1994 Honda Legend Coupe - Gone! 20/4

Yeah as above, that’s rubbish... but at least they left details.

I’d go and speak to Bodyshop, if you are happy get a quote and then speak to Tesco insurance company direct, tell them you have a quote and know where it is going to be fixed (they will try to fob you off, and tell you you’ve got to take it to their approved repairer... but you don’t)

If you aren’t happy with the Bodyshop you can go to another... it’s a bit more time and effort for you, but you’ll have more confidence that it’s being done right. And if they say that they won’t be able to get bits etc, you are still in control

Good luck

Sorry to see the damage, such a cool car.

Can I ask who did the powder coating for you. I work in Birmingham and a recommendation is always good.

Well warm up the swear filter.. because not 3 curse word days have passed and some other curse word dimwitted curse word has managed to drive into the Legend











And this time, no note left. The only thing I have to go on is that earlier in the day, I did see a bus struggling to get round the corner with traffic coming the other way but this often happens and up till now I'd not had any damage so didn't think anything of it. I've taken photos and will email the bus company anyway on the offchance that they own up to it. Otherwise its yet more bodywork to add to the list

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket and hope for a serious swing in my luck...

Thanks for the advice, luckily it seems as though the Tesco van damage is getting fixed, they haven't really quibbled anything, so fingers crossed that will be straightforward..

The second lot of damage has needed a bit more investigative work on my part. My initial suspicion was that a bus had caught it as it's a fairly tight bend in my road and I saw one getting close.

Contacted the bus company (who were actually pretty helpful) and they've confirmed it wasn't a bus that hit, but a white car (hence the white marks on my rear arch) unfortunately the driver couldn't remember the make or reg but they're downloading the CCTV to see if it shows the car.

I need to get the police involved though because data protection etc. The bus company can't give me the CCTV directly. So that's my next job. If I can at least get a make/model of car, I could take a walk round the neighborhood and see if I can spot anything with a bit of Bourdeaux Red on its nearside...

At the moment it's just the faff of getting it all sorted thats the most annoying thing. (Also the fact that the white car has damaged the rubbing strips on the side of mine which will almost certainly be discontinued by Honda). I think if I do track the driver of the white car down, and they want to go through insurance, that will be more difficult to deal with than the Tesco people.


Anyway. Aside from all this curse word, I do have a little semi-related update, but it can wait till a bit later

Bit of an update, car has now gone off for repair of the Tesco van damage so we'll see how that turns out. I've been given a VW Sharan as a hire car which isn't quite what I was expecting but was handy for buying a new sofa from IKEA...

I wasn't quite so lucky with the other damage. Called 101 to get advice from the police/report the incident, they suggested I go to my local station, went there and they basically weren't interested, suggested I go to my insurance company... If I were to do that, it would likely cost me something in the long run, even if the other car couldn't be identified from the CCTV, so I'll have to suck that one up. Really does annoy me that someone could drive into a parked car and just drive off though, if I had caught them in the act, there would have been some choice words!

Anyway, other semi-related news. I've sold the Advans as I was never really fully set on them and it was more about the mini-project to bring them back to a good condition. I have however been looking around and came across these







Very rare RAYS Mazdaspeed MS-01 2 piece Split rims. They're in worse condition than the Advans were and are sadly missing the centre caps, but I got them for a good price and they should come up nicely. Again these will be a mini-project, so I could in theory run them on the Legend when they're done, or I'll sell them on as I've still got the RAYS CV Pro's (which also need a little work)

Should get the car back in a week, so will have an update then

Glad things are moving forward a little for you.

I know its not easy but i would try to go back to the police and put a bit of pressure on them. You have done all the hard work by contacting the bus company and they have been helpful and said they have some cctv footage showing a van. If the police can't even be bothered when evidence is presented on a plate to them then it needs complaining about.

Also, if they told you to go through your insurance then likely you will have the same issue. I have heard insurance companies also struggle with data protection. They share info from insurance company to another insurance company when there is a case between them, but they do not have the power to get evidence from third party people to raise a case against someone and their vehicle in the first place. Again they would require the police to obtain it for them. This is partly their fault for the industry acting fraudulently in some instances so nobody trusts them anymore.

I would go back to the police and ask them to pursue the footage the bus company says they have, not necessarily from a prosecuting point of view, but you need to know if any information can be gained in order to raise a case with your insurers or not.

All this cctv these days and the argument of whether its morally correct or not, yet when Joe Public needs it for something useful, it cant be used.

Good luck!

79cord toast00 jamesd1972 I agree with all of you. To be honest, when I came out of the police station, I did feel a bit like I'd been fobbed off and should have stood my ground more, and I know if I don't go back and chase it up, when I do go to get the second lot of damage repaired, it will make the cost all the more hard to swallow.

While the first lot of damage is getting sorted now (and the Sharan which smelled like an ashtray has now just been replaced with a rather nice Skoda Superb) it has been a lot of effort and chasing up just to get to this point! And that was with someone who actually stopped, left details and admitted fault! Think I've had to talk to 4 or so different companies to get the damage repaired, booked in, hire car sorted, its a right faff.

I've got a couple days off later this week, so I may make another trip to the Police Station and see if I can talk to someone more helpful. As you all rightly say, it shouldn't take them much to ask the Bus company for the CCTV (I pretty much did that bit for them already), watch it and ascertain if the reg plate of the car that did it can be read.

So yeah, thank you all for giving me the nudge to keep on challenging it

Good luck at the nick but for a damage only RTC you won't get much of a response. If lucky you'll get a neighbourhood PCSO or bobby to look into it with the other 50 local jobs already on their plate so you won't be top of the pile.

Keep calm and remind them that under the Road Traffic act anyone involved in an accident (and this meets the definition) is required to exchange details with the other person. Explain the Bus company have video/CCTV so can provide evidence of the vehicle involved. Report it (and take you insurance mot and D/L if you haven't shown them already) and ask for an incident number.

Good luck......

Time for a New Years update on the Legend, not a whole lot has changed.. I put plenty of miles on it over the festive period seeing family and it just continued to prove what an ideal mile muncher of a car it is.

Rather typically I haven't tackled the boot leak yet as it is a bit of a faff to get the rear screen trim off and on. I have made some progress on the Rays CV splits

Here you can see one of the 9.5" wheels split into its components



Knock the centre out of the 7.5" wheels



And you end up with a pair of 7.5s with grey centres loosely fitted to go in storage, and a pair of 9.5s with gold centres waiting for me to put all the bolts in, torque them and seal them up





With the tyre off, you can clearly see the crack on the barrel of one of the 7.5" wheels



Now, if I can go off on a bit of a JDM wheel nerd tangent for a second. The wheels above are Rays Volk Racing CV Pro 3 Piece Splits, but there were other variants of these wheels made as well.





One of which is the Volk Racing C Europe, which is essentially a 1 piece version of the same wheel. I came across a pair for sale for a very reasonable price locally so naturally I ended up buying them







They're a 4/5x114.3 multi PCD wheel which always looks a bit dodgy but is fairly common on Japanese aftermarket wheels of the period. I actually bought them to trial on my MGB to see how a 17x8 wheel would fit with the Sebring arches I plan to fit.

I recently found another pair of 17x9 C Europe, so now I've got a full staggered set They probably won't find their way onto the Legend, but gives another option.

I did get some parts for the Legend however, took a trip to a local scrapyard, where there was a CL7 shape Accord. Now, the Legend has proved to be pretty rubbish car for interchangeability with other Honda products, but I'd been doing some reading online and it seems that some of the Acura guys in the US have been running TSX(Accord) coilovers on their Legends using some TSX(Accord) parts.

The reason for doing this is that for one, the car isn't "quite" as low as I'd like on the lowering springs, and secondly, the coilovers available for Accords are much cheaper than for Legends.

The bit I needed from the Accord was the Front strut fork as the Legend strut seems to be a different diameter to all other Hondas







Undo the bottom nut and bolt which holds it to the lower arm, undo the pinch bolt to remove the strut and away they come.

I've not ordered any coilovers yet, currently focusing on MGB spend, and also deciding how cheap I'm going to go on the coilovers to get the lows but handy parts to have for when the time comes.