Blog Title: 95 GST rebuild/upgrade
So here's my project stofy so far...
I lost my last DSM just over a year ago and was mad at the world for the longest time (now I'm just still mad at the cops for it). I lost the passion for tuning and cars in general and ended up buying a damn honda just to have a car, hated driving it every day. Then I found a '95 GST on craig's list for only $1500 and the only issue I was told it had was it wouldn't start. So I bought it, couldn't pass it up, after all, I've always loved DSMs. I finally got it running after 3 weeks of trial and error with electrical parts, ripped out 50ft or so of useless wires from under the steering wheel alone.
I got to drive the car car for only 2 1/2 days (only 88 miles) and then the engine lost power and could barely struggle to 40mph. So another 2 months went by, replacing more parts, putting the car on craig's list to avoid the nightmare, and still getting nowhere. Then I finally found out someone did a 6-bolt swap and never told me. The whole time I've been doing the electrical stuff the wrong way. Now I've redone the wiring, and of course, still nothing. Did a compression test just to find out that every cylinder had very low compression. So I've given up on trying to make the car start just so I can enjoy driving a DSM again and put the car into full project mod. I'm in the process of removing the engine and transmission so I can fix the compression and upgrade the internals at the same time. Gonna keep upgrading and hopefully be ready to put it on the road (and track) by late spring/ early summer.
More to come...
I lost my last DSM just over a year ago and was mad at the world for the longest time (now I'm just still mad at the cops for it). I lost the passion for tuning and cars in general and ended up buying a damn honda just to have a car, hated driving it every day. Then I found a '95 GST on craig's list for only $1500 and the only issue I was told it had was it wouldn't start. So I bought it, couldn't pass it up, after all, I've always loved DSMs. I finally got it running after 3 weeks of trial and error with electrical parts, ripped out 50ft or so of useless wires from under the steering wheel alone.
I got to drive the car car for only 2 1/2 days (only 88 miles) and then the engine lost power and could barely struggle to 40mph. So another 2 months went by, replacing more parts, putting the car on craig's list to avoid the nightmare, and still getting nowhere. Then I finally found out someone did a 6-bolt swap and never told me. The whole time I've been doing the electrical stuff the wrong way. Now I've redone the wiring, and of course, still nothing. Did a compression test just to find out that every cylinder had very low compression. So I've given up on trying to make the car start just so I can enjoy driving a DSM again and put the car into full project mod. I'm in the process of removing the engine and transmission so I can fix the compression and upgrade the internals at the same time. Gonna keep upgrading and hopefully be ready to put it on the road (and track) by late spring/ early summer.
More to come...
Valve cover and paint
Posted 05-15-2011 at 07:55 PM by spyderdrifter
So after many weeks of off and on concidering going through the struggle of shaving one of my spare valve covers, I finally decided to do it and give it the rain effect paint job. I was a damn b@#*h at first when I started the grinding. Ended up getting a much coarser grit griding wheel and then breezed through the shaving. Then the sanding took a while to do, but in the process, I filed all the cast marks off too and came out with one very smooth valve cover.
The painting I started today, although I'm not going with the rain affect anymore. It worked out so well on my dust pan that I practiced on, but looked like crap on the valve cover. So, instead, it now has a black to blueish/silver fade paint job which I think turned out just as unique. It's not currently finished since I plan to wet sand it tomorrow, followed by 3-4 more coats of clear and wet sanding.
I jusy hope the paint stands up to the engine temps. I've never painted things with engine paint before so I don't know the outcome. Would hate to spemd all this time on the VC and have it turn out like crap after driving my car.
Here's a couple pics so far....
The painting I started today, although I'm not going with the rain affect anymore. It worked out so well on my dust pan that I practiced on, but looked like crap on the valve cover. So, instead, it now has a black to blueish/silver fade paint job which I think turned out just as unique. It's not currently finished since I plan to wet sand it tomorrow, followed by 3-4 more coats of clear and wet sanding.
I jusy hope the paint stands up to the engine temps. I've never painted things with engine paint before so I don't know the outcome. Would hate to spemd all this time on the VC and have it turn out like crap after driving my car.
Here's a couple pics so far....
Total Comments 2
Comments
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I would recommend high temp paint! It gets hot and you wouldn't want it cracking or something. Just a tip i'm sure you've considered. Looking forward to seeing the results!Posted 05-15-2011 at 11:18 PM by seanboyle55555
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I'm using high temp engine paint, thanks for the concern though
Update: due to the damn air temp here in CO where this year, winter seems to be staying, I forgot about the temp affecting the paint. So when I started wet sanding, the paint started to shift under the clear coat, effectivly destroying all the work I did. So a little while ago I started stripping all the paint back off so I can restart the project again....
Posted 05-16-2011 at 10:42 AM by spyderdrifter
