LaFonda, My 1985 Honda

ramrod88

So I'll start off by a laying down my history so far with LaFonda, I found her on craigslist non-running for $1200. I called the owner and talked him down to $1100. He said the car ran fine, but he couldnt get it to start at the moment. He had installed a new distributor, and plugs. It turned over so I paid him his cash and trailered it home. After a day of lurking on here, I decided to rebuild the carburetor. It started, but ran very rough. I dont have any pictures of the carb rebuild, but when I pulled it off the intake had about a 1/4" of gas sitting in it.

My next issue was addressing a decent amount of cracked vacuum lines. I replace the lines in the CVCC box while I had it apart. There was about 16 foot of vacuum lines in the box itself.

ramrod88

My next issue was addressing a coolant port that ran through the intake and carburetor. Honda engineered this port to prevent icing and improve fuel atomization by cooling the intake. After 29 years, the rubber plate between the intake and carburetor doesn't seal properly anymore and was allowing radiator fluid to leak into the intake and onto the ground. I fixed this issue by drilling and tapping the hole.

You can see the radiator fluid all over this rubber plate.


Tapping the hole.


Radiator fluid in the intake.


And finally the finished plug.

Today was the first day that I have the car running very well and was able to take it out for a drive, Which was a huge relief. I'll keep you guys updated as I have alot of work planned for this car!

JHMEE4

Let's see more photos! I wasn't too big a fan of the older wagons, but they're growing on me. Like those wheels!

ramrod88

Ill make sure to take a bunch of pictures tomorrow. I cranked the torsion bar setup on the front end today and got an 1-1/2" of lift. Gonna try to get a little more out of it, before I have it aligned. Anyone have any idea of a tire company that makes a decent all terrain in a 13" wheel? If possible I'd like to keep the enkei's on it, but finduing AT tires in a 13" may be difficult.

ramrod88

JHMEE4 wrote: »

Let's see more photos! I wasn't too big a fan of the older wagons, but they're growing on me. Like those wheels!

Same here, I was stoked that the car came with the oldschool enkei's. I originally looked at this car as a quick flip. but fixing it up this last week has made it impossible for me to sell it now. I my wagon lol

JHMEE4

Haha! I feel the same about my wagon. Sorta bought it for a beater over the winter, but now I gotta find a way to convince the wife to let us keep it.

You could try to do snow tires, but they wear fast especially if you don't even get snow. I usually check out discount tires and see what they have.

Rickstar22

I agree with the wheel choice... I have the same...

ramrod88

Rickstar22 wrote: »

I agree with the wheel choice... I have the same...

OMG TWINS! lol, thats a nice ass wagon you have there!

ramrod88

OK, Sorry for the late ass response. I had some wisdom teeth pulled and I've been doing nothing but sleeping. I've gotten a lot of work done to the wagon this week, before the pain in the mouth lol. I started on the engine earlier this week, ripped out a bunch of horrible wiring the previous owners had left in it. The engine compartment is pretty close to stock again. My only problem now is figuring out why the idle won't drop below 1500 and then I can go get it smogged.

Got the valve lashing all squared away.


I also started working on a little bit of a facelift


Tore the front end all apart.


Also took took the rear bumper off.


Sanded and taped off the bumpers. I sprayed semi gloss on the top half and a rubberized coating on the bottom half. So I'm not scratching the paint when I take it wheeling. haha






I was quite happy with the results!




Now all I have left for the exterior is to paint the trim and lay down some undercoating below the trim.



Plus a roof basket, front and rear winches, a dixie horn, a custom big foot gas pedal hahaha

ramrod88

So I'm slowly running out of things to check off the to do list. I took the wagon in to get smogged to day, but the HC was too high. So I need to figure out where all the extra fuel is coming from. I was curious if anyone could tell me what the air suction valve's job was in the smog system. Here's a picture of it. It has a torn vacuum diaphragm, which isn't allowing it to open or close.


I also received my Holy Grail guide in the mail today, I've been buried in it all afternoon. Thank God for this manual lol.


But without further rambling, here is how Lafonda sits at the moment. Still deciding on which roof rack I want.




Through the headaches, busted knuckles, and long nights of lurking through many forums, I'm really, really falling in love with this car lol. I don't see this one going anywhere for a long time :smug::encouragement: