Don’t let the title of this article fool you, I love basic transportation. When done right, you can have car that is simple, rugged, and dependable for a very long time. While separated by thirty years, the subjects of today’s article show that kind of simplicity can be beautiful.
I would not count myself among the fans of Honda as a brand. However, even I have to admit that this Honda Accord DX hatchback is worth praising. To my mind, there is a huge difference between a CHEAP car, and an INEXPENSIVE one. A Kia Rio, for example, is cheap. It used cheap parts and slapdash engineering to make a product that was not made to last more than a few years. This Honda, and other cars in the same vein are merely inexpensive, yet built with quality in mind. They were made to be passed down to the next person that needed them.
I don’t know the history of this particular car, as I found it outside a local sporting goods store while walking back to where I had parked. The interior seems to be in pretty good shape, save for the arm rest being worn away. Gotta love that manual gearbox.
The fact is, I would trust this Accord to drive just about anywhere I might want to go. It’s incredibly basic, but honest.
The next Basic Blue car is this stunning 1954 Ford Mainline. I found it getting ready for a car show and had to stop by as the owner was setting up. As I took the following pictures, he told me the story of this car, and the role it played in his life as he grew up.
His father bought it new back in ’54, and while he couldn’t afford much, he wanted to get his wife something nice and this Mainline fit the bill. She worked as a Nurse in Hershey Pennsylvania and this intrepid little two door sedan made the trip without fail every time. In 1966, the owner’s father bought a Ford station wagon for her and the Mainline was sidelined for the next fifteen years, where it was given to the son in 1981. Since then, it has been well taken care of and garage kept, only brought out for car shows and the like.
The only thing that had been done to it in the intervening years was that the seat fabric was replaced with something that looked almost factory original. The man had saved all the original paperwork and even a couple of magazine ads from the time. He and I talked cars for the better part of an hour until the show was due to start.
Will someone save that Accord like this Mainline and preserve it for future generations? Perhaps. It’s nice to see a car that just is what it is. Not every old car is a top of the line, super high performance beast. Not every car from the 50’s is a pontoon fendered boat with two tons of chrome and fins that get caught on power lines. Sometimes classic cars are just basic transportation. Good honest cars for good honest people who don’t need all that pomp and circumstance. I hope Basic Blue cars of every color will still be plying their trade as the years roll on.
For what’s clearly a well used car, and not just something that sat in a garage waiting for an estate sale, that Accord has held up amazingly well.
I don’t know enough about paint options to know if that is the original coat or color, but in general the body looks way nicer than I’d expect. Most of these older Hondas have a reputation of rusting away to nothing, though the TX climate probably helped.
There was (as I suspected) no bright blue, just a couple of different light metallic blues depending on year and a dark one in 1985 only. Still looks good though. It would look great with some fresh, correct matte silver wheel paint.
http://importarchive.com/honda/accord/1982-1985/paint
Yeah, those look more like the shades I would have expected. BTW, that website is a fantastic resource, thank you for the new bookmark.
My best friend had an ’82 Accord which he bought new in California (before I met him) and moved it to Texas…he had it until an accident totalled it in 1989, when he ran into someone partially parked on the side but in the road stealing gravel from a construction site. His was the tan color, 5 speed, and according to one of our co-workers sounded like some ’80’s video game (did not recall which one) from the back seat (not sure what would make such a noise…the fuel pump?)…after the accident he returned the struts he had bought but never installed…but he had just done the timing belt on it.
He replaced it with an ’82 Celica coupe, which he found that had only 23,000 miles on it. I think the insurance settlement on the Accord pretty much covered the cost of it. He had that car a good long time, not sure when he got rid of it as he has moved on from Texas to Colorado, but that was in the late 90’s.
He’s the same guy who had a ’78 Toyota pickup (rather it was his wife’s)…when they moved to Colorado he had to stay in Texas awhile to get their house sold, they had totalled it out a few years ago in a hailstorm, but he bought it back from the insurance company…he used it in lieu of a rental car (his other cars were already up in Colorado) and I think he gave it away or left it on the side of the road before his flight up to Colorado…it ran fine, but he didn’t want to drive it up there..to him kind of a disposable car (this would have been around 1996 or 1997). He felt the truck didn’t owe him anything, anyone who wanted it could take it over (I should have gone for it if only to have a spare vehicle since I only have one car and tend to keep it awhile..good for parts runs).
I liked the Accord Hatchbacks…but I’m a confirmed hatchback fan…too bad they stopped selling new ones after 1989.
The Accord is cool, I like it. Make that Ford a 4 door with blackwalls and it would be a dead ringer to my Grandfathers car and later my Father’s 1st car. Same instrument panel color and everything! And I was only 4 years old! Thank you!
Bob
Pioneer_Fox:
Yes, I would agree. Here are two from my collection–both “bottom of the line” low-priced cars, but with that certain purity and authenticity. The ’58 Ford has the same 6 cyl. except with a paper air filter that is mounted sideways, rather than oil bath.
1) 1958 Ford Custom 300:
Great pictures!
I really like the engine compartment details of the ‘50s cars. Imagine an intrepid Ford salesman in ‘54… “Look here, folks, every Ford I 6 comes with the Ford Special OIL BATH Air Cleaner!” 😉
I shake my head in wonder at the lovely period graphics on that air cleaner. Imagine them bothering with such fancy underhood graphics nowadays!
Of course in those days you would be looking at those graphics regularly, while on todays cars it is just as likely to be a sea of plastic covers. Some cars have some styling elements on these.
2) 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne, (also a six) in “Cameo Coral”:
Nice ’54 Ford! Our first car in the US was a used ’54 baby blue Customline 4 door, with the new 239 Y block V8 and Fordomatic. It was already some 7 years old, but it served us reasonably well for two years, including a family vacation high into the Rockies. It did get vapor lock up on Trail Ridge Road, at about 11,000 feet. And it could be a bitch to start on really cold Iowa mornings. But that interior brings back some memories.
That Honda does not look to be sporting original paint.
Anyone know if the 1954 6 cylinder Mainline Ford had the new-for-Ford (in 1953) option of power steering that the V8 models did?
Or perhaps the “new” 6 cylinder engine was lighter than the V8 engine and did not require power steering as much as the V8 engine models did?
Standard Catalog of American Cars shows 1954 Ford options included power steering. Power windows were the only options restricted to the higher-level models.
My ’58 Ford six has the power steering–it really makes for light and easy steering and handling–a big contrast with the ’59 Chevy six w/ manual steering.
My petite, arthritis suffering Mother stopped driving for several years as she just couldn’t safely muscle my Dad’s various beloved 1949-54 Fords around town and in parallel parking spots.
Dad finally bought her a ten year old 1954 Ford Customline 4 door, with automatic, power steering, power seat and add on air conditioning. She loved it, “Old School” Dad hated it.
One of the few times I can see this usually stoic, “Depression Baby” lady sniffling was when Mom & Dad traded in “her” Ford on the family’s first station wagon.
I’m especially charmed by the Ford–the kind of car that might possibly be my retirement toy someday…
Can the CC Wisdom answer a question for me? Hemmings “For Sale” listings for Fords go 1932-53, then “1954-Up.” It always seemed to me that the 1955 was the **new** one, and would be the likely divider. Is Hemmings’ choice perhaps aligned with the Y-block’s debut for ’54?
In addition to the new ohv V8, 1954 ushered in some significant changes under the skin, like a whole new front suspension (with ball joints). I suspect the steering was new too. It’s fair to say that the 1955 is really a re-bodied ’54, as there were no new significant changes in the chassis and power train for ’55, except for more displacement in the V8s.
I suspect Hemmings does it because ’53 is the end of the flathead era, and ’54 the beginning of the ohv V8 era, but that is a bit arbitrary.
Well, Paul, this makes lots of sense—but just didn’t occur to me. There I go being more taken by external changes (54-to-55) than running gear changes (53-54).
Here’s a bit of ’54 advertising for you and the others:
And the ball joint thing:
My maternal grandfather showed up at our house in a 1954 Ford not too unlike the car above; it had the I6 and three speed with O/D combo. Grandpa spent a lot of time on the road and typically favored bigger cars, I remember a couple of Roadmasters and an early fifties Packard in his stable. Apparently the Ford was all he could find in his price range when it came time to replace his previous vehicle. We could tell that Grandpa wasn’t all that happy with the Ford and the next time we saw him he was piloting a late fifties Chrysler.
Sorry if I am somewhat hijacking the thread, but the photo of the ’54 Ford with whitewall tires made me think of one question I’d like to find the answer to…
On this car, I don’t see the balance weights on the rims of the wheels. That’s what I often see on classic cars in US.
The question is, how do you balance wheels on classic cars so that there are no modern balance weights on them ? Do you use “stick-on” weights that are typically used with alloy wheels, or some other trick ?
The thing is, I’m in the process of making a new set of wheels for my Volga, and would like to address some of the problems with the previous one – including the presence of the externally visible balance weights which really spoil the look. Some people out here just don’t balance the wheels to avoid this problem, just as they did in the old good times… but that leads to the car being almost undrivable at any speeds exceeding 80 km/h because of the vibrations. Which I don’t want, obviously.
They put the wheel weights on the inside edge of the wheel, if its steel.
You didn’t really need power steering on ’54 Chevy or Ford sixes. After ’57 both got a lot bigger and heavier, and the power was needed.
Before I started school in the mid-1950’s, my mother worked for an interior decorating company in a small New Brunswick (Canada) town, and I would go with her to work most days. The woman who ran it was independently wealthy, and her husband also ran the local dairy farm on the same property, both of them I think as hobbies as much as anything else. So there was lots for a pre-school kid to explore on a daily basis, from fabric swatches to hay lofts to milking time in the barn.
There were several cars in the basement garage, including a black 1954 Cadillac, but the one I was most familiar with was a c.1954 Ford wagon that was used for home visits (emergency decorating calls?). I have strong memories of trips to neighbouring villages in the Ford, with its jet intake inspired grille and especially the dashboard with its magically transparent speedometer casing. That may have been the beginning of my lifetime affection for Fords.
Use the balancing beads, Google “counteract balance beads” & you will have your tires balanced without any visible weights. I have them in my VW wide 5 rims & my motorcycle & am very happy with the results….
Nice old Ford, we didnt get the two door only the Fordor and only in V8, the Mainline badge was reserved for the ute model the sedan was the Customline, if you wanted a Ford six you bought a British Zephyr no such thing was available from the US range.
Very clean Ford! One of the “Swimming Lessons” cars (our neighbors would car pool us to swimming lessons in town each summer) I got to sample was very much like this, including the curious gauges with the daytime back lighting. Not nearly this clean, as gravel road dust never sleeps. But Mrs. Pudenz, the driver, was a jolly soul. Dad’s Ford truck had this drivetrain. Not spectacular by any means, but always started and ran and got the job done. i can still hear it.
The Mainline’s color is Glacier Blue — the same as my ’53 Ford F100 pickup. The 1970s-era repaint wasn’t very faithful to the original, but it has held up well.
The upholstery in the Accord looks amazingly good, if it’s original. I recently saw an ‘82 Civic curbside and it hadn’t aged nearly as well. When I tried to buy a new Accord in 1982, it was impossible to get one without a $200 upholstery protection package. I figured it was a spray job with a $5 can of Scotchgard, but who knows, if this one got the package it seems to have worked.
#IMO: Civics always seemed to lack the better quality seat materials that the Accords always had.
I always liked the idea of the DX trim in Hondas. It appeals to the stripper-lover in me. I don’t recall them being common, the midrange LX seemed to be the high volume model.
We may have featured the two nicest 54 Mainlines in the US, this and the one i found a few years ago. (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1954-ford-mainline-an-alternate-take-on-life/).
It is hard to imagine that 12 years of regular use in Pennsylvania would not have resulted in some significant body rust requiring metal work and a repaint.
Nicely preserved examples of both cars!
I think the so-called ‘basic’ car is not a thing any more. It’s a combination of government regulations and the ‘democratization’ of luxury (discussed here in another article).
Everything is relative. Modern suspension geometry and steering ratios mean that you can’t have manual steering any more – there are exceptions that prove the rule such as Lotus Elise, Alfa 4C and some others.
I’m sure there would be some vehicles still available with manual windows, but electric is now lighter and it is probably cheaper to just have all electric rather than a small number of manual mechanisms.
When you have ABS brakes and thus wheel speed sensors, adding many of the other functions is just a matter of software.
Anyone else think the Accord’s blue is from the Iroc-Z?