40 year wait... 1965 Honda s600 Roadster

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:26 pm

Thought I’d start a thread on my latest addition to my collection of cars... 1965 Honda s600 roadster. I've been a huge fan of these cars for the longest time but as we all know they were never imported to the states so finding one isn’t as easy as we think.

I had bought the car roughly little over two years ago. But hadn't picked it up until this past October. I didn't really know much about the car other than a few small details & some pictures the original owner sent me. I bought the car from the original owner grandson. His grandfather did a lot of business in Japan & while out there he fell in love with the s600 and bought one. From the docs that came with the car it seems the car was driven while he was in Japan. Then he had it shipped to the states. He drove the car around until 1969 when he decided to change the clutch. He got as far as pulling the motor motor/trans but never finished the job. The car was pushed into a corner of his garage for the next 40 years. Waiting for me to be born and bring new life to this amazing car.

The car is all original with 36,000 original miles. The best part of it all its all complete & in the same condition the grandfather left the car back in 1969. Also from what the grandson told me the car was used in a bunch or rally’s here in the states after it arrived. The interior tells all with all the plaques of the rally’s it competed in. It appears to also been a member of the Wisconsin corvette club. In a glove box there also was a Exxon mobile map from 1967 and a log book with a bunch of other original documents.

After many failed attempts due to faulty shippers. I took some time off to go pickup the car myself. My father & I made the trip cross country from northern California to Wisconsin. I’d have to say this trip was one of the best experiences ever. I had time to bond with my father & visit states I had never been to. It was a very stressful week but well worth the reward.

In the pictures the car is filthy as it had been sitting in a garage for few decades. The main damage to the car is on the right front headlight & some rust near the bottom of the fender. The driver side fender also has some damage from being moved around in the old man’s garage. Luckily when I opened the trunk I found a N.O.S. headlight still in the box. The top is still in really good condition except for a small tear in the window plastic. Im hoping I can have that repaired by my local upholstery shop. The interior is all there it just needs a good cleaning. Oh and the dash is CRACK FREE!

I have over 600 pictures that I took of the trip and when I got the car home. Also of all the documents that came with the car. Ill post them as I post them on my photobucket.

Enjoy…

I knocked out the 1st 200 miles & woke up when we were reaching RENO.

Salt lake City

Boring Nevada desert

Some random jail in the desert in Nevada. If you look closely you will see the guard on lookout.

One of my biggest fears came true. Damn truck over heated!! Good thing we brought 4 gal of Coolant just in case we ran into some problems.

After pulling over two times & re-filling the oxide color coolant with fresh coolant we were back on the road.

Wish gas was this cheap in the bay area

Entering Wyoming

Nebraska

Super long train. There must have been over 100 boxes attached to this thing.

Mississippi river

As I got closer to the guys property I couldn’t believe the time had finally come. The owner lived near a huge lake and had at least 10 acres of land. When we go to his property we I drove up this long dirt road. We came across this large industrial building that housed about 7-10 other cars. Not to mention all the other cars parked outside. I get out of the car and walk around looking for the owner. Around the corner of the building out comes the owner. He was exactly as I had imagined him. He was a super nice guy. He told us to drive around the other side of the building as the car was parked out front. As we came around the corner of the building I saw the lil S600 peeping out of the garage door.

Since the trailer didn’t have ramps we had to back the trailer into the building & slide it forward.

Finally it’s in the trailer.

The car sat in the garage for 40 years that’s on a road called “Sleepy dragon rd”. :lol:

We stopped by a local gas station to meet up with some guy I had sold some quarter panels to that lived nearby. I so excited to finally have the car in my possession I had to take some more pictures. As you can see proof the car sat for 40 years as the trans sit under the car and if you look closely you can see the last registered date on the plate is 69.

Waking up to snow in Cheyenne Wyoming. Now I had specifically planned to make this trip to WI before the weather started to get bad. Unfortunately the forecast said rain & snow after we passed Iowa. We decided to sleep through the night and woke up to this.

We didn’t bring any chains with us so were hoping the weather doesn’t get any worse.

Strange Rock formations

Abe Lincoln.. weather is starting to get bad again

Kind of scary as the downhill grade was getting pretty steep and the ground was getting icy.

After we got to the base of the mountain the weather cleared up.

Smooth sailing from here on out..

Feeling like a trucker hauling cross country

Salt factory in Utah

Leaving Utah

If you thinking that’s snow your wrong. Its huge mounds of salt!

Bonneville salt flats. Very amazing place. I’d love to go back.

Casino on the border of Utah & Nevada.

Finally we got back home. Car & its decade’s worth of filth!

From what I can see the old man bought a lot of optional parts for the car. You can also see all the plaques from the rally’s that he was in.

Door panels are in good condition just need to be cleaned up.

Some original docs. The guy told me he though all the documents were lost in a fire but my luck they were stored safely in the glove compartment. I will post more pictures. I also have records of what I think are service records of when the car was serviced at the dealer in Japan.

For now I think that’s enough pictures. Im sorry if I bored everyone. My plans are to do a complete frame off restoration. I own a shop where we specialize in restorations. Do check back as I will post more pictures of the car and of the build itself.

Thanks
Hako

pholife · **Posted:** Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:56 pm

wow! thank you for sharing! greatly enjoyed. subscribed.

Adam

vwdmc16 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:10 pm

thats a great story ,thatnks for charing. incredible car! all those plaques! how many KM on it? you kno why it was parked, the transmmission died maybe?

ben · **Posted:** Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:27 pm

That's an awesome story. I love road trips. Congrats on the find and I love all the old stickers. I hope you keep them around. And I'm sure you know about Brian Baker and Formula H already, but just in case... http://formulah.com/

He's a super nice guy and should be able to help you find rare parts.

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:10 pm

vwdmc16 wrote:

thats a great story ,thatnks for charing. incredible car! all those plaques! how many KM on it? you kno why it was parked, the transmmission died maybe?

Thanks for comments!! The cars odometer actually reads miles. Exact miles on the clock 36,626. As for the reason why the car sat for that long. The old man was going to change the clutch. The exact reason why he didn’t finish I dont know. If you look at some of the interior shots you can see the old Clutch & the New never used clutch sitting on the seat.

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:26 pm

ben wrote:

That's an awesome story. I love road trips. Congrats on the find and I love all the old stickers. I hope you keep them around. And I'm sure you know about Brian Baker and Formula H already, but just in case... http://formulah.com/

He's a super nice guy and should be able to help you find rare parts.

Thanks Ben! I was a bit unsure if I should have added all the additional pictures & the story behind it but I figured I had nothing to lose. Im glad you guys enjoyed the story.

So anyone out there thats thinking twice about picking up a car thats out of state. Do hesitate & make the trip. You wont regret it. Oh and about Formula H. Im hoping to take my motor to Brian to have it rebuilt.

Ill post more pictures later

pancho y onions · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:32 am

Wow that is great! What town was the car kept at?

Toyotamike · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:53 am

I second keeping the stickers. Thats just too much awesome history to just scrape off. Clean them up and clear coat them is what I'd do

They certainly don't take away from the value

bob78cvcc · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:27 am

What a great find. Nice story and pics. I look forward to watching this restoration.

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 5:26 pm

pancho y onions wrote:

Wow that is great! What town was the car kept at?

The car was in westbend near some lake. Very nice area with lots of tree's. :tu:

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 5:30 pm

Here are some more pics of the docs that came with the car. They have this odor that you can tell they are old! haha

All bundled up

Road America..

Factory spec sheets

ben · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:11 pm

Vintage Road America sticker =

Oracles · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:26 am

I just love all the pictures and story behind them. As for the car.. I would kill to have one.

One day.... One dayy

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:52 pm

Few more pics - Anyone read Japanese? Can someone tell me what some of the docs say?

oleyline · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:08 pm

Very neat stuff!
Alot of the Japanese just repeats what it says in English.
The writing in the white stripe of the tan book says "Honda S600 Service Book".
The white lettering on the cover of the red book says "Ten Auto Radio".
That's about as much as I can translate (sorry).

Ken

P.S. My 1960 Sprite came with similar stickers and plaques on the dashboard. I left them exactly as I found them. They are always good conversation starters at the car shows.

civic-79 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:30 pm

beautiful trip and the car is very impressive for the age :tu:

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:26 am

Absolutely amazing!
Awesome story!

xs10shl · **Posted:** Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:33 pm

Great find! There are a number of us (four?) who have running s600-800s in these parts, so you're in good company!

Remember this name: Norm Hart. He's a local who probably knows as much about these cars as anyone who worked at the factory. He's helping me finish my s800 restoration. Chances are you'll be calling him in short order to get parts and information about how to get your car running properly. PM me and I can put you in touch with him, and others.

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:11 pm

xs10shl wrote:

Great find! There are a number of us (four?) who have running s600-800s in these parts, so you're in good company!

Remember this name: Norm Hart. He's a local who probably knows as much about these cars as anyone who worked at the factory. He's helping me finish my s800 restoration. Chances are you'll be calling him in short order to get parts and information about how to get your car running properly. PM me and I can put you in touch with him, and others.

Wow you also have an S800?!?!? I have to admit your my idol. You own all of my dream cars. So what point of the restoration are you in with your S800?

Norm Hart!! Yes.. I spoke with him a few times via email as I was looking for some replacement metal. Who would you recommend to have my engine rebuilt? I know everyone says Brian of Formula H. However I was hoping there might be someone on the west coast.

If you have pics of your S800... Please do post.

xs10shl · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:20 am

It's roadworthy again, as of 2 weeks ago. It took over a year to get it to this point. All that's left to do is the upholstery and mounting of the soft top. I have lots of pictures but nothing here at home.

We should get the S crew together for lunch and discuss your engine rebuild options. You can PM me offline with your contact information if you are interested.

40 year wait... 1965 Honda s600 Roadster

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