My Honda just passed another year's inspection!

[koshmom]

My car, a red 1989 Honda Accord LXI hatchback, bought in Sept 1988, just passed our state's annual inspection. It's all ready for another year on the road!

Comments

[lyonesse]

hooray! :)

[ceo]

That thing hasn't died yet?! What's the mileage?

[koshmom]

I looked today. 263,600 or so miles. :)

[pywaket]

That was one of the last great cars Honda made. Friends of mine had one (and a sedan as well) and it was just wonderful to drive.

Congrats on keeping it going for so long. How much rust does it have? That's usually what kills old Hondas.

[koshmom]

It lived for about 5+ years in California, so the rust had a break to not catch hold. It's got surprisingly little rust, only a bit around the rear wheel wells, and a chunk in the back below the license plate but above the bumper. It's luckily a location that has no structural value, so I just taped it with red duct tape and the people at the inspection didn't even blink. The red is the wrong shade, but hey, it passed inspection, and that is what's important. Perhaps in the spring I'll make it a more permanent fix with some metal flashing screwed into the body, or maybe use some superglue to affix the flashing. Then I can paint the flashing to match the body color better than red duct tape

[pywaket]

I'd recommend scraping off the loose paint and rust and painting over with a rust converting paint. I personally like "Hammerite" and also "POR15". We've used both of these on Vicka's Fubaru and it has made a big difference. The rust gets converted to a stable oxide and stops spreading. You can then paint over these with a matching color.