Colin's 1989 Si 4WS

[gtpdz]

Hi guys, this is my first prelude and first honda. It's a white 1989 US model 2.0Si manual with 4WS. I bought it from the previous owner who has had it for 14 years. It's in very mint condition consider the mileage(190k) and age(almost 30 yrs by now). It has a full service history dated back to the late 90s, smooth acceleration and gear shifter with a tight chassis. It is really a surprise honda for how well it drives and handles consider it's age.

I will try to post more updates on here, thanks.

IMG_5254 by C Pan, from Flickr

IMG_5250 by C Pan, from Flickr

[wurlycorner]

Welcome
Looks lovely and a great choice for a first Honda!

[toadster]

Hi
Welcome along matey Luvly looking 3rd Genner
Cheers for posting your pics
Toadster

[gtpdz]

Thanks a lot for the welcomes!

In the mean time some work already started to fix some small imperfections...

Start with taking out the broken tail lamps...
IMG_20171118_204501957 by C Pan, from Flickr

IMG_20171118_204412867 by C Pan, from Flickr

Fixing up the shaky rear view mirror... was lucky to find the broken piece from the mirror mount wedged at the bottom...

IMG_0674 by C Pan, from Flickr

The only rust I found so far... looks like the sealant around the gas filler opening is letting water in, grind it off then reseal the whole opening from the outside, also cleaned the sun roof drain. Haven't looked into the front bottom of the rear fender yet... will stick an endoscope in to take a peek sometime, but from the outside the jacking point and sill looks perfect... and no rust spot near the bottom. Seems like those yellow wax did their job keeping all the moist touching the metal.

IMG_20171124_191949742 by C Pan, from Flickr

IMG_20171129_102849671 by C Pan, from Flickr

Valve cover and exhaust cover needs some tidy up...

IMG_20171115_213125022 by C Pan, from Flickr

Glad the original owner from 89 got the extra rust proof package...

IMG_20171202_194745715 by C Pan, from Flickr

[wurlycorner]

Not wasting time doing the important checks I see - good on you.

Did you spray some extra cavity wax inside the rear arches while you were in there? That's the only sure fire way of making sure that doesn't spread...

As for the rear end of the sills, if you do look into it with an endoscope, be aware that's a triple skinned section, so make sure you get both sides of the central skin.

[gtpdz]

I checked the inside wheel arch and seems like it's still been covered with a thick layer of wax, haven't really touch that since there's no road salt here and I don't really drive it in the rain at the moment.

I looked up your posting regards the bottom sills... those triple layered section looks crazy, and seems like there's no direct access hole pre-drilled on them, will probably need to feed the spray line from the trunk. Definitely do not want to experience rear sill rust again... my last car (a 92 Galant VR4) had sill rust but it was hidden under the plastic side skirt. It was too gone by the time I found it.

[wurlycorner]

You can get into the outer skin via the rear quarter panel.
There is a whole at that point in the middle skin, so you can get some access into the inner skin. You can't see it though, so it's a case of trying to squirt it in blind (oo-er...)
I am thinking that on mine, I may core-drill a hole through the inner sill from the underneath, inject some more wax in and then plug the hole with a suitable plastic bung, but we'll see...

That seam sealant in your pics on the inner rear arch looks like it has already gone hard and cracked/split. I would strongly recommend cleaning it and then squirting over with a good cavity wax, regardless. It's up to you, but it can only do good.
I thought they looked good on my 3g (which also had no visible rust and the seam appeared perfectly sealed inside and out) , but after squirting with a good load of properly warm Dinitrol, I saw there were some places where it had seeped through the seam and appeared outside.

[mart609]

Nice 3rd