Matt's n600 rebuild project log

[Matt Timion]

With all of the other rebuild threads I thought I would start my own. This is for my Honda n600:



I recently sandblasted the rims and removed as much rust as I could fathom with a wirebrush. I then repainted them with silver wheel paint and also clearcoated them. I will soon be putting the hubcaps back on.

Last week I had a problem where my n600 wouldn't get above 15mph. I replaced the spark plugs, points and condenser, fuel filter, and spark plug wires (much harder than you realize on this car). I am going to replace the oil filter soon.

Although I don't have pictures, today I received a new airbox and fan assembly for my Honda n600. it is the proper one for my year, so I'll be able to utilize the carb heater as it was intended. I took the parts to the car wash today to remove 30 years of caked on oil. I'd say it was mainly a success.

This weekend I will sandblast the airbox and repaint it gloss black. I may also sandblast the heater blower motor and do the same.

Pictures to follow.

[SVOboy]

With all of the other rebuild threads I thought I would start my own.

I like it, y0! Figure out the brake booster issue yet?

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

I like it, y0! Figure out the brake booster issue yet?

There really is no issue. I was just asking about it. Another n600 enthusiast removed his brake booster all together because he could not find parts to rebuild it. He claims to have not noticed a loss in stopping power.

SVOBoy and I were talking about finding a replacement Brake Booster in the event mine goes out. I need to do a little research and find one that is compatible.

[SVOboy]

I thought the plan was all stock,

[Diemaster]

i still think u should drop a 3 cyl geo metro in there :P or even a D16Z6 W/ M@d VTECK y0 :P lol car was over 20 years old hen vtec came out 8o

good job so far more engine pics. i am curious as to what a 2 cyl looks like :P

[Matt Timion]

Today I went to the junkyard looking for a new bracket for my coil. While I didn't find anything that was exactly the same I did find something that worked. I used the coil bracket from a 81 Accord. It's actually completely different than mine but it works. It will work fine until I manage to get my hands on a real one.

Tonight I took two parts of my n600 out to be redone.




Well, actually the airbox was new. My sedan came with the wrong airbox, and a mangled one at that. The airbox above is the correct one for my car, albeit rusted.

The blower motor's function is to blow excess engine heat into the cabin.

I bought a can of black engine enamel so both items could handle the high heat of the engine bay.

I pulled out the sand blasting equipment, goggles, dust mask, etc... and went to work.

I've tried sand blasting twice now and I've decided it is not for me. It's a huge pain in the *** and is no more effective than sanding or using chemical paint stripper. I won't be doing it again unless I actually need to. Oh, and it's messy b/c I don't have a sand blasting booth.

I took some pictures while the parts were being painted but since the parts are black they really didn't show much detail in the pictures.

After painting them and letting them dry I installed them.

First I will show how the engine bay looked when I bought the car.



Now with the freshly painted parts and a relocated coil:



Oh, another reason to not sandblast is the wind will blow sand into your wet paint. I'm now considering sanding the paint in order to repaint it. ugh.

I'm currently working with someone on getting a rebuilt engine, or at least one a little better than mine.

I inadvertently discovered tonight that the screws used for my hose clamps are the exact same size as the screws that hold the front turn signal lenses in place. i've been looking for this information for a while now. I went to Home Depot tonight and picked up some bolts that are the same size, although the worker told me that these bolts are not rated for car use. I may just go to Autozone tomorrow to get another set.

[DaX]

Awesome thread. Man, I really want one. *pouts*

[Matt Timion]

I just purchased a new upper crankshaft housing on ebay for $50.

It's actually a BRAND NEW item. Some guy must have had this in his garage and finally decided to sell it on ebay. My gain.



This thing just fell into my lap. I just so happened to notice recently that the threads are stripped on this piece on my engine, which is probably the cause of the head gasket leak I'm experiencing. I'll replace this thing, the timing chain, and new gaskets and my engine should be good to go.

[SVOboy]

Nice find, this engine is going to be a frankenstein of new;/old/custom parts, I'm looking forward to it.

[Sludgy]

That old N600 was equipped with a carburetor. If you replace the carb with a throttle body fuel injection system and oxygen sensor from an recent, four-banger, I'll bet it would get upwards of 60 mpg AND have more power too.

[SVOboy]

I think he's gonna restore it all nice and stuff, not modify it, he might be buying another to convert to ev though (i think), so meh. Out of curiosity, how hard/costly would a fuel injection swap cost?

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by Sludgy

That old N600 was equipped with a carburetor. If you replace the carb with a throttle body fuel injection system and oxygen sensor from an recent, four-banger, I'll bet it would get upwards of 60 mpg AND have more power too.

I would actually be interested in doing this. The problem, of course, is that I would have to get a throttle body/intake manifold custom made, as well as drill a hole in the exhaust manifold to fit an oxygen sensor. Custom fuel maps would have to be made as well to be fitted on a custom ECU. Sensors would have to be retrofitted to work with the car, and I'd have to get a different upper crankcase for it to have a tachometer.

Unless of course they make kits for things like this. I think it would be a very cool conversion, however.

[SVOboy]

Haha, I thought you were taking it back to stock, oops,

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Haha, I thought you were taking it back to stock, oops,

Oh, I am... but I'm still a tweaker at heart.

The carb works and was recently rebuilt, so any modification such as this will have to wait for a while.

A fuel injected n600 would be rather cool though, although it would take lots of work and I don't know how easy it would be to modify an ECU to use only 2 cylinders.

[Sludgy]

I searched for an aftermarket injection system. These folks claim they will custom-build a system for you.

http://www.affordable-fuel-injection.com/index.htm

[Matt Timion]

I removed the front seats and the carpet today. here is the interior:



And the old seats:



As you can see, the seats are in pretty bad shape. I am going to order an upholstry set on monday and reupholster the seats myself.

In the mean time I need to get the interior cleaned out. I found 30 year old dirt, old french fries and crumbled up fruit loops in there. I'm trying to figure out exactly how to clean it as my vaccuum cleaner isn't too good at stuff like this.

I'm also working right now on making my own carpet. I have a huge roll that I'm going to cut new carpet out of. I will be using the old carpet as a template and adding snaps to my new carpet so that it will snap into the same location as the old carpet. I will be using the same padding as before b/c buying new padding is ridiculously expensive.

Pictures of carpet progress tomorrow.

[Matt Timion]

I give up on the carpet. I have spent $25 on the carpet and about $15 in snaps to make it work. I spent a few hours today cutting the carpet so it is perfect and much to my surpise, it wasn't perfect. It didn't fit right and I could get the snaps to work with the carpet.

So I'm just going to throw in the towel on this one and order an after market carpet set instead of making my own.

I need to just stick to the stuff I know how to do from now on.

[SVOboy]

Nothing wrong with learning. PS: Aftermarket carpets fitment is poor, and most people end up taking them to a shop anyway. You have to heat and mold, I believe.

[MetroMPG]

been there matt - it's tough to do.

my first car was a 1964 pontiac catalina, and i replaced the carpet with "flat" aftermarket carpet off a roll. it never fit right. but i left it in because it looked a little better than the disintegrated crud that was in there before. believe it or not, i didn't know at the time that moulded aftermarket carpets were even an option

[DaX]

Good luck reupholstering the seats. I did it to my 88 Civic a few months ago...took me all day, but they look great.

[Matt Timion]

Just order the upholstery yesterday for the seats. They look like this:





and they SHOULD look like this once installed:

[DaX]

That looks awesome! Where did you order from - is it custom, do they only have kits for N600s, or do they have kits for many cars?

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by DaX

That looks awesome! Where did you order from - is it custom, do they only have kits for N600s, or do they have kits for many cars?

I ordered through a guy in San Diego. He is a fellow n600 enthusiast and gets these direct from an upholstery shop local to him.

It's a good deal for the price. Much cheaper than katskinz or other seat covers. I'm certain that if you wanted your seats to look like this that you could probably get an upholstery shop to make something up for you.

It will probably cost a bit however to have them installed. A fellow n600 owner has these exact covers installed for him and it cost $250 to have it installed. That's why I'm going to try to install them myself

[Matt Timion]

Argh.

I tried to velcro the carpet in and I decided it wasn't going to happen. I ordered the expensive carpet set from a guy in North Carolina. With any luck the new seat upholstery will be here this week as well.

[MetroMPG]

matt - you've probably seen this before, but here's a guy in the netherlands with some great classic honda photos.

http://home.hetnet.nl/~h-a-68/index.html

[Matt Timion]

Today I took one of my front bumpers in to Salt Lake Chrome. I have two front bumpers and two rear bumpers. One of my rear bumpers is fine, and both of my front bumpers need serious help. I took the better of the two in and am having them straighten it and rechrome it.

For the amount they are charging it had better look better than new.

Who knew that chroming something was so damn expensive?

I'll have pictures up in like 3 weeks when it's done.

[DaX]

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

Today I took one of my front bumpers in to Salt Lake Chrome. I have two front bumpers and two rear bumpers. One of my rear bumpers is fine, and both of my front bumpers need serious help. I took the better of the two in and am having them straighten it and rechrome it.

For the amount they are charging it had better look better than new.

Who knew that chroming something was so damn expensive?

I'll have pictures up in like 3 weeks when it's done.

My first car was a 1973 Porsche 914, with chrome front and rear bumpers. One of the last things I did for the restoration was take the bumpers [rust in spots, ding'd to hell, barely reflected light] to Southern Bumper Exchange - a rechroming outfit. The tally was $530 for both bumpers, but when I got them home two weeks later and pulled the paper off of them, it was SO worth it. Straight as an arrow and mirrors is the best way I can describe it. They far exceeded my expectations...even the terrible dents were undetectable.

Be sure to post up pictures...I hope you're as pleased with yours as I was with mine.

[Matt Timion]

I had a bit of a revelation the other day. I used to have the plan on rebuilding this engine. The fact is, however, the cheapest engine rebuild will be $2200. THe better engine rebuild (with a new crankshaft) will be $3500. That's just ridiculous.

What I'm going to do instead is order a new cam chain and head gasket and replace them myself. I will then wait for the engine to die. It could take years afterall. When this engine dies I will then decide if I want to convert it to electric, or maybe try to fit a 1.5L engine in there.

[SVOboy]

Get a 1.2 and pop it in there. Makes sense to me. You could prolly get a d15z1 in there though, but it'd be a waste of power.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Get a 1.2 and pop it in there. Makes sense to me. You could prolly get a d15z1 in there though, but it'd be a waste of power.

Do you mean the engine from the civic 1200? It's possible... I have a friend with a CVCC in Texas and he promised me the engine if i want it. I kind of wonder though if I'd be better off going electric at that point.

I could always try to put an engine from a geo metro in there at this point. The smaller the better IMO.