Miasma
10+ Year Contributor
- 397
- 4
- Aug 22, 2012
-
Calgary,
AB_Canada
Well I think it's finally time I began to divulge some information about my build. Some members have been asking me to start a build journal here to show you what I'm up to, so here it goes.
I still have a long way to go before I consider myself even close to done, but this should you all a good start.
I first got my car in April 2012 from a guy who had only owned it a short time. He bought the car from the person who imported it into Canada from the US. The car had history of being in an accident, which caused a lot of damage cosmetically to the car. The eclipse is a gs model so had a n/a 420a which ran quite well, so I was happy enough. At the time of buying this car, I had minimal knowledge of dsms since I previously was into mopar while driving my srt 4. Because of the accident, the cars rear quarter panel was filled with body filler and was full of cracks that needed to be repaired, the hood was smashed up, and the side skirts were full of wholes.
I looked at the car, and figured it would be a great project car and it has been ever since. I had experience in auto body since I have restored other cars in the past, so I looked at this car as a challenge. Luckily it ran good, so I was able to drive it around for awhile until I was ready to start the rebuild. Best of all the car had limited rust.
Initially I bought a cheap turbo kit for the car and slapped it on and called it good. Which worked for quite awhile with out problems. Then after a few months of doing work I started running into lots of small problems with the engine, and at this point I had increased my knowledge of dsms 10 fold and figured to do something very very different with this car.
I am building my eclipse to be the first 2.4 long rod evo 8 combination that I know of. I am using a 4g64 block that came from a 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander, and a evo 8 cylinder head, and tranny t-case. My axels will be custom made to fit the tranny spline count and eclipse hubs. I will converting my car into awd, the same as any other gst owner who has performed this swap. The difference being that I may use a evo 8 rear differential as well.
I'll end all the typing now since I could go on and on, but now lets start showing you some pictures of how this project began from the beginning.
Enjoy, and feel free to bombard me with questions.
Here's a look at the car shortly after I got it...
Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the process installing my turbo kit, but this is how it sat after the install...
Then did some details to make it look a little better
After putting on the turbo, I started working on the body a little. This was the beginning to a very long process. All along the sides of the car were multiple holes that need to repaired. I also had some blitz side skirts laying around that were to go with the rear bumper, so after cutting them to the right size I started molding them into the car.
I bolted the skirts to the car on the inside of the front and rear fender to hold them in place. I used fiberglass tape along the cap between the original side skirt and the new side skirt. Filled the gaps with body filler and then sanded it all smooth. I had false hopes that this wouldn't crack, but after not to long it surely did and I had to redo most of it, applying layers of fiberglass.
After all the fiberglass and sanding it was nice and smooth. Then gave it a quick primer with some high build.
Now that the sides were fixed it was back to fixing that smashed up hood I had. The largest dent was conveniently in front of the hump on our hoods. So I decided to cut this dent out and make a carbon fiber scoop to fill the whole. This took a lot of work, and in the end turned out OK...but in the end this will not be a permanent hood. I am currently waiting on my new full carbon fiber oem hood.
But here's a look at how it turned out.
I would like to say that although the body work in these pictures does not seem like a lot, for me it took quite a long time. By only being able to do it on weekends and having a family it was tough to find time. I learned from my mistakes but in the end was able to perfect my contour lines through out the car and am very happy with the outcome.
I still have a long way to go before I consider myself even close to done, but this should you all a good start.
I first got my car in April 2012 from a guy who had only owned it a short time. He bought the car from the person who imported it into Canada from the US. The car had history of being in an accident, which caused a lot of damage cosmetically to the car. The eclipse is a gs model so had a n/a 420a which ran quite well, so I was happy enough. At the time of buying this car, I had minimal knowledge of dsms since I previously was into mopar while driving my srt 4. Because of the accident, the cars rear quarter panel was filled with body filler and was full of cracks that needed to be repaired, the hood was smashed up, and the side skirts were full of wholes.
I looked at the car, and figured it would be a great project car and it has been ever since. I had experience in auto body since I have restored other cars in the past, so I looked at this car as a challenge. Luckily it ran good, so I was able to drive it around for awhile until I was ready to start the rebuild. Best of all the car had limited rust.
Initially I bought a cheap turbo kit for the car and slapped it on and called it good. Which worked for quite awhile with out problems. Then after a few months of doing work I started running into lots of small problems with the engine, and at this point I had increased my knowledge of dsms 10 fold and figured to do something very very different with this car.
I am building my eclipse to be the first 2.4 long rod evo 8 combination that I know of. I am using a 4g64 block that came from a 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander, and a evo 8 cylinder head, and tranny t-case. My axels will be custom made to fit the tranny spline count and eclipse hubs. I will converting my car into awd, the same as any other gst owner who has performed this swap. The difference being that I may use a evo 8 rear differential as well.
I'll end all the typing now since I could go on and on, but now lets start showing you some pictures of how this project began from the beginning.
Enjoy, and feel free to bombard me with questions.
Here's a look at the car shortly after I got it...
Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the process installing my turbo kit, but this is how it sat after the install...
Then did some details to make it look a little better
After putting on the turbo, I started working on the body a little. This was the beginning to a very long process. All along the sides of the car were multiple holes that need to repaired. I also had some blitz side skirts laying around that were to go with the rear bumper, so after cutting them to the right size I started molding them into the car.
I bolted the skirts to the car on the inside of the front and rear fender to hold them in place. I used fiberglass tape along the cap between the original side skirt and the new side skirt. Filled the gaps with body filler and then sanded it all smooth. I had false hopes that this wouldn't crack, but after not to long it surely did and I had to redo most of it, applying layers of fiberglass.
After all the fiberglass and sanding it was nice and smooth. Then gave it a quick primer with some high build.
Now that the sides were fixed it was back to fixing that smashed up hood I had. The largest dent was conveniently in front of the hump on our hoods. So I decided to cut this dent out and make a carbon fiber scoop to fill the whole. This took a lot of work, and in the end turned out OK...but in the end this will not be a permanent hood. I am currently waiting on my new full carbon fiber oem hood.
But here's a look at how it turned out.
I would like to say that although the body work in these pictures does not seem like a lot, for me it took quite a long time. By only being able to do it on weekends and having a family it was tough to find time. I learned from my mistakes but in the end was able to perfect my contour lines through out the car and am very happy with the outcome.