny. Considering I have less than that saved, and I refuse to go into debt for something like this, it made more sense to wait until next winter to make her pretty, and just drive it as is. That way, with a bit of a cash buffer, I can get this job done right, and in the mean time, we get to actually drive the car! So today, we took a short, and slightly illegal (as we have yet to procure insurance), trip to the gas station for Matilda's first fill-up. We'd been running on the first gallon of gas we put in when we did the first test fire those many months ago, and ran out of gas on the way. Fortunately, Matilda weighs little enough, that it was a pretty comfortable push home. Naturally, a city bus just had to come around the corner as we were trying to stay in the bike lane, but it all worked out. We got gas, I did the first oil change, and re-tightened the CV shaft bolts and bent the holding tabs. Our seat belts will be here Wednesday. That just leaves insurance. I tried talking to our usual insurance company, but they were sky-high. I've since talked to two collectors' car insurance companies, and should hopefully be covered by the end of the week. With any luck, we should be able to take a substantial drive next weekend. I really want to get a couple of hundred miles on this engine to make sure it will make it.

600 Sighting in Roswell

My folks came across this N600 in Roswell New Mexico. It looks like it is being used as a mascot for a restaurant. Might be a bit more work to bring this one back to life.

Magnum Drove an N600

It turns out that Thomas Magnum, famed '80s PI, took a break from the Ferrari 308 to drive an N600 for most of an episode. Guess he was having trouble with the ladies and needed something cool to drive. Someone took all of the scenes that feature the Honda and cut them all together to make a delightful little episode. It has about ten minutes of N600 footage. I never get tired of watching these cars go down the road. Here's the link:

Broadband users (384 kbps)
Dialup users (56 kbps)

On the restoration front, I'm shopping for a body shop to do the final body and paint. I tried going to a shop that I've had work do in the past, but they weren't interested. Collision centers rarely want this kind of project clogging their shops. I don't plan for this to be much more work than a standard paint job, as I will be doing the reassembly, and have already done all the tedious stuff, but they took a pass. They gave me the card of an actual restoration shop, but when I talked to him, he ball-parked the job at around $5000 plus materials. Hopefully that is as outlandishly high as it seems. I fully expect to pay quite a bit to have this done, but since I've already done the majority of the work, hopefully it will be a little more reasonable elsewhere. On the way home from that shop, I stopped in at another collision center. They were actually interested in the job, and would like to see the fenders and hood to get some idea what we are working with. This shop uses the newer water-based paints, which I'm not excited about since there will be compatibility issues with the paint I've been using, but they assure me that this is one of the best coating systems available. I'm going to meet with them early next week to see about a solid estimate.

We're Jambin'

This turned out to be a busy holiday weekend. Big surprise. Between holiday travel, an impromptu work day and a practically impromptu dinner party, I was starting to think this would have to wait. Luckily, I got into the garage this morning and finished media blasting the few remaining parts that would be needing body color. I cleaned and hung everything I could from the lift. I suited up, and shot everything with an etching primer to prep the bare metal for priming. I then gunned the catalyzed primer and single stage body color on the back sides of the fenders, under side of the hood, and insides of the doors. The Hood and door hinges, the fuel door and rear bumper panel needed to be painted prior to reassembly also, so they got the same treatment. I was conflicted about how to ventilate the garage while spraying, as I had been running two heaters all day to get up to the recommended 70 degrees. I was a little alarmed to come inside and remove my respirator and smell automotive paint. I set up the spray booth fan set up I used earlier in the project, and opened several windows in the house to clear the air. It smells fine now, but I think I will run the fans overnight to aid in drying.

Back to The Grind(er)

Life has finally slowed down enough to allow me to get back into the garage, and back onto Matilda! It has taken me a bit to get my head back into the project, but I think I have a plan of attack. I've spent the last few weekends sand blasting small parts, and this weekend, I broke out the wire wheel. So now I have the Hood, fenders, one door, various hinges and the rear bumper panel ready for jamb-painting. I had been planning to do the final paint, as well as all of the ensuing body work, myself. Fortunately, I came to the realization a few weeks ago that that would only serve to frustrate me, and drag this project out even longer. So I have decided to find a good body and paint man to do the finish work. I fully plan to have this baby on the road next summer, so that should help. As near as I can figure, I have the passenger door to strip, and I should be ready to start the painting process all over again. It's so nice to be making real progress again!

Mergers and Acquisitions

I call it that since I am technically merging three cars into one, but this post is more about acquisitions. Our summer was insanely busy, as usual, and so progress on Matilda took a back seat (also as usual). We were both in a play, got a new puppy, worked on remodeling the kitchen, and well, it was summer. I decided that since I wasn't going have much time to spend on the car, it might be a good use of time to pick up some of the items I would eventually be needing. I'm not sure why it took me over four years to realize that the more time I waste, the less available many of these parts may become. I sometimes wonder how my brain works. So, with this revelation came action. I started contacting N-600 guys, and keeping an eye on eBay listings. Now that I have the windshield installed, I would be needing the gasket for the back window. And as long as we're talking windows, I'm gonna need weatherstripping for the pop-out side windows and the doors. Bill Colford, a great resource for parts and knowledge, had part numbers for the weatherstripping, and has a guy that manufactures the windshield gaskets. As luck would have it, Bill also has an upholsterer who makes beautiful reproduction seat vinyl. And since we're getting new seats, a new carpet kit is a must. The carpet is offered by Mike O'Connor, who built our engine. Last week I sent the door handles and trunk lock to Miles Chappell, another great resource, to have them re-keyed and polished. As always, eBay has also been a good source of various items. I got a pretty nice set of front turn signal lenses with housings from someone in California, and rear bumper brackets from Ray Cave in Missouri. I did get into an exciting bidding war over a very nice pair of tail light lenses. These are extremely rare since they were never really great quality to begin with, and after 40 years of weather exposure most of them are shot. It got up around $350 at the end of the auction, when some guy swung in in the last few seconds, and stole them. Fortunately, another guy got them from him a second later. Bloodsuckers. That prompted me to search for a way to make molds that would allow me to make new lenses on my own. I found a kit that might just work, but it will be so long until I'm ready to reinstall the tail lights, that I may come across another set somewhere.


I was pleasantly surprised by a gift from a fellow restorer, when my buddy John gave me an original N-600 brochure! It is in pristine condition and will have a prominent place in my garage when I have time to have it framed. His gift made me realize this would be a good time to pick up an original owner's manual. Both were located in Great Britain for some reason. It's always in the last place you look.

Matilda's Big Outing!

I dunno...

It's been a while since I've been able to make any progress, as I've had a few road blocks in the way lately. I mentioned the need to follow the proper sequence of events in the last post. Well, I've been wanting to get the windshield and exhaust system installed for months now, but I needed the brakes to operate safely so that I could pull it into the glass shop, and onto the lift at the muffler shop. As luck would have it, I was directed to a place that rebuilds brake boosters in vintage cars. Not only that, but they average one N600 booster a month, so they know what they are doing. The trouble was that it is in Upland California, which required shipping out the booster and waiting a few weeks to get it back. Then I had to find time to reinstall, bleed and test it. I was very excited to test drive Matilda and have the brakes work perfectly. That meant I could take a day off, rent a dolly and pull her down town. There were several headaches involved with procuring the dolly, including having to modify the tie down system to accommodate such a narrow car, but eventually it all worked out. I was pleasantly surprised when, after examining both of my windshields, Dave the glazier noticed that one of them was in nearly perfect shape. I had to wonder when he proclaimed that the other had probably been owned by a woman. When I asked what made him think that, he pointed out the two deep scratches on the inside of the windshield. He told me that they were probably caused by someone wiping off condensation while wearing a diamond ring. Just like CSI. From there we went straight to Jerry's Precision Muffler. Jerry hadn't seen one of these cars in three or four decades, and wasn't sure what to do for a muffler. After some test fitting, and a couple of cigarettes, he decided to weld together two 18" glass-pack mufflers in the "transmission hump" and add another 12" unit out back for good measure. That would mean that we would have four feet of muffler in a ten foot long car. We wanted quiet, so I thought it sounded fine. It actually works great. I had no idea how loud the engine was since we couldn't hear it over the exhaust noise. Now, with a practically silent exhaust system, you can really hear those 36 ponies up front. We did have what looked like a very serious problem when it came time to drive off the lift. I depressed the clutch pedal to start the engine, and heard a "pop". I then noticed that the clutch pedal was hovering suspiciously close to the floor. There was no getting the car into gear. The clutch had gone out. We pushed Matilda out of the muffler shop, and onto the tow dolly for the ride home. I had just about accepted the fact that I would now have to pull the engine, and open up the clutch to see what sort of catastrophe had befallen our little car. I made a few phone calls, and sent a few emails to gather information on just how screwed I was. One suggestion I got via email was to check the clutch adjustment bolt. On a whim, I decided to tighten it a bit and see what happened. The pedal seemed a little higher. A few more turns, and it would go into gear. A few more, and I was ready to chance a test drive. Amazingly, it worked. The only thing I can figure, is that something must have been binding in the clutch housing since we got the engine, and the pop I heard was that thing falling into place. Once in place, it simply needed the adjustment bolt a little closer to do its job. What a relief! It was so much fun to drive around the block, this time while looking through safety glass, and enjoying a relatively quiet ride. I've started prepping the fenders and hood for jamb-painting and hope to have them on soon. The dream is to have her road-worthy (if not totally presentable) sometime this summer. Keep your fingers crossed!

Details, Details...

Among the many things this project has taught me, is the importance of observing the sequence of events. At some point in the car's life, someone decided to relocate the radio antenna from its original location above the driver's side "B" pillar to above the passenger side "A" pillar. It looked like they had done this with the assistance of a can opener. One of the first body repairs I did a few years ago was to patch that gaping wound. I had not done the kind of job that would be unnoticeable under the final paint job, so I knew at some point I would have to revisit it. I've been trying to get the car ready for the windshield and exhaust system installations, and it occurred to me that I'd better get that old patch cleared up before a portion of it was covered by the windshield gasket. I've also been on the fence about the quality of the interior paint job, so I decided to sand, mask and repaint the visible surfaces while re-shooting the windshield bed. It was a lot of work for such a minor result, but I knew it would bug me later to see essentially textured paint while sitting in the car, which I hope we do a lot.

Here's a little video of my folks taking Matilda around the block. I love the perspective as they drive past full size vehicles.

Matilda's Maiden Voyage!

It only took four years, but Saturday the dream came true, and we drove Matilda!

The weekend began with my dad and nephew coming to help get this show on the road. I was pretty sure all that needed to be done before we could get rolling, was to bleed the brakes and adjust the clutch. I was a little nervous about the brake bleed. I had gone through the whole system and replaced or refurbished every component I could. I bent new brake lines, rebuilt the calipers, replaced all the hoses with brand new stock and replaced the master cylinder with a rebuild. I knew that I would have a potential leak at every one of the several double-flared fittings, as they are notoriously difficult to get right. As a matter of fact, I did have a few leaks, but they sealed up with a few additional wrench turns. Actually, it's been sort of magical how everything that looks like a problem seems to work itself out. Besides the brake leaks, the charging system didn't charge, the transmission wouldn't go into reverse and a needle valve in the carb stuck closed. All of these issues were fixed so easily, that it was almost worth having the problem in the first place, if only for the satisfaction. The one thing that was an issue, and still is, is the brake vacuum booster. It's amazing that a car this size has power-assist brakes at all, but when the booster doesn't work, you sure miss it. I've got emails out to the N600 gurus looking for suggestions. I could probably bypass it, but as just about every other little detail on this car is working, I'd like this to operate too. I learned an exciting statistic while doing a little online reading. It turns out that of the 40,000 plus N600s sold in the US, roughly 1,000 remain. Of those thousand, about half are restorable, and of those only about 300 are drivable. I had no idea this would be such a rare and special car when we got started, but I'm looking very forward to spreading the joy when it hits the road for real.

Let The Body Work Begin!

I've been looking at two dents in the roof for about four years now, and I decided that today was the day to do something about them. Their size and spacing suggest that someone made an ill-fated attempt to put a roof rack on this car. Clearly, if you have furniture to buy, you should take something else to Ikea. When we first acquired this body, I attempted to get a few different body tools into the tight space beneath these dents to no avail. This only left me with one option: I needed a stud pin welder! This is one of the better inventions to happen to the auto body industry in the last generation. You simply load a small copper-coated steel pin into the gun, press the tip into the lowest point of a dent and pull the trigger. In less than one second, you have something to attach a slide hammer to, and voila! It actually takes several of these pins to work the dent out, but it is very effective, and a lot of fun. Fortunately, I'll have plenty of chances to use it, as the body has a few wrinkles. Once the dent is within 1/16" of flush, the Bondo may be applied. I worked for most of a year in a body shop in my early twenties. I learned a few basics (mostly enough to get into trouble) but never had enough practice to get really good at body and paint work. As for the body and paint on Matilda, I've decided to give it a shot, but it is notoriously difficult to make dark colors look good. I figure if I'm patient and don't mind redoing, and possibly re-redoing some things, I may have a chance at getting it right. If that doesn't work out, I may have to leave it to the pros.

From This...To This!

Was it dangerous? A little. Was it Hillbilly? Definitely. I had been thinking for some time how I was going to swap out the sub-frame without having to remove the engine it was holding up. I considered cutting a couple of holes in the ceiling on either side of a roof joist, and securing to that. I tried to calculate the body damage from bracing across the top of the fender pinch weld. In the end, strapping to a rigid conduit supported by two ladders seemed to be the best option. I was pleasantly surprised when it worked, and damaged neither myself nor the car. In fact, it worked so well, and so quickly, that I had time to get the front end reinstalled. While changing the sub-frame, I also installed the new rear engine mount, corrected the position of the front engine mounts and re-furbished and reinstalled the sub-frame mounts. With all that done, I was very anxious to see if the drive axles finally cleared. It turned out that they do, if only barely. While all of those corrections certainly helped, what made the difference was having them re-booted to a smaller size. It's great to have the car sitting on all four tires. Without being on a large rotisserie, or sitting on a wooden crib, it finally feels as small as it is. We're just about ready to take this baby down the road (around the block). I still need to fill and bleed the brake system, adjust the clutch and buy a new battery. And, for some reason, the pin that connects the shifter to the shift rod has vanished. It will either turn up, or it will get a bolt and nut. I've already made arrangements for towing her to the glass shop for the windshield installation (the gasket arrived yesterday), and then on to the muffler shop. This is getting good.

A Shiny New (ish) Sub-Frame

The new sub-frame arrived about ten days ago, and though I had my fingers crossed for the new old stock part Tim had mentioned, it was actually used. This turned out to be fine, since after a trip to Willamette Powder Fab, it looks brand new. I figured that after 40 years, the original finish of an NOS part would need a little freshening up anyway, and I got the same result at a lower cost. I also used a product from the Eastwood Company to coat the interior of the sub-frame with a rust converter/inhibitor. I used the remainder of the can in the unibody channels that may have some rust hiding out. Who knows if it actually does anything, but it definitely has psychological benefits. I considered attempting to swap sub-frames today, but ran short of time for what I have in mind. The idea is to not remove the engine, even though this part holds it in. Stay tuned.

A little powder coating makes a big difference.

Plotting and Planning

Things have gotten a bit slow lately, but the stars are about to come into alignment. After a patient, vigilant search, I located a replacement sub-frame. I spent several weeks checking ebay listings, until one morning while on a weekend getaway, I saw what I'd been waiting for. As we were away from a computer, I immediately bought the part from my phone. The thing about those small screens, is that it's easy to miss small details. It wasn't until I got notification that the part had shipped, that I noticed the sub-frame was for a coupe. A Z600 coupe. This little two door wonder is a sedan. So I now have a 65 lb anchor in my garage. No matter. I called Tim Mings to see if he could help my predicament. He told me that, not only did he have a NOS sub-frame, but if I happened to live in the area, I could come by and pick it up gratis! Since Corvallis is no where near San Diego, he agreed to ship it to me. Tim's had a few things going on, so after nearly a month, he got it on a UPS truck today! I hope to see it early next week.
I also got Bill Colford to order me a new front windshield gasket. His parts can take up to several months, as they usually have to be manufactured, but they are considered top quality. Once we have that, I will trailer the car to the glass shop to have the windshield installed. I will then pull it directly to the muffler shop to complete the exhaust system. This will of course take place after the new sub-frame, lower control arms with their new ball joints and freshly re-booted CV shafts are all reinstalled. At this point, I fully expect the car to be able to go down the road under its own locomotion. Of course, it won't be street legal...but that is merely semantics.

Dashing Along!

I spent the weekend getting the steering column and the shifter back together and reinstalled. I got a little nervous when the key wouldn't turn in the lock cylinder when I got everything back together. I disassembled the other car's steering column to look for clues. It turns out there's a pindle that protrudes from the lock cylinder into the steering shaft to act as the locking column. I must've gotten some grit in this mechanism during media blasting (even though I had taped it off to prevent just this sort of thing). This pindle needs to move freely to allow the lock cylinder to turn. Once I pressed it into the lock housing, the cylinder turned freely. Of course, I won't have a locking column unless it eventually pops back out. Oh well, the locking column never was much of a theft-deterrent. I heaved a sigh of relief when I was able to get the two 39 year old natural rubber boots to stretch back over the shifter linkage without tearing. I also got to try my hand at wrinkle paint on the shifter bracket. I was skeptical at first, since it goes on heavy and very glossy. But, to my pleasant surprise, when I checked it this morning, it was exactly the finish I'd hoped for. I did learn that wrinkle paint takes at least 24 hours to harden, as some spots got damaged on reassembly. So now the dash is looking even better with the steering column and wheel, the gear-shift and the pedals all in place. Sadly, they are all only temporarily installed. The dash is resting right against the body at the windshield bed. We are most likely going to have to install the windshield, and its corresponding rubber gasket, before the dash, steering column and shifter can be tightened into permanent position.

Rare Parts

Since this is the first car I have ever restored, naturally a few things have come as a surprise. I knew going into this that finding parts would be a challenge. What surprised me was how easy and readily available parts are...if you are restoring a domestic car. My uncle sent me a copy of Hemmings Motor News' Collector Car Restoration Guide. The magazine is literally riddled with ads for parts and services for the (domestic) car restoration enthusiast. Turns out, if you wanted to build a '58 Chevy pickup from reproduction parts all you need is a credit card and a place to do it. I was lucky enough to procure what may be the last two new old stock (n.o.s.) lower ball joints known to man. Mike O'Connor put me onto the CMS (Consolidated Motor Sports) website. This is essentially a clearing house for unsold motorcycle parts in The Netherlands. Is sounds like they've had these ball joints sitting on their shelf since around the time I was born. It only took five days, well five days and $300, and they arrived at my doorstep. As you can see, the original joints are in pretty sad shape. I also scored a pretty good deal on a reproduction exhaust pipe that a guy in Missouri sold me on eBay. He's been parting out a few N600s, and while most if his stuff is used, this piece was made from new material to match an original. I got notification Saturday that the bushings for the sway bar have shipped, so the front end can go together when I get the CV axles come back from the shop. This is all contingent on what happens with the sub-frame. The rust issue is forcing me to replace it, or cut out the bad spot and weld in a patch. I think it's a lost cause since it's rusting from the inside out, as a result of having spent time in the Florida Keys. Hopefully, I won't have to go to The Netherlands to find another one.

Minor Setback

So, in the last post I had mentioned a potentially serious problem. Well, it was only serious if a solution didn't present itself, which fortunately, it has. As I was pondering what to do about our axle rubbing problem, it occurred to me: if you have a serious N-600 problem, who do you call? Why, the N-600 God, of course! Well my good buddy, Chad, is an avid follower of the Jalopnik website. A few years ago, they did an article on a fellow named Tim Mings, who is apparently the guru of all things N-600. So I gave him a call on Monday to see if he had ever heard of axles rubbing on sub-frames while up on blocks. Turns out he hadn't. He did want to see some photos, though, and had a few suggestions from there. So the engine cradle (a.k.a. subframe) mounts actually have a front and rear, and it matters how they are installed. Apparently, I have them all sorts of upside-down and front-to-back. Also, I need a new rear engine mount. I knew this already, but was willing to try to use the one I have for now. Tim has this particular mount in stock as a NOS part. Since I try to learn something new everyday (or have it thrust upon me), I discovered that NOS means, "New Old Stock". This is the greatest thing possible, because that means that this part is original Honda stock that never sold back in the day. Also, it looks like the boots on my newly rebuilt CV shafts are a little over-sized, which is contributing to them rubbing on the sub-frame. After a quick call to Oregon Axle, they agreed to re-boot them to a smaller size that will hopefully clear. So, long story short, after a new rear motor mount, a CV re-booting and the installation of the sway-bar, we should probably be clear for take-off. There is a minor rust issue on the engine cradle, but that's another story for another day...

It..Is...ALIVE!

Completely defying my expectations for this weekend, we actually started the engine. This had been my hope for the past few weeks, but as time ran short, I had accepted the reality that turning this thing over was probably not going to happen. Well, I had my dad work on rebuilding the carb while I started getting the front end put together. Luckily, the old man was "The Carb Guy" at his auto shop before he retired, and he made short order of the little beast. We did run into what has the potential to be a major problem. For some reason, the drive axles are hitting the sub-frame. Normally this wouldn't be too big an issue, since they should straighten out once the car is sitting on its tires. The problem is, when we used a floor jack to compress the struts, the CV boot was still in such solid contact with the frame, that it would have destroyed itself had it turned under power. So far I've checked with a couple of N600 savants, and a few of the more mechanically inclined fellows I know, and we're baffled. Clearly, the car will never move unless we correct this issue, so I have to figure this one out. On the bright side, We got the dash and wiring harness installed, oh, and we STARTED THE ENGINE!

New Finishes.

I've been spending a bit of quality time with the blast cabinet and the spray can. Just about every surface on, in and under this car needs refurbishment. I recently re-did the front suspension, brake calipers and dash. As it turns out, the guys at Oregon Axle had just enough parts to do our CV shafts. Three of the four joints were pretty much destroyed, so they completely replaced those, and cleaned, lubed and re-booted the fourth. I've also been pretty concerned about what to do for struts. As luck would have it, once disassembled and blasted, I discovered I had a pair of Tokico struts that are actually in pretty good shape. Now freshly painted and reassembled, they look brand new! I've turned my attention to the dash, which will need to go in before I can even think about the day we fire this baby up. I've had a pretty good time bringing the dash back to life. Naturally, after a lifetime of exposure to the sun's life-giving radiation, the dash pad was cracked and discolored. Vic at Chuck's Upholstery, here in Corvallis, recovered the pad with a thin, pliable vinyl used for ATV seats. Between our impending need for a headliner, door panels and original looking vinyl seats, I see a lot of work in Vic's future. After I had cleaned the rest of the dash, repainted the forward trim piece and re-affixed the VIN plate, I reinstalled the pad. I also hand-painted the raised lettering and border with the touch-up paint from Carley's '04 Accord. While taking the paint off of a dash piece, I discovered that if one intends to commit suicide, I do NOT recommend using an angle grinder to slash one's wrists. I got the shifter disassembled and painted, which was a challenge as it was not made to be taken apart. Now I need to concentrate on pedals, wiring and cables for clutch, choke and whatever else presents itself. My dad will be back next weekend to lend a hand. I need to try to get as much of this accomplished as I can so I can make good use of his talents. I got a carb kit for a '75 Honda Goldwing, which apparently has a number of usable parts. No one actually makes a kit for this car, so this is what people use to rebuild the carbs. Mike O'Connor (the guy who built our engine) let me know these have a tendency to have trouble with accelerator pump diaphragms drying out and going bad. Of course this part is also unavailable, but he happens to have a guy who makes them for him, so he sent me one. Heck of a guy.

Big Doin's.

Well, things have really been happening. I haven't kept up with my blogging, so I'm going to do a little retroactive post...

The Canary Has Landed!

At long last, the engine has arrived. Carley picked it up after work one evening, and brought the crate home, leaving me wondering how I was going to get it out of the truck. My dad had the suggestion of using the lift as an engine hoist, which worked very well. Mike O'Connor appears to have done a nice job. I, of course, wanted the engine to look brand new for my restoration, but as I could tell he was a serious mechanic, I didn't want to insult him by asking him for visual perfection. It did come out very clean and will hopefully look good in the car. He told me he has the cranks for his engines built by a guy in Germany, which accounts for some of the expense of having him do an engine. He also only uses synchro-mesh transmissions, which is nice since Honda had both synchro, and non-syncro trannies. Part of the reason I wanted to buy an engine was so I could save time and money looking for parts like a starter, clutch, carburetor and various gaskets, bearings and seals. Unfortunately, his engines don't come with a carb, but since I have three of them, hopefully I can make something work.



Gettin' This Puppy In.

When my dad retired, I hoped we would be able to spend some more time together. Well, even thought he's at least as busy as he was when he was working, he came to spend the weekend and help give the project a push. I had managed to get the steering rack cleaned up, painted and reinstalled before he got here, if not much else. We got a reasonably early start Saturday morning, and quickly made great progress. The engine needed a little attention to details such as locating the engine mounting bracket and related hardware, and getting them bolted on. After two and a half years the body finally came off the rotisserie when we installed the rear end and set the car on it's first pair of new tires in decades. As I worked on various items, Dad got to rebuilding the brake calipers. These are a strange design with an inner and outer piston in each caliper, which took some figuring to get reassembled. I sand-blasted the caliper brackets, and got them painted. I've been using a high quality paint from Eastwood Co. that leaves a great finish, but takes a long time to dry, so we couldn't get the calipers fully reassembled yet. There are, of course, quite a few small things that need to be done, but I'm very excited to be at this point. This weekend I hope to get the front end parts blasted and painted, and finish the calipers. I also sent the drive shafts to Oregon Axle in Portland today to see if they can refurbish them for me. So hopefully things will continue to come along as nicely as they have this weekend.

Matilda's New Heart is on It's Way!

Okay, so the five to six week time frame turned into fifteen weeks, but that's what you get when you are dealing with an artist. Mike O'Connor has had a pretty busy summer, but haven't we all? I got a call from him a few weeks ago to let me know that the engine was done, had good compression, and that he had installed it into his car to run for a couple of days to make sure there were no problems. It took a bit of time to uninstall it, crate it up, and have the shipping company pick it up, but it is now officially on it's way. He even threw in an exhaust system he had laying around. Heck of a nice guy. So now I need to get the steering rack painted, and have the drive-shafts rebuilt (and do about 250 other small things), and we should be able to drop Matilda off of the rotisserie.

The Ball is Rolling!

So a few areas of the project have been coming together nicely. I've been trying to get the rear-end done so that I may drop the body off the rotisserie in preparation for the engine's arrival. Prepping the rear-end involved doing the rear brakes, and re-bending related brake lines. There was also a little challenge finding a replacement brake hose to feed those lines, bearings and related oil seals for the hubs, and rebuild kits for the wheel cylinders. Ah, the joys of restoring a car that is not only old, but had very little value even when it was brand new... Well it turns out that asking the guys that do only these cars has a lot of value. Bill Colford happened to have the rear brake hose on the shelf of his eBay store, and had a few words of wisdom regarding wheel cylinder kits. Turns out that they are a direct match for the '93 Geo Metro. As for the rest of it, Honda used sealed bearings on the rear hubs that fortunately were still in good shape, as were the oil seals. I had my twentieth high school reunion a few weekends ago, which afforded me the chance to mooch a favor off of my dad, who though recently retired after a thirty plus year career as a mechanic, still had access to a brake lathe. The drums turned out fine, while the rotors were about a millimeter under the nine millimeter recommended minimum. With as rusty as they were, I count myself lucky to be that close. So today, I was able to finally get the fuel tank back onto its mounts. I had to get the e-brake cable and its related guides into place as well as the gas tank vent hose attached before the tank could go in. Thank God I have a parts car to pull from and see how things go together just a few feet away!

The refurbished fuel tank and rear end.

Pulling The Trigger On The Engine!

Well, we've had some sad news lately. Our beloved dog, Simone, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer. Last week we had her left rear leg amputated, and yesterday she began her first course of chemotherapy. With this course of treatment, we've been told we can hope for another year with our girl. With that knowledge, we decided it was time to light a fire under this project. So, this morning I ordered the engine/transmission from Mike O'Connor in North Carolina. I thought I remembered him saying he needed a year lead-time. Turns out, he'll start work on our engine next week, and we should see it in five or six weeks time! I have a serious amount of work to do before we can drop it in (or in this car's case under), but we need to be able to take Simone for at least one ride in her car.

A Little Brake Work, A Little Body Work

As usual, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything. I have actually made a little progress lately. I use the term, "little" in its literal sense. I recently picked up a media blasting cabinet, and a small parts tumbler. This allowed me to re-finish the power brake booster before reinstalling it. I've bent new brake lines for most of the brake system, and with the booster in place, have started installing them as well. While I was doing that, Chad got going on straightening out the header panel. That's a tough one, since we haven't got a straight one to match it to on any one of the three bodies we're working with. Considering the damage to the thin metal of the header, Chad did a great job getting it where it needed to be. It should just need a skim-coat of Bondo, which is way less than it had when we started! We even got to use the stud-welder for more than just practice. A few rare parts have also presented themselves. I've had a few conversations with a fellow named Bill Colford, who is very well known in N600 circles, and he let me know that he is offering side-marker lens replacements. I bought back-up light lenses from him a few months ago, and was glad to hear he had a line on these units. During the process of ordering a pair of side-markers from him, I inquired about shocks and struts. Bill was very helpful with a quick recommendation for a KYB rear shock that was a direct replacement. Unfortunately, front struts are going to be a bit more of a challenge. Apparently, Bilstein made a replacement back in the day, but no longer. It sounds like they will rebuild them if you can find a pair, but they are of course rare. I'm glad to have found shocks, as it will allow the rear axle to be installed when I get to that point. There's really not a ton of work to do before the body could come off the rotisserie, so that's what I'm shooting for.

Fuel System Work Begins

I was excited to get to this part of the process, not only to get rid of the vinegary rotten-gas smell in the garage, but it was a quick way to see a big difference. I also knew that there would be a bunch of varnish and rust in the fuel tank that would have to come out, or we'd never get this baby running. The Eastwood Company is an online shop for auto restoration that specializes in coatings that resemble OEM finishes. They carry a gas tank sealing kit that allows you to revitalize your old tank in twelve easy steps! It was a pretty filthy and environmentally questionable process, but it turned out pretty well in the end. The final photo shows the pristine coating in the filler neck that is supposed to be uniform throughout the gas tank's interior. Unfortunately, it was no where near that coated for most of the tank, but it should pretty much keep all the crap out of the rest of the fuel system, so I figure I got my money's worth. One major hurtle was that the 18", or so, of fuel line that act as an intake within the tank itself, was completely varnished shut. After trying to figure out how to clean a piece of tubing that has an inside diameter of less than 1/4" and also has two 90 degree bends in it, I settled on using a frayed piece of bicycle brake cable in a drill motor to ream it out. This, mixed with a little Zippo fuel as a solvent, worked remarkably well. Last thing was to spend a little quality time with my old friend the angle-grinder to clean off the outside of the tank, and shoot it with a special zinc coating for gas tanks from Eastwood's.

UNDERCOATING!

Well, it finally happened. After over a year of prepping, pondering and a little painting, Matilda actually made it into Line-X for undercoating. My original plan was to load the body on the cheesy folding Harbor Freight utility trailer that I bought especially for this purpose, stuff the rotisserie into the back of my truck, and attempt to set up this contraption by myself. Thankfully Chad decided not only to help, but to rope his dad, Jim, into the adventure as well. Turns out, that three guys can just pick the body up, and put it wherever it needs to go. The fact that Jim also has a fourteen foot car hauler that allowed us to put the whole setup on a moving platform, didn't hurt either. I had envisioned the need for all sorts of elaborate cribbing to hold the car in place during the trip to Salem, but since we were able to simply lift it into place when attaching it to the rotisserie, we just let it ride on the trailer deck, which it did like a champ. I noticed a number of people on I-5 trying to get a closer look at the strange little car on that trailer.

When we arrived at Line-X, we were greeted by the owner, Wade Starbuck and his crew. They were great to work with, as they were both professional and helpful. I was asked about use of the vehicle, placement of the material, and to what thickness I wanted it applied. Wade even went so far as to call me after the masking was complete to see if I wanted to get some pictures of the process! He explained that the material is a two part chemical blend that is kept separate as it is heated and pressurized to 2500 psi, before it is mixed by the spray gun during application. The amazing thing to me, is that after ten seconds it is set up well enough that you can walk on it! Another surprise is that Line-X is also practically non-toxic. I thought that any material that had all of these properties would definitely be adding to the hole in the ozone layer, but I guess we'll have to look to our other pursuits for that.








Needless to say, I couldn't be happier with the finished product. This is exactly what I've had in mind for the last year. We have a surface that is practically bullet-proof, let alone rust-proof and will cut down on road noise. The best part is, now we have a great base on which to build a beautiful little car.