Dimlight65's Honda N600

[dimlight65]

Way back in the nineteen aught seventies, my neighbor across the street came home with a cute little "Nose in search of a face" car.  Turns out, it was a 1972 Honda N600.  I remember riding in the backseat on occasion when Danny and I would tag along with Dan Sr. on some errand.  Fast forward to the nineteen aught eighties and Dan Sr. has the car disassembled for a rebuild.  Well, believe it or not, you young whipper snappers, there used to be a time when there was no interwebs where you could just get stuff from Japan to rebuild your 1972 Honda N600.  And so, the car sat in the garage.  I started pestering Dan Sr. to sell it to me.  For nigh on forty years I would ask him every few weeks if I could buy it.  When Dan Sr. passed away in 2018, I began pestering Danny about it.  (Ok, I'm not really THAT crass.  I would remind Danny that I was still interested in the car from time to time.)  Finally, in January of 2019 Danny said he would sell it to me!  I took out a loan against my Smart car, gave Danny the money, and we rolled the thing across the street into my garage.  Some months later, Datsunfreak came over to help me turn it around.  Now it languishes sits in my garage waiting for me to "finish" The Chickenhawk and Dajiban so we can get to work on it.

 

Here's how she sits at the moment

 

 

And how she was delivered

 

 

Yeah, I posted the images backwards.  Suck it up, buttercup.

[dimlight65]

Oh, and my delinquent older brother is the one who "liberated" all of those signs on the wall, not me.

[Draker]

Jokes on you.. we can only see one image. The second one. Or at least I can see just one.

 

Love the n600!!

[datsunfreak]

4 hours ago, Draker said:

Jokes on you..  I can see just one.

 

Same.  😁

[datsunfreak]

FWIW, here are a few photos I took on the day we turned it around...

 

[datsunfreak]

And note, last registration was in the fall of 1982...

 

 

[difrangia]

Two-cylinders, air-cooled. My kinda car !!

 

[datsunfreak]

1 hour ago, difrangia said:

Two-cylinders, air-cooled. My kinda car !!

 

 

Then you might not want to watch what happens next...  😁

[]2eDeYe]

 

 

???

[datsunfreak]

2 hours ago, ]2eDeYe said:

???

 

We are not 100% set in stone yet. There are three known "facts" at the moment...

 

1. There's a good chance of a water-cooled 4 from a later bike. Tim is currently pushing for a CX650/GL650 due to it's compact V-twin set-up. I am currently shitting on that idea due to it not having nearly enough power.  

 

2. There is a good chance we will make it into an EV using something like a motor/driveline from a Fiat 500e or a Smart Fortwo.

 

3. There is almost zero chance of the stock engine going back in. We looked into it, but it needs to be rebuilt, and that has the potential to be an extremely expensive affair. 

[datsunfreak]

And sorry to Tim for any spoilers...   😄

[Lockleaf]

Hahaha, bike is the same thing I was going to suggest.  That is awesome.  I rode a GX500 for a while.  I loved the bike, but they have a couple odd nit picky issues that could be avoided just by using another bike engine.  And that car is small enough, you could likely use an electric reverse gear, or a snowmobile reverse case to give it reverse.

 

It seems like the Fiat 500E is a much stronger motor than the ForTwo.  If the GX650 engine isn't enough for your whims, I don't think the ForTwo would be any better.  I'm interested to see where this goes.  And where you would stuff what batteries for an electric conversion.

[dimlight65]

3 hours ago, datsunfreak said:

And sorry to Tim for any spoilers...   😄

No worries.  I had a hard time not going into all the "We might do this, or we might do that" plans when I posted it.

[dimlight65]

2 hours ago, Lockleaf said:

It seems like the Fiat 500E is a much stronger motor than the ForTwo.

I could be wrong, but I think they use the same Bosch 85kw motor.  The Fiat might be running more batteries and thus more voltage than the Smart... I just don't know.

 

My daily driver is a Smart ForTwo, albeit gasoline.  It's quick enough to be fun, but not really all that fast.  I mean, I did piss off a 911 last night when I kept up with him until the 100 mph governor kicked in, but other than that...

[Racer X 69]

Hayabusa.

[datsunfreak]

On 6/4/2021 at 8:51 AM, Racer X 69 said:

Hayabusa.

 

Tempting, but we want to stick with a Honda engine if it's going to be bike-powered. 

Edited June 5, 2021 by datsunfreak

[datsunfreak]

And as we discussed today, the VFR800 engine looks attractive for the swap...

 

 

 

And has been done...

 

 

 

 

[dimlight65]

That donk is now a front runner.  In fact, yeah... I think that is how I'd like to go.

 

That car is... ok, I hate, hate, HATE that car.  That stupid fuel tank under the hood looks so fucking retarded that it does a "Matrix" on the whole project.

[datsunfreak]

33 minutes ago, dimlight65 said:

That donk is now a front runner.  In fact, yeah... I think that is how I'd like to go

 

While I like the CBR swap...  😄

 

 

[dimlight65]

 

I thought you were pushing for the VFR!

 

(Also, I hope the "Dammit Bobby!" image showed up.  If not, imagine Hank Hill...)

[Duncan]

I always liked those little cars.  Should be fun with a swapped motor in it..

 

 

 

 

[dimlight65]

20 hours ago, Duncan said:

I always liked those little cars.  Should be fun with a swapped motor in it..

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure the thing would be fun with the 45hp stock motor... we just don't want to gamble several grand on it being "Meh, it's ok... I guess." 

 

"Funny" story, in 2019 (on the day of the "Raid on Area 51" to be exact) John and I flew to Los Angeles to meet up with Tim Mings (world renowned restorer of N600s) so I could test drive one of his cars to see if it would be adequate rebuilt stock... oh, we went to JCCS that weekend as well.  Well, to make a short story long, the meet up happened, but I didn't get to drive one of his cars.  That, and the above mentioned not wanting to gamble, sealed the fate of this car to an engine swap.

[DaBlist]

This build really needs to get started!

 

If I come get the Chichenhawk would that help?

[dimlight65]

5 hours ago, DaBlist said:

This build really needs to get started!

 

If I come get the Chichenhawk would that help?

Naw, because I wouldn't be able to get much work done from jail or the morgue (depending on which of us is a faster draw).😝🤣

[Duncan]

16 hours ago, dimlight65 said:

 

I'm sure the thing would be fun with the 45hp stock motor... we just don't want to gamble several grand on it being "Meh, it's ok... I guess." 

 

 

Friend of mine had one in high school that he bought new.  As I recall, it was very "meh" but it was around 1971, and the muscle car thing was at an all time high around that period.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Duncan