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GSTwithPSI's Galant VR4 #820/1000

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GST with PSI

DSM Wiseman
2,728
1,503
Jul 27, 2005
San Diego, California
I recently purchased another Galant VR-4. I needed another Galant like Bruce Jenner needs boobs, but I digress...

I had a Craigslist ad up for a DSM shell/roller. I didn't really want a shell, but I was striking out pretty hard trying to find a complete rear DSM subframe to swap into 1837. I get a text from Brad Brooks (I didn't know it was him at first), who is a fairly well known tuner here on the East Coast. He apparently saw my ad, and hit me up asking if I wanted to buy another Galant VR4. At this point, Brad introduced me to a gentleman named Doug. Doug was the PO of 820/1000, and an awesome guy. He cut me a great deal on the car and a pile of parts to go with it.

The car was sitting for 6 years prior to me dragging it home an hour and a half from Virginia. Overall, it's in decent condition, but needs A LOT of love. It has some rust issues, which have migrated their way into the body. Mechanically, it seems sound. I changed the oil and threw some fresh gas into the car and it fired right up. It purrs like a kitten. I'll need to do some work on the brakes and rear suspension, along with general maintenance items. It's lightly modded, but pretty much completely stock save a few items here and there.

As far as plans for the car go, it will stay mostly stock. The rust is rough in some places, and I'm not really up for doing all the body work it would take to completely correct all the problem areas. I'm going to neutralize the rust, and patch it up the best I can without getting too involved. I always wanted to do ridiculous shit to a VR-4, like throw on a set of fender flares, or delete the rear spoiler. Maybe this will be the car I can try out all the extravagant stuff I've always been too scared to do to 1837 (my other VR-4).
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I started the journey to restoration by welding up one of the trailing arms and installing new rear bearings, seals, and a hub/spindle. The other arm was already welded up when I got the car. I rebuilt the rear calipers (thanks for the parts Doug) and slapped on some new rotors.
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The interior is dirty, but should clean up decent I think. The head unit in the car is missing the faceplate, so I pulled the deck out to see what model it was. I got a pleasant surprise! It's an old Alpine CDA-7939, which is a great deck. Now, I just need to find a faceplate for it. Checked on Ebay, and came up bone dry. I'll have to keep an eye out.
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Next, I had to figure out how to get the front wheels off. They had locking lugs on them, which were proving impossible to remove...Until I found this sweet socket at AutoZone. You basically just run in onto the exterior of the lug with an impact and it zips right off. I was astounded how awesome it worked. It took longer to remove the lug nut from the socket than it did getting the locking lug off the car. I ended up having to thread a bolt into the lug and clamp it in a vise. The moral of the story is, don't lose your lug key.
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Next, I deleted the ABS. I've only ever done this in the past when the motor was out of the car. This is the first time I did it with the motor in, and it f***!ng sucked. Aside from the new non-ABS prop valve, I didn't take any pics of the process.
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After that, I bleed the brakes and took it for a quick spin around the block. It ran and shifted great! It fires right up and even idles flawlessly. After a good wash, the car cleaned up decent. I was most impressed with the wheels; they look like new after a good scrub. The paint has seen better days, but I think I can patch up some areas to give the car a decent look overall. The hood and driver side rear quarter will obviously need some work/paint. I don't really dig the zebra color scheme, but the black paint kept things from rusting, which I'm grateful for.
 
I fixed some more little stuff on the car. I swapped in a fresh MAF and K&N air filter. I also corrected the vacuum routing, which was all messed up. This car is pretty much bone stock under the hood. Even the EGR, BCS and FPS solenoids are still in place and hooked up. After I routed the vacuum lines back to everything like factory, I saw an improvement in drivability and idle quality. That's saying a lot, since the car was already running great. I put about 20 miles on it under all sorts of driving conditions. It performed flawlessly. Hell, the cruise control even works. For being nearly stock, it rips pretty good too. I can't wait to get all the maintenance done and start DD'n it.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the car so far. It needs some work, but, what VR-4 doesn't?

Up next:
-180* T-stat
-All new belts/hoses
-Alignment
-Plug wires
-2g exhaust manifold
-Fuel filter
-Fuel pump rewire
-New muffler
-Install passenger dogleg
-Deep clean the interior
-Exterior paint touch up/detail
-Underhood scrub

...Drive it...
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After the exterior got a good scrub, it was on to under the hood. Suffice it to say, I spent a fair amount of time cleaning. It's not done, but it's a good start.
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Next, I pulled the fenders to gauge how much work I have to do. I knew there would be some rust when I picked the car up. The pinch welds showed the typical signs of rust behind the fenders, and there are a few other places that need attention. Just like on may last VR-4, a bunch of crap got pinned between the fender and body and started to eat away at the lower rocker panel. There was A LOT more crap stuck on this car, though. Leaves, dirt, sand, and all kinds of poop in there.
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Passenger side:
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Driver side:
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It looks like poop, but it should clean up decent. The metal is solid and overall intact. I'll clean the area, remove the rust and apply an inhibitor. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Pull those fenders and inspect/clean them every now and then. This is a good example of what can potentially happen if you don't.

More updates soon.
 
Well, made some progress killing all the rust on 820. This car reminds me why I hate rust...Because fixing it sucks a$$. It takes forever, and the work is tedious and time intensive. It's coming along good, though.


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Cleaned up, and cut out some metal
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Cut out some more metal...
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Welded in some new metal
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Cleaned up my birdshit welds
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Sealed some of the metal and then filled in the pits with a little bit of body filler
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More amputation near the rear fender
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Welded in a small piece of metal and filled the repair
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Fast forward a few days and I finally completed the vast majority of the body work. I wasn't going for perfection here, since that's what I have 1837 for. I just mainly wanted a 10 footer that wasn't rusting out from under me, and I think I achieved that. I've addressed all the major areas that needed immediate attention. There are a few other places on the car that I can wire brush and treat topically. I'll hit those as time allows.

Here are some shots of the progression on the front rocker panels
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There was a crappy area at the top of the driver side rear fender well. Here's the progression of that area
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I went with paint from AutomotiveTouchup. A pint of W09 base coat took care of this job, topped off with their urethane clearcoat
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I started by treating the front clip with Rust Bullet, then followed with a quickie spray of the core support
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Then, taped her off so I could respray the panels that needed it. I ended up doing pretty much the whole car, save most of the passenger side (minus the passenger fender, which I did respray). I didn't have to do the the roof, decklid or front bumper either, as they were all in fairly good shape. I probably would have done the entire car if I had the paint on hand, but I only had a pint of basecoat and wasn't going to wait another week to get more.
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Apparently the car was left outside in a baby meteor shower...
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Outside paint job, redneck style
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Fenders before and after spray
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Hood
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I started buffing the driver side, which shined up pretty good.
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I'm pretty happy with how the car is looking...Especially considering it looked like complete $hit just a few weeks ago. It's no show car, but real close to my goal of being a 10 footer. I mean, why would I want to dump tons of time and money into a DD that some d|ck face is just going to slam a shopping cart into?


I picked up a set of Lamco gauges for the Galant. The needles needed refreshed, and the boost gauge needed to be recalibrated. So, I took them all apart, calibrated the boost gauge and painted the needles to match the factory cluster.

Chipped ugly needles
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Boost gauge is a bit off
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Disassembled and calibrated
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Needle painted
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Painted the remaining 2 needles
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Installed-ish in the Galant. I just need a trim ring to tidy things up. I also need to wire everything in and hook up the vacuum line to the boost gauge
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Matches pretty good!
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I got all the painting finished, and I think it turned out ok for the time and work I have in it. It's definitely a 10 footer, but looks a lot better than it did. I removed that horrid pinstripe as well, which I thought made the car look a million times better.

Here are some before and after shots:
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I still need to wet sand and buff everything, which should blend the newly sprayed panels a bit better. There's just not enough time in the day...
 
Really nice job man. Seeing this thing first hand when you picked it up, it was really bordering on complete shitbox territory. To take it from that to what you see in the pictures now, and in such a short time frame, is damn impressive.
 
Well dude, I wouldn't even be in a position to restore this turd if it weren't for you :thumb:

I appreciate all your help.
 
Stage 1, get rid of huge rust holes...Check.

Stage 2, making the turd reliable...

I started by repairing some oil leaks. The car had just sat for so long some of the oil seals were hard and brittle. Here was the main issue:
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The oil seals literally turned solid. The lips had absolutely no give to them. The cam seals were leaking really bad, so I figured I may as well do the main seal on the front case as well.
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Seal removed:
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Nice new pliable Fel-Pro seals:
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Much better:
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Good a time as any to do a timing belt job and throw on all new drive belts:
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Then, onto some fuel system maintenance:

I did a little fuel system reconditioning. I started with new injector seals and O-rings. I blew out the rail, lines, cleaned the injector baskets, and cleaned/inspected the FPR.
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Pulled the fuel pump and reconditioned the hangar. I have a new Denso pump on the way to replace the old stocker.
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Tank looks good at least.
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Old fuel filter removed.
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Here's what came out if it. No, that's not oil. It's supposed to be gasoline...
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New filter.
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Overall, the car has cleaned up nicely. The crappy cell phone pics don't do the car justice. Up next; interior deep clean.


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Well imagine that, the filler hose was leaking. Thanks JNZ:
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New one installed:
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So, on to the interior deep clean. This car had obviously suffered from years and years of neglect. I pulled Cheerios and SweetTarts from damn near every nook and cranny the interior had to offer. I just wanted a sanitary interior that didn't smell like ass...Mission accomplished.


Here's the carpet before:
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Here's the same carpet after 3 hours of cleaning:
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While I had the whole interior out, I treated all the leather and detailed all the plastic. Just gave everything a good cleaning overall. Looks great IMO:
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Then, I did a little more work under the hood. The car is starting to look less like a turd and more like a shiny turd.
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So, finished up the rest of the fuel system maintenance today. Got a new OEM Denso fuel pump so this build would have G's blessing, as well as a new pump strainer:
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Installed the pump and coated the top of the hangar with Rust Bullet:
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There was a bit of sediment in the tank baffle. I wasn't about to drop the tank to get it out...
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So here's the redneck way to get it out without a ton of work. I rigged up my vacuum brake bleeder to suck it out. Worked great:
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The vacuum sucked the sediment right out of my fuel tank into the bleeder tank. Worked like a charm.
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All clean :grin:
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Buttoned up the fuel system and went to 7-Eleven to fill up and grab a Slim Jim:
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A Galant VR-4 off of jackstands...Historic indeed.
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Then put some miles on her, and took some pics:
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Now that the car is looking decent and running reliably, I've just have to address some little things. The front bumper needs a new chrome strip. There are some exhaust leaks and other little issues that need attention. There are still a few small rust spots that need a wire wheel and topical treatment, nothing crazy. Overall, this car is really solid and I'm super happy with it.

I'd like to thank the previous owner Doug for giving me the opportunity to restore this car. He's done more than his fair share to make this build possible. Thanks, Doug.
 
Gave 820 a bit of attention today. At this point, I've pretty much wrapped up all the little things it needed maintenance wise. The muffler was in desperate need of replacing. It had a nice size hole in it, which emitted a nice size exhaust leak. It looks and sounds much better now:
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Next up was a new radiator. I have no idea how this happened, but the neck was pretty screwed up. I swapped out the old unit with a new core:
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I've been doing some more detailing under the hood as time allows. I've added a few little things here and there to touch up the bay. Here's how I got it:
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...And here's how it currently sits:
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Washed it up and took a few pics in the driveway:
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Turds galore:
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Future plans for 820 include a 5 lug swap, Evo 8 Enkeis, and Evo 8 suspension. It may also get a hand-me-down 16G from 1837...We'll see.
 
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