Lude Generation

I have posted up on here recently about getting another Prelude but was swaying towards getting a DC5. The truth is I am stuck between 3 or 4 cars, Preludes included. I have a question for people who have gone about “restoring” a 4th gen. How much should I budget for cutting out any rust, welding new metal in and a full respray? I am starting to think of this as an option. I would not be looking to make a profit, this is about having a 2nd car to enjoy and go to shows in, that lives in the garage and only comes out in good weather and is not used for my commute

How far do you want to go and how high are your standards? That's ultimately what it's all about.
You could get a one man band to probably do arches and a respray for 1.5-2k all in if you want, or you could easily throw 5k at it.
From past experience, I think in terms of about 500-750 a side for the arches/sills whatever else, and about 2k for a respray if I do a lot of the prep. But then I'd rather expect more and be pleasantly surprised (which never happens )

Thing is, if you picked up a lude for say 1k and then spent 4k on it, its still a fantastic 5k car, comparable with a DC5 / teg many other things in the same price bracket. And a damn sight better looking (IMHO)

ATR84 wrote:I have a question for people who have gone about “restoring” a 4th gen. How much should I budget for cutting out any rust, welding new metal in and a full respray? I am starting to think of this as an option.

My UKDM BB1 and JDM BB1 I had resprayed (and arches rebuilt on the UKDM) at 'mates rates' so aren't a reasonable comparison (you'd cry if I told you).

The JDM BB4 however, I took into a normal local independent body shop (that I know do good work) and paid retail.
I supplied the replacement rear quarter panels (available from cebul on here, £150/side delivered, iirc?)
I stripped the car and rebuilt it after, but didn't do anything else (prep/repairs etc).
They fitted a front lip that I supplied and painted that.
They also painted two rear spoilers (oem and mugen) and mugen sides - so extra faff over a stock lude.
This was also a custom paint job (5g Diamond White) but because the stock car was Frost white, I didn't get the door shuts and inside of bonnet painted etc so comparable to the main body areas you would need to get a 4g re-painted in a standard colour, but mine would also include extra cost on the paint and an extra paint stage.
That cost me £2600 incl. VAT.

So I'd say if you strip/rebuild after and supply the panels, you're looking at;
£2k+ for a quality job in an independent body shop
£1.5k for a mega cheap place that doesn't do such a good job



(though Ratty will do it all for the price of a quick hand job in the back of his van)

Thanks guys, to be honest, my budget for a DC5 was £10k so anything within that all in would be great.

So, DC2's and DC5's also succumb to the rear arch rot, from what I understand the normal practice with those is to cut the bad metal out and weld in new metal. Why would you not just do that with the Prelude? I don't know if anyone on here uses them, but I would probably get TGM Sport in Fleet to do the rust and paint as they do it all the time on DC2's.

I spent around £4.2k when I had my lude restored about 5yrs ago. (its back to how is was because the bodyshop never re-sealed the rear arches properly) but I bought all new weather strips, window seals and rear quarter windows from honda (which I think are now discontinued)

I didnt include those bits in the cost above (most of which I also did, except the rear quarter lights) but it didn't add more than a couple of hundred.

When I took my Prelude to TGM a couple of years ago for the same job, they didn't seem interested. My feeling at the time was that they were concentrating on Integras and Civics.

Sailor wrote:When I took my Prelude to TGM a couple of years ago for the same job, they didn't seem interested. My feeling at the time was that they were concentrating on Integras and Civics.

Good to know, however, I have spent quite a bit with them over the years with my accord type r and dc5, so hopefully that might persuade them to do mine, should I get a 4th gen

So, this is the one I am thinking of buying to restore to it's former glory. I have spoken to the owner a couple of times, and he has sent me close ups of the rust, the arches are pretty good for one that has never been painted, the rust has started so will need work but is nowhere near as bad as I have seen before. Having said that, what you can see is probably just the tip of the iceberg. There is also some by the windscreen.

On the face of it, do people think this is a good candidate for a restoration? If I wasn't 3 hours away I would just go and see it now, but as it stands I can't commit to going that far until mid next week - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified ... 501&page=1

Link doesn't work?

This one?
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified ... had=Nearly New&onesearchad=Used&sort=sponsored&advertising-location=at_cars&price-to=2000&model=PRELUDE&make=HONDA&postcode=cm1&page=1


(Grrr still won't paste correctly)
The white one in Exeter.