A brief history of Ray's Z600

We purchased the car new in Columbus, Ohio in early 1973 (Its a 72 model), and it was driven daily for about 5 years. A broken CV joint and the itch for a new car relegated the Honda to a corner of the garage, where it sat until the summer of 2003. Actually, it sat in several garages in several states; each time we moved it got pushed in the back of the moving van and got hauled to the new house.

This is a "before" picture, after a portion of the body work was started. All the paint was stripped off to identify what needed to be done to the body. The front "stiffener" has been removed on the left front in this picture - an NOS part was welded into place later.

A lot of hours later - filling, sanding, priming, block sanding - the final coats of expoxy primer were applied. I removed everything except the windshield prior to painting. The original paint in the interior and inside the engine compartment was fine, so it was not redone.

White primer is what Honda used under the yellow cars.

Three color coats and three clear coats later, ready for wet sanding and buffing.

The side marker lights were removed for several reasons:
- they rusted the front fenders
- I never liked the way they looked
- Somebody lost one, giving me an excuse to leave them off

The finished product - 33,000 mile, original car. In addition to new paint, replaced the following parts with NOS Honda parts
- rear shocks
- left front fender
- left front "stiffener" under the fender
- rear bumper

Also replaced the tires. The spare is an original, probably good for show only. but fairly unique.

Two cars from the same era, but different ends of the automotive spectrum. My Trans Am has a few more cubic inches and horsepower, is more nasty than cute.

The little yellow Honda at the Oakland Parks Fall Classic car show in October 2003. My Trans Am buddies were looking for my TA, but this car got more grins and a lot more curious looks and questions than the TA ever does.

For the really observant people, the white decal on the rear window is a UOP Shadow racing team sticker from the early 70's Can Am series, and the dash has some dash plaques from 1970's Scca Trans Am and Can Am races - nothing to with the Honda except I owned it at the time I was working at those races and they found a home in the Honda. I did see a Z600 "race" in an SCCA class for small displacement sports racers (can't remember the class, maybe D sports racing?). The modification was a spoiler on the hood, and the driver was just trying to do a few laps to keep his license current. Should have but didn't get a picture. He wasn't competitive, had to drive on the apron of the track to stay out of the way.