The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support Rix Racing
Please Support STM Tuned

1999 Eclipse GSseX Road Race Build

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

4/12/15 Weekend - Suspension

Well at least one week I kept my promise; here is a weekend update. I finished installing the rear suspension bushings and got them back on the car. I left the shock out so I could freely measure for clearance for the new wheels and the metal work I'll have to do to the rear quarter panel. I've had lug nuts on order since January due in at the end of the month, so won't be getting to finish this project til later.

Once I cut the metal and reshape the quarter panel I'll have to clean it up. Looks pretty nasty in there next to the cleaned up arms :)

IMG_20150413_101948.jpg


I went ahead and drilled the holes into the reinforcement plates, but I'll have to do a bit more work to those as well to fit the nuts.

IMG_20150413_102012.jpg


Every once in a while I have this moral dilemma in my head: I got the DOM tubing for a 3000 pound car, but now I have a TIG welder, I could get chromoly spec tubing and save some weight now. Then I think... I'll redo my cage once I get to the 2500 lb mark, since that sets the tubing size even smaller then the 3000 lb, but.... redoing a cage doesn't sound like much fun... Anyways....

Not much to say, but it has been said now!
 
Hey Phil, since you have the rear suspension assembled without the shock, would you mind checking to see if the straight toe arm is going to hit the subframe upon compression? I've always wondered why the oem one has the dip in it and have been wary of straight replacements.
 
Last edited:
Note, the 3g upper control arm is mounted with 4 washers from STM's "camber kit" behind the mounting provision (which would add a just a tad bit more suspension travel)

The photos were all taken without moving anything.

Looks like just as it were about to touch the subframe rubber bushing, the upper control arm made contact with the body.

IMG_20150413_132840.jpg


IMG_20150413_132900.jpg


IMG_20150413_132911.jpg


IMG_20150413_132923.jpg
 
It won't be "done" the way I want it, but it's going back together at least now so I can drive it. New truck is on order, 2015 Ford f150. Will be here in June.

This. Racecar. Is. Happening.
 

8/30/15 Update - Time to Move again!

The weekend update! (a few months late..) The house which caused so many problems in working on car when purchased is causing the same problems with selling. It's been the primary source of distraction with inspections and meetings and such, for both the old house and the new. I'll share more with it later, but the short version is I am buying land to build a new garage and house closer to my fiance's job, somewhere more central to our life and better long term situation for the two of us and our future family.

One nice thing for the car though in all this, has been a bit more attention regardless the weather since it needs to be prepared to transfer to its new home.

Wheel Well modifications

I've been working on the wheel wells for a long time. I would venture to guess 3 weekends for the first one, and those three weekends were not consecutive mostly due to a lack of motivation in the hot triple degree weather.

There was a bit more work than I originally anticipated with the shaping and clearancing that would be required to fit the new wheels. The tires currently on the wheels is a 275 Nitto NT05 which is much smaller then the 315 tire I will be running. You can see how stretched it is on the 11.5 wheel (and how far the wheel sticks out of a stock dsm rear fender!)

IMG_20150509_094829.jpg


So I got clever (self praise, I am allowed). I got a faucet wrench that had a nice thick 90 degree angle and used it as a guide to measure for clearance for a square tire, and allow a little bulge and flex in the rubber. As noted in my previous post, the shock was removed so I could check for clearances at max compression, so with that I had my guide. The rest was a bunch of welding, grinding, and more grinding.

Kevin just showed a picture and then the following week another picture on his blog post when he did his, but I don't think anyone really understood how much work was involved with getting them to look as nice as his did. So hey Kevin, once again, I appreciate your hard work!

IMG_20150509_142850.jpg


IMG_20150509_113413.jpg


11805671_1002480426442760_2042271073_n.jpg


IMG_20150509_132947.jpg


IMG_20150509_124911.jpg



Tow Vehicle

I need a way to get the race car to the track, and I have a way to do that now! 2015 Ford F150 Lariat!

IMG_20150428_173732.jpg


Lug Nuts

It barely deserves its own topic header, but since it took literally months of waiting on back order from Japan, I finally got my lug nuts in.

IMG_20150509_093525.jpg


To keep the wheels protected while inserting them, I picked up this protective socket with a rubber cover; it was pretty cheap and I see no reason not to keep my wheels prettier longer!

IMG_20150509_095026.jpg


Upper Control Arm

Following this thread:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/ho...nt-a-arms-for-maximum-negative-camber.475596/

I was able to modify my stock upper control arms to be able to utilize the full negative camber available from the SPC ball joint. Coupled with the new poly bushings, it is ready to be installed on the car again. Hope to have the car on all 4s this week!

IMG_20150830_171537.jpg


 
Last edited:
On those ball joints the circular spring clips that hold the boots on might be insufficient. They look like the ones that come with the ball joints for the spc a-arms, and if they are they same they are near useless and slip off leaving your ball joint grease free to leave and contaminants to get in, leading to failure very quickly. A fix is to use small/thin zip ties. Sounds sketchy but it really works even in a racing environment.
 
Thanks for the reminder!

That does sound super sketchy John, but after refreshing my memory and reading up on what other people are doing, I guess that is the grass roots motor sports solution!

Next you'll be telling me about duck tape to cover fender gaps...
 

Back on the Ground

Not much of a weekend update, but it did take both me and a friend 2 days to finally get the car back on the ground.

Cross Thread - September 5, 2015


IMG_20150906_132942.jpg


The short version of the story and the only one worth sharing is I found/noticed that there was a standard suspension bolt on my passenger compression arm. The only way this happened was some careless jack ass with a impact gun lost the metric bolt while working on the car and found a standard bolt close enough and shoved it in the hole and went to town... I was sooooo pissed when I found it, more so than I should have been when I found it probably, pissed off enough to fix the threading and get a new bolt that day.

First off, no where in town had the M12 x 1.25 tap. We hit 6 different stores, big box and small, and while some has M12 x 1.50 or M12 1.75, NO ONE had the freaking 1.25. I thought it was pretty absurd, and funny enough, the place we end up finding it was Pep Boys.

IMG_20150908_131421.jpg


From Kawasaki.

Crazy.

Also for some reason, the cross threaded hole took an hour to tap correctly. I've tapped dozens of holes, but this takes the cake for the hardest hole to tap. (that's what she said) Even while using cutting lube, I had to use a makeshift sissy bar to turn the tap handle.

The whole process of finding the tap, actually tapping the hole, and getting the suspension all bolted back up took most of an entire day.

Base Wing Mount - September 6, 2015

Into Sunday, we started working on the base wing mounts. I still got another support bar to weld between the two mounts near the top and then to the strut tower.

IMG_20150908_132707.jpg


I haven't welded the backside of the bar there yet; I think I'll have to get creative with a mirror. It does put into perspective how much space I need to weld the roll cage in the car to fully weld around the tube. Also TIG welding DOM was more difficult than I first thought, there is so much more heat on the metal raised and not enough heat deeper down, so it took much longer then I am sure a pro would do, but I love with the TIG torch I can ensure full penetration with a fusion weld pass.

IMG_20150908_132619.jpg


I'll wait to weld the clevis until I have the wing uprights bolted in and to the wing, so if there is tiny bit of misalignment it could be partially accounted for there. The measurements I've done over and over though should have it pretty spot on.

Note to self: Need to clean the car sometime :p

 
Last edited:
Computer Future Megabyte USB Floppy Disk 1101101

So yea, I'm going to update my blog every weekend. Suuurrreeeee.... Not even sure why I tried. I find as life goes on finding time every weekend to work on the car just never seems to happen, whether I want it to or not. I received a message this morning on tuners that could have been perceived as the project was dying, so it may be time to update the blog and bring everyone up to speed.

While the past few months have not been car specific per-say, it was a technological tangent that needed to be done to get me back on the right track.

3D Printer - October 3, 2015


IMG_20151003_125519.jpg


I do love me some packages with car parts! Well.. technically not a part to install on my in this case, but that was it's destiny. I purchased a do it yourself 3D printer kit, which saved me 50-75% off the cost of a commercial/hobbyist production unit. It was a ton of fun assembling, even though that took about 36 hours before I was printing anything.

IMG_20151003_152420.jpg


I could very well start a blog about 3D printing, it could be a hobby in it's own right with modifying parts for better performance, tuning the computer firmware, and constant catastrophic failures. Just like a car!

IMG_20151003_181632.jpg


It did take a while to set it up, tweaking it, adjusting it, and perfecting its output, but eventually I got it to a stage where I was happy with the small prints I was doing on it.

First Print.jpg


So I modeled the uprights for the rear spoiler, the whole point of this tangent, and did several test prints.

model.jpg


upright.jpg


And actually, very recently, the money shots:

wing 1.jpg


wing 2.jpg


wing 3.jpg


wing 4.jpg


So please understand, I do not intend on running the car with these uprights, but the point was that it was very hard to design the uprights correctly the first time correctly. The position of the wing in the real world 3d space will likely need to be adjusted, how far forward and back, how high, and the AoA for a default setting (at the mount, not on the wing's adjustment). I've been through 6 revisions now and I'll probably make 1 or 2 more.

It does take 13 hours per print currently, only because I choose to run a higher print quality, even for a
prototype. That said, 13 hour turn around time for a part would be impossible turn around time for a CNC machinist match, even with a local friend with one. He has a life. And each print costs me roughly 2-3 dollar per upright. The raw aluminum for one upright is upwards of 60-80 dollars.

The value is so easy to see, the investment in my 3d printing tool was the perfect choice for this project and many more in the future. I cant wait to see what else I can build.

Once the 3D model is perfected, I will run these in aluminum and call it done. I am pretty satisfied with the way the wing and uprights look though, just sitting in the garage at rest :)
 

Attachments

  • upright.jpg
    upright.jpg
    202.1 KB · Views: 124
Shooting Hoops

Last weekend may have been the best weekend I've had in months, maybe years, when considering car projects. My good friend came down to help out and we had what I think is the perfect car enthusiast weekend. The conditions were perfect: weather in the low 70s, light breeze, and a race car waiting to get worked on.

What better way to get into the car mood then some go karts racing! 40 mph max speed electric go karts with instant torque, and a time trial based system for determining winners, and they even blue flag slow racers to let faster racers pass. I've already spent more time then I probably should there but I had to bring my friend out to show him who's boss!

1916723_1103275306363271_6701413481209553688_n.jpg


Main Hoop Fabrication - March 26, 2016

No basketball hoops here, this weekend we had a goal of finishing the main hoop of the roll cage for Cloud.

DSC01570.jpg


We got the car leveled out got ready to go. I got a set of Go-Jacks for all 4 wheels and that makes moving the car around my crowded garage infinitely more bearable. I am able to move the car out of it's usual spot to the double garage side to have work space around the car and gain access to the tube bender. I highly recommend them to anyone that works on their (especially non-running) car a lot.

Taking measurements for the cage was quite time consuming. I had actually previously written them down once before, but I decided to do it again. This time consuming process of measuring, double and triple checking, and then cutting a tube or bending a tube and being off by .5* or 1/8" was making me pull my hair out.

When I stepped back and really thought about this cage, the .120 1.5" DOM spec cage was really only going to be a temporary cage. I have an ultimate goal of getting under 2500 lbs, and that would drop my car to a smaller size tubing class, and at which point I would like to do 4130 chromoly, to even further save weight. So knowing that.. why am I beating myself up for this cage? I made sure everything was legal, and safe, and I am going to stop spending hours just sitting and looking at the DOM tubing laying on my garage floor. It's been there for two years waiting for me to stop making excuses, and I am all out of those!

1398393_685810398109766_1015148898_o.jpg


BEND THEM TUBES BUDDY!

So the first notched tube. This tube runs from the passenger side floor to the driver side corner, within 12 " of the bend. Thinking ahead there was also going to be tubes welded going forward for the front bars (or halo) and rearward to the rear struts. It was going to get crowded near that bend so I decided to move this tube over just a tad directly over my head to make it easier to weld. I am a new TIG welder still so the more access I have at the seam to weld, the better.

DSC01573.jpg


Those notches took about an hour. I may have had a break or two to let the ringing in my ears stop while grinding, but I knew that if these super simple notches were going to take me this long to do, doing my whole cage and the more complex notches were going to be quite the hindrance.

I had years back during my part collection picked up a tube notcher from Harbor Freight, but it was crap. Off the shelf, it notches tubes off center! I read some reviews online on how to correct that with washers, but trying to notch tubes at an angle greater then perpendicular +/- 15* was pretty impossible without fabbing a table of some sort. I put it back in its package and forgot about it.

I picked up a free drill press and spent some time getting it working very recently. It is old as hell, and unfortunately not a fancy Bridgeport or anything. Can't beat the price though and I didn't have a drill press at all to begin with. Because it was a full size free standing drill press, it would mean I could get some more extreme angles cut now with the HF notcher. The way we had to mount it on the drill press table still janky, but janky or not the holes it could drill worked beautifully.

DSC01572.jpg


We eventually needed even more extreme angles so we took the janky to level even higher, removing the table on the drill press:

DSC01578.jpg


However, long as I have a hand on the 2x4, it works so much better then doing it by hand so I am rolling with it. We re-drilled the holes I spent the previous hour doing and the fit was just so nice.

DSC01574.jpg


Since weight was not the primary concern for this cage and because it was my first cage, I felt like the extra X support brace would help allow me to walk away from any crashes I might have. My buddy jokingly asked if he needed to sign a waiver and release of liability as he had a hand in potentially killing me / saving my life creating the cage. It's nuts to think about a few welds and some round steel is what someone trusts their life with...

DSC01575.jpg

This diagonal needs to be split as we do not want to disturb the main brace. This meant 4 notches which doubled the time it took to do correctly. Even with the notcher, we were at probably 20 minutes each hole, since it has to go so slow because of the lack of torque in the drill press I have, keeping the hole saw cool, and because we would drill the same hole several times trying to be careful not to remove too much material.

IMG_20160326_191642.jpg


I TIG tacked everything up and that was Saturday.

Main Hoop welded and Mocked in the shell - March 27, 2016

Sunday was Easter, so we spent a little less time that day working on the car, but after getting so close to finishing the main hoop we spent the afternoon working on it more. At this point we needed to fully weld yesterday's work, mock it up in the car and measure for the horizontal harness bar. NASA CCR spec has the harness bar at a height to keep the harness no more then 20* off to the shoulder. This keeps your safety harness from killing you by compressing your spine in an accident. This is the reason you don't put a harness in a stock car; mounting the harness correctly is very important to have it help keep you alive!

Well.. Welding the main hoop and its 6 full 360 degree welds took me an embarrassing amount of time. It was easily 3 hours to finish those. The thing with TIG welding compared to MIG for those that do not know, as my mom always told me: "cleanliness is next to godliness". There was a good amount of time spent resharpening the tungsten, cleaning the metal, and getting a good angle at the joint. Welding the full 360 degrees meant rotating the whole hoop to get the ideal angle. Doing 360 in the car is going to mean compromises but anywhere I could make it easier on myself I took. TIG is a much MUCH slower welding process, but the control you have using this over MIG makes it all worth it in the end. I know I could have MIGed my cage in 1/4 the time, but I love that I can take my time ensuring full penetration; there is not the same sense of urgency and no sparks flying in your face with an ever increasing pool size you have no control over with a wire feeder. With TIG I get to weld on my terms.

So the above written paragraph was a huge "excuses" entry. In the end, we ran out of time for the harness bar, but looking at the hoop in the car I had no regrets. I was very pleased wit the weekend's work on Cloud.

DSC01576.jpg


DSC01577.jpg


IMG_20160327_174654.jpg


The main hoop is higher than my helmet while sitting in the car, which is key. That checked out which was one of the main concerns I had. I am only 5' 7" and I made the custom seat brackets right to the floor, and I only have about an inch of clearence between the top of my helmet and the bottom of the main hoop bar (when sitting as tall as I can). I don't get how a 6 foot guy would fit in the car without a seat angled back some stupid amount, but guess that is their problem! This main hoop passes my safety inspection :)

Eye balling it, we might end up with a harness bar that intersects right in the center of the X brace which would mean two less notches (3rd tube), but after a weekend working on the main hoop, I think I am really getting the hang of it and wouldn't mind it either way.

We ended the weekend BBQing, drinking, and just enjoying the weather with the car behind us in the garage as the sun went down. It's what car guys doing in the movies, so I must be race car-ing right.

See ya next time!
 
Last edited:
No, I didn't give up, I just ran out of time last year, got stuck doing a whole house remodel: flooring, electrical, drywall, paint. I didn't put a priority on the car and no one to blame but me.

I have slowly gotten back into the swing of things, and am likely moving my project format to video. I have some exciting news to share soon that is part of what I been working on the last few weeks, so once I have all the footage captured, I'll be throwing it together. Hopefully this satisfies you for a few more weeks..

This is the last photo of V1 kit "installed" on the car...

smaller.jpg
 
Nice thread man! I have the second version of this kit on the way. Really hoping it will ship to me in the next couple of weeks!

Was good to see how you went about a bunch of your install. I will also be running the APRgt1000 in 78inch wide. Look forward to more updates!
 
Took a bit longer then 6 weeks, but least the ball is back in my court.


IMG_20170821_190910.jpg

IMG_20170822_141124.jpg



Still missing from the photo is the side splitter, rear diffuser, wing, and missing the mock up of my front splitter, BUT V2 is in the house!

Here are my first photos mocking everything up; the install is bit different from v1 so I having to change stuff up, but looking at it there are many difference to observe. And.. I didn't stop at just a aero kit upgrade, I also added Carbon Roof, Carbon Kevlar doors, quarter windows, CSL Hatch, Headlight deletes, wiper cowl, man.. I can't even remember everything I got. It was a ton of boxes! Can't wait to get it all installed.


I have been recording all this build stuff on video, once I complete some of the projects I will be releasing the videos. For now you guys get a teased with a few photos.


IMG_20170916_154156.jpg
IMG_20170916_154206.jpg
IMG_20170916_154221.jpg
 
Great job, my man! Coming along very nicely!

Also, thanks for the great detail in your build process. As another person with a build thread, I can fully understand the process it takes to document and share everything. (I don't do as good as you.) Kudos to you and good job.
 
Just realised you and kevin opted for the same wheels! And size tires? Any reason why? And the tire much more then the wheels limit LOL, won lt that cause the bead to pull off? Kevin and you seem to be going about 3 sizes over what the rim is maxed out for?
 
With the new kit I will have to get even bigger wheels now so not sure how much of the old wheels matter, but at the time, TC105N and TE37s were some of the lightest best wheels that didn't quit cost a million bucks and Kevin had already done a lot of research so I followed suit. The tires on there now are actually only 275s iirc, NT05s. I never got around to paying money for the tires I planned to run since the car was still not under its own power so the tires that were on the street car I bought them off of were still mounted. I am not a tire and wheel guy so I will probably have to ask Kevin for help deciding on the next set; he is the one i turn to with knowledge on that.
 
With the new kit I will have to get even bigger wheels now so not sure how much of the old wheels matter, but at the time, TC105N and TE37s were some of the lightest best wheels that didn't quit cost a million bucks and Kevin had already done a lot of research so I followed suit. The tires on there now are actually only 275s iirc, NT05s. I never got around to paying money for the tires I planned to run since the car was still not under its own power so the tires that were on the street car I bought them off of were still mounted. I am not a tire and wheel guy so I will probably have to ask Kevin for help deciding on the next set; he is the one i turn to with knowledge on that.
He has 10.5" and a max tire should be 295 but he has 315 and from pictures his bulge out and cause a curve over the tread so wont get maximum tread patch!

Im actually looking at wedssports aswel but not the 105N! Im looking to get the SA55-M. I see 3 members with 105's now so my choice has to be different LOL.

As for tire choice i have never been mislead via web searching and getting the maximum tire for the rim size, so i myself stick to that and so far it works well everytime, plus its safe, keven may have been told otherwise but wheels have min, ideal and max sizing for safety.

What spec wheels you have to got to get now?
 
it can be up to a 12.5" or 13" wheel (I'll have to check my notes), though I will really have to look into my rules, as per my TT rules, increasing the wheel size will reduce my max HP. I might end up running smaller wheel just to get more HP; will probably require me to have more seat time to know what is the perfect balance for my setup.

lots of wills ifs and buts, so we will figure that part out when it comes to it.

I cant wait to be worrying only about which wheels to bolt on; I am starting to get tired of all the custom fabrication and time it takes :)
 
it can be up to a 12.5" or 13" wheel (I'll have to check my notes), though I will really have to look into my rules, as per my TT rules, increasing the wheel size will reduce my max HP. I might end up running smaller wheel just to get more HP; will probably require me to have more seat time to know what is the perfect balance for my setup.

lots of wills ifs and buts, so we will figure that part out when it comes to it.

I cant wait to be worrying only about which wheels to bolt on; I am starting to get tired of all the custom fabrication and time it takes :)
If you can go back down to a light weight 17" wheel! Unless you plan on getting bigger brakes eventually then 18" fits most good brakes for us and the weight of the car;

And dont i know it about the custom work LOL. So much and time just flys by
 
The End of GSSeX, Start of C1 Eclipse

To anyone following this build still: the car that inspired it all is now replacing my clone.

MVIMG_20181228_184729.jpg


Replace might be too strong a word, because what is really happening is a combining of the two vehicles. I never gave up on this build, but when the opportunity to own the AMB car presented itself, it made sense financially and pole vaulted my DSM race progress way forward. Neither car was running, but combing parts between them meant I could build the best of both worlds: Add the chassis of a fully prepped and lightened race car with the new lighter body work from Carbonetics, drive train parts from my stripped shell, and I end up with an even faster car between the two. Not to mention plenty of extra parts to keep me on track and a few extras to sell to fund more advancements of the car.

"part out" -> https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/amb-aero-race-car-part-out.520399/

I have been informed that it is better to close the chapter on this chassis, and start anew with the next chassis, but in my heart this is all part of the same journey. Please join me welcoming the new car to the Curiosichi garage!

IMG_20181231_141936.jpg


new build thread:
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/curiosichi-time-attack-eclipse.521432/
 
Last edited:
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top