BEHIND THE GARAGE DOOR
Most of us will remember our first car and many of us will look back often with a sentimental, “Wish I’d never sold that.”
Usually, we bought our first car in our teens. It cost just a few hundred dollars, it was old, and normally it needed a lot of work. It was usually the car we cut our teeth on learning the mysteries of the motor car, but it was ours!
James Gibbons from Auckland’s North Shore is just like many of us but with a difference. He never sold his first car — and why would he once he learnt its background and saw its condition?
“It was about 2010, and I was looking for a car as my first car on Trade Me, and here was this 1979 Honda Accord hatchback in a dark maroon sort of colour. It was in Tauranga and I bought it off a little old lady who was the first owner from new. She had purchased the car straight off the lot from the local Honda dealer,” he said.
Fitted with a 1600cc engine with a fivespeed transmission, it meant cheap running for a teenager. “It was in awesome condition with just a couple of small tears in the seats, the usual stone chips, and a little paint fade, but, for a car with just over 51,000km on the clock, it was pretty mint,” James told us.
A sharp deal was done, and then, with $700 changing hands and a fresh warrant of fitness and registration, James was cruising off to Auckland with his first car at just 17, at the start of a very uneventful ownership.
He had been keen to get something like what his friends drove, but he admits that he didn’t know the first thing about this car except that it immediately attracted his attention for its looks.
“I was pretty lucky, eh? I thought it looked pretty cool. I then clocked up about 30,000km in the first two or three years and all it cost me was two new front tyres. It was an amazing little car, and it never gave up. It still runs beautifully and starts first thing,” he said. Apart from being a one-owner and New Zealand–new car, James’ Honda Accord was also assembled in New Zealand.
“It was assembled in Thames. I’ve still got the window sticker and it’s intact. I’ve managed to save the sticker and get it re-glued and the lettering saved and it will go back on the car.”
However, gradually, work and other commitments meant that the Honda didn’t get used as much, with his business daily-driver a Toyota Hiace van.
In a somewhat different choice for a restoration project, James made the decision to strip the Accord completely three years ago and restore it, as it was still in rust-free condition and the interior was not too bad. He agreed that the past few years had been a challenge for someone
with limited mechanical knowledge: “Now, I can’t say I’m a Honda fan, but I thought [that] I would give it a go, so it really was the start of a big learning curve pulling this car apart.”
Colour choice was never going to be difficult and, with the addition of a tub of green glitter, the end result promises to be something special. “I’d always had a soft spot for British racing green, so a mate of mine, Benny Hall, painted it at his father Ross’ signage premises Big Ideas at Wairau Park. He’s an independent contractor and an absolute wizard. He won’t let anything out the door unless it’s right. I think it’s a pretty cool colour!”
Now with 83,000km on the clock and on its way back to completion, James is looking forward to driving it again. “I’ve managed to save the number-plate surrounds from the car dealer and will put those back on, too,” he says.
The big decision now is what to do with the interior — keep it as it is or upgrade the upholstery. “I think I’ll get a WOF first and drive it for a few months before I decide what to do with the interior.”
James is hopeful of having the Honda finished for this coming Christmas– New Year period — if it all works out, another ’ 70s Japanese classic will be back on the road.