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97 GSX "Restoration"

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Did you have a few buddies come over to help lift the car? Ballsy, think I would have fabbed up something with an old squat lift setup or something and welded a few support braces, but wood worKS too LOL

Just one friend came by. It really isn't that heavy.

I trust bolts more than my welds, ha-ha. I've probably got less than 70 bux in materials for the jig. The hardest part was getting the math right to have it turn straight up and clear the body.

Thanks for the comments guys and keep them coming!
 
I only had a short week to work on the car but I really wanted to get her down off the jig. I measured in various places across the windshield, hatch and door and saw no movement but it still has to put some stress on the frame sitting at 90 degrees.

I got home after a long day at work around 2am. Both the dogs and wife were asleep. It was storming so of course the TV was dead. I needed a beer and something to do to unwind a little. Seam sealer and beer it was.

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The next day I had some time waiting for etching primer to cure in the care metal areas so I went and fooled around in the engine bay some on spots that are easier to reach with the car at 90 degrees. After ripping about 5 pieces of sand paper on the radiator brackets I started thinking... I'm not going to use these stupid things and they are pretty dang ugly... So away they went. I'm glad I did because there was a fair amount of surface rust hiding behind them.

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I also got tired of straightening out this stupid thing on the drivers front corner of the radiator support/frame rail. So it died too. I don't even recall what it was for.

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Now on to the fun(ish) parts. As I mentioned earlier I got the bare spots with etching primer and then did a light coat of high build to fill a few small scratches.

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Before I put up the pictures of the "finished product" I do have to say that UPOL Raptor Bed Liner is probably the best product I have ever used in the simple lines of working like it says it should. I got the kit off amazon for around $130.00. I was skeptical at first because nothing ever is as simple as "fill, shake, and spray". But with this product that is exactly what you do. Fill the bottle up to the mark with activator, shake, and load the bottle on the provided spray gun and spray. It sprays nice at around 50 PSI, (you will need a decent compressor) very little mess, great coverage, and dries in about 15 minutes. One side note... don't get it on you. I bumped my arm on my test piece while straightening the air hose tornado out and I literally had to shave that part of my arm to get the stuff off 2 days later.

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Back in the "normal" position
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More to come soon!
 
Well, Now that shes back level I can start after some of the small things that need to be straightened out before color. The main thing I have been after is the engine bay. I had alot of little blemishes that were driving me crazy so one day I just sat down on the stool and worked 95% of them out. It was tedious and I know that I am the only one that would notice, but I know it would drive me nuts so i just pounded through it. There was alot of glazing and grinder work.

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Next up was tedious and painful part #2. Sanding the interior. Nothing really to type about here except my fingers hurt after around 6 hours.

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And now here is my nemisis on this car. I welded up the fuel door and got it to 99% perfect but there is just one low spot I cant seem to work out. Im going to give it a couple more tries and then say screw it. I cant even feel it with my hand but the guide coat is showing about a half dollar sized depression (ever so slight) in this spot.

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Next came the big decision. Whether or not to rent a paint booth for a fairly large amount of money, or just say the heck with it and build one myself. I went with option B. Next you will see the redneck paint booth in a garage. haha. Ive got MAYBE $50.00's invested in this make-shift booth and had the fans just sitting around.

"Bird filters" I've got some higher quality filters on fresh air supply. These were more for mock up.
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The booth is pretty close to being finished minus a few small details. The 2 main things I need to do is add 2 more fresh air feeds and improve the airflow. I took a candle and carried it around to all the corners and high/low spots and took notes of where it lacked airflow. I am also going to redo my fan locations for the same reason. The airflow I was aware of before starting piecing this thing together. I know alot of guys bash using the box fans but I have 6 of them that are brand new (long story) so I'm going to give them a try. I am aware that I need to have at least 4 of them to change the air out 3 times per minute like is recommended. I would put all 6 on there but I think that would be too much of wind tunnel and a pain in the butt to spray with.

All that's left before color is getting the bumpers ready and prepping the little pieces like door handles and hinges. Thanks for following!
 
Are you accepting offers for the finished car? This may be the nicest DSM in existence when it is done. Subscribed. Keep up the good work.
 
Amazing progress on the car so far, can't wait to see what's next! Subscribed :D
 
Are you accepting offers for the finished car? This may be the nicest DSM in existence when it is done. Subscribed. Keep up the good work.
Nope. She's a keeper. That's half of why I'm going through the headache of doing all these little things. I want the car to be around 20 years from now.

Thanks for the compliments guys! The hard part is going to be finally pulling the trigger and spraying color. Haha
 
This has really inspired my project. I love the way you made a rotisserie to get the underside of the car. That was pretty genius.
 
Got the paint booth all sorted out finally. I had to do some trial and error based testing to get the fans in the right spot. I was having issues with "dead air" in places. I also got the water separator built.

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Home made... cost about $80.00 as apposed to several hundred bux.

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Also... This zipper thing I bought at Lowes is probably the best money I have spent on something in a long while. Using clamps and tape was such a pain in the butt. The zipper takes 2 minutes to install and works like a champ.

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Gave the booth a test run while painting the door handles and some hinges. The Booth worked great, the quart of etching primer I bought from NAPA did not. It refused to dry and didnt stick worth a #$%. The remainder the quart went in the trash, the parts went back in the blasting cabinet and my butt went to the real paint supply store where I should have gone to start with. Luckily it was just hinges and not the actual body. On a good note the door handles came out really nice seeing they did not require etching primer.

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Now getting down to the short road. I finally was able to get back to working on the car itself rather than the logistical side of things. The body is getting its final wet sand and finish work done. I have a few small spots that I'm going to touch up. Mainly where I burned a few edges wet sanding and some spots where glass is going to be installed that I am not 100% happy with. (residual glue specks I missed)

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Oh yea... and its 112,125,269th bath as well. I'm still finding sand from the sandblaster in places.

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More to come soon! Thanks for following!
 
Sweet dear god.

OP, it would probably save people a ton of questions if you would mention the products/brands you are using for everything. I.E. (media for blasting, etching primer, 2k primer, base, clear, etc etc.)

But great thread, someday I will have a garage to do this in!
 
Sure thing and good idea.

-Etching primer for bare metal on the exterior of the car and engine bay: Transtar 6184
-Etching primer on the Under body and interior (Bare metal) FP301
-90% High Build 2K Primer (First 2 coats of everything minus the interior): Transtar 6164
-10% High Build 2K Primer (touch up work and interior coverage) Finish1 FP301
-Klean Prep-All wax and grease remover
-Undercoating: UPOL Raptor Liner kit. Comes with 4 bottles, The catalyst, and the spray gun
-Glazing Putty: Transtar 4218
-Abrasive material for sand blasting: Black Walnut shell by ALC (Northern tool)
-Stripper: common stripper at Lowes and some commercial grade (cant buy it without a license stuff) Aircraft stripper
-Seam Sealer: Napa Seam Sealer #4323 (I don't recommend. it works great but is a pain to deal with)
 
Nice work! You are giving me plenty of ideas for my future project on how I want to tackle it, hopefully your next primer/paint option works better than Napa's.
 
Yea, luckily it was just some small parts. Easy enough to fix. Lesson learned. Its worth the extra 10% in cost to get product worth a darn.
 
Are those fans pushing air in, or pulling air out? Either way, I would suggest putting air filters on them. The last thing you want to do is contaminate a) your workspace, or b) your driveway, other cars, and the electric motors in the fans.

Otherwise, I love this thread!
 
Fans pulling out and I am. It's just the jig I built to block off the garage door is a pain to use so I leave it off when I'm just doing little primer stuff and wet the driveway down before spraying.

Are those fans pushing air in, or pulling air out? Either way, I would suggest putting air filters on them. The last thing you want to do is contaminate a) your workspace, or b) your driveway, other cars, and the electric motors in the fans.

Otherwise, I love this thread!
 
I was always curious as to what the shell weighed but never had the motivation to load it on a trailer and goto a weigh station and then unload and do it again empty and subtract.
For those that haven't followed the entire build thread the car is down to the shell. (Completely) the only factory metal I have removed is the front radiator lower mounts and the spare tire well.

It weighs in at 523 pounds. (Scale weight minus the 38lb 4x4 I have bolted on to make moving it around easier)

It was weighed at 3 points (used an aircraft scale) switching the single point around from front to rear gave the exact same weight. I tested accuracy with a 20 pound dumbbell placed in several places around the car and the total was always correct (plus 20 lbs)

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