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Hello everyone, welcome to the build of my 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX!

I’m sorry but I should have started it when I first got the car but hey better late than never!

I’m going to do my best to update this as much as possible! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

So I’ll start this from the beginning of the build!

How I saw the car from the first time I laid eyes on it, I found it on Facebook marketplace in rock island Washington of all places. I went back and forth with this guy for a while trying to buy it but he wanted cash in full and to be picked up, which seems pretty simple but not when you’re 3,000 miles away. After trying to get it he ended up selling it to a local guy, I was crushed because I REALLY wanted it but missed out

After about a month or two I came across a post about a guy looking for a few small items preferably in white ( side skirt end caps and a hood ) for his 98 gsx. So I thought to myself, hey what are the chances that this is the guy who bought the car? So I messaged him and lo and behold it was! I was super excited and giddy to finally find it again!

He didn’t really have much interest in selling it but I was super persistent, trying it from every angle, offering him a lot more than what he paid, buy another car and trade him EVERYTHING!

Time to fly out and purchase the car:

So I wanted to go out purchase the car and fly back as quickly as possible. So I flew out to Seattle on a Wednesday night, got in went straight to the motel and into bed. Got up the next morning super early ( 3 hours behind my time zone ) and walked over to the enterprise to grab my rental car, drove around and did some sight seeing in Seattle then eventually made the drive over to rock island to meet the guy and look at the car. I also stopped at a place called “ the shop “ in Seattle. Here’s some pics of the drive

Finally getting to see the car and meet the owner, the car was just as clean as I wanted it to be, a few dents but those are removable. Looked over the car, threw all the extra parts he had for it into the back of it andput an apple AirTag in it so I can track it while it gets shipped across the country. I was super happy with the purchase and couldn’t wait to get it home and get my hands on it!!

Next step was to find a way to get it shipped:

April 13th 2023 was the official purchase date

That night after dropping the rental car off and getting back to the motel I posted the car up on a page called “uship” which was recommended to me by Rob Fig, as most of you guys know who that is he’s a trustworthy guy so I thought what the heck let’s do it

I didn’t really check it too much until I got back home the next night and ended up getting someone to ship it to me, well I should say a friend of mine out in Detroit. Thanks again @PLDSM for letting me use your house as a destination before taking it back to Canada!!

That night I also got all my importing paperwork started to get the car here.

Here’s some pics of the car getting shipped:

April 29th 2023 - the day we pick it up in Detroit and bring it home to Canada!

My friend Michael who is also a DSMer let me use his truck for the job so we headed out to good ole uhaul for a trailer, we then ventured our way down, stopped at a few DSM friends places while we waited for the exact pick up time.

I was so excited to finally see the car so close to home I couldn’t stop smiling, we got it unloaded off the big rig and onto our uhaul trailer, it was super fun trying to push the car up onto it with the driveshaft hanging and flat tires.

Off to the border we go to get it officially imported with all the legal documents, I was SOOO relieved once it passed customs and was on Canadian soil

Took it to get its first wash since 2017 once we got back into town. Then off to the house to unload it in my garage

April 30th 2023

First day working on the car, I told myself I want to drive it this season and swap everything from the old gsx and have it driving by June 1st!

So the project starts:
Pulling everything out of the bay to get it prepped to be repainted, I must say this thing is SUPER clean!

Sooo something happened that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. The person who mixed the paint put the wrong label on it. So when we mixed it with the other goodies it wouldn’t harden, I left it for a week and it was still sticky, I threw a heat gun on it and it liquified it even more. At that moment I knew I had to start ALLLL over

But I had 2 really good friends offer to help me with it, I had to do all the prep again and they would bring a proper gun instead of the cheap one we used before and painted the bay. Thank god this one was mixed properly and hardened. Woohoo 1.5 weeks into it and we can start engine bay assembly

So I’m about 2-3weeks into owning the car and all I’ve been doing is working on it every night after work from 5–10 and all day on weekends 8-8. Those 2 great friends I had mentioned before also gave me a hand degree’ing the cams while I had the motor out and put a new clutch, belt and tensioner on it. So here’s some pics of me just swapping everything, cleaning it, perfecting it.

May 30th 2023

FIRST START UP!

I was so happy I was almost in tears…man do I love this car

For the next couple months I was able to drive it, it felt so good driving it, had to get a lot of kinks worked out but we got it all figured out! Got an alignment done on it, pressure washed the underneath, and most importantly, got to drive it before my set date of June 1st!!!

Man what a story this car has! Absolutely killer man. Definitely some dedication and heart put into this. Love the build!

Now that's how you start a build thread!

Love the choice of wheels. I had them on my 96 Talon a million years ago and I never saw another set that looked better.

Thanks for the love and appreciation guys!

The car came with a bunch of parts in totes in the back of it. After digging through them to see what was all in it I couldn’t believe what I found. I found the numbers matching block! Talk about a rarity in itself and a complete score!!

Thanks to Rob fig for hooking it up! He got me an oem key fob for me in like new condition… and it works with the car!

Also shoutout to STM for having brand new uncut keys for the DSM still. So I bought 3, 2 I cut and 1 I keep as backup

Soo If you build a DSM you know you gotta take it to the drag strip!

First weekend taking it to the track in typical DSM fashion it broke! I cracked a tcase on my second pass luckily enough I had a spare best that weekend was 11.4

While I put the new t case in I put my NDD drive shaft loop in in case the driveshaft or t case would break and damage the car. Had my garage mechanic hanging out with me too

Next weekend I took it to the strip for some redemption, got 2 passes in but bogged at the line. Got on dsmlink then turned the launch control up from 5,000 to 5,500 and when I launched it destroyed a U joint on the driveshaft. I know the guys at the local strip so I just left it there for the night. Next day I came back with a buddy who let me borrow a driveshaft to get it home to put it on the car to get it back home!

Here’s some pics:

Ever since I got the car I hated how the door handles were black and the driver one didn’t open from the outside, so I bought a brand new set, got them painted and installed them. If you don’t have small hands it sucks! But after some choice words while working on it and some blood and sweat we got them on!

August 28th 2023

A couple friends and I made a trip to Magnus motor sports

I ended up picking up a Magnus cast V4 intake, Magnus billet transfer case cover, Magnus remote IAC holder for when I go to upgrade from a mitsu throttle body, and a Magnus adapter plate to run the stock throttle body

What a size difference!

30TH ANNUAL SHOOTOUT 2023 RECAP

I had the great opportunity to attend the shootout in 2023, it’s about a 4-5 hour one way drive down there from Canada. Got to go with @Stella who flew all the way down from Vancouver BC just to be apart of it. It was her first time going and the look on her face way priceless.

I ended up racing the car for the weekend, I first went into SA ( stock appearing ) but after being destroyed by an evo who ran a low 9 on my first pass I knew I didn’t stand a chance, so I changed to the 11.5 index.

I had nothing but bad luck on all my passes all weekend, I would either get into spark blowout or would just completely spin off the line no matter what I did. On the last day I was winning on my elimination round but on my 1-2 shift I shifted so hard I broke the factory coil pack bracket that was bolted to the back of the block. After accepting my defeat I walked the pits to try and find a bracket so I can atleast be able to drive the car home. Got a new one all bolted up with the help of some friends and we were good to roll to get home!

I got to meet some really awesome people including Jafromobile and see some people I only get to see once a year.

Ultimately it was a great weekend and can’t wait for the 2024 shootout!!

Damn nice job with that seam sealer and engine bay paint job.
Great story to read, I always enjoy seeing these cars go into good hands.

Jacob5se said:

Damn nice job with that seam sealer and engine bay paint job.
Great story to read, I always enjoy seeing these cars go into good hands.

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thanks! i have A LOT of hours sanding in that bay, i just used the 3M seam sealer that mixes itself while it comes out of the tube and then put a latex glove on and stroked my finger along the edges to make sure it would all settle in and hit every spot. but most importantly look good

After doing some re search and some calling around I found something SUPER rare and haven’t seen another one. An OEM eclipse badge still in the bag from Mitsu. This is going into the drawer of rare parts I have. WOOHOO!

Hell yeah looks like a great time ill be there in a ohio with my panda in september ive been through port huron. I was headed to kingston, i see you found tim zimmer great guy, i saw him last year too, and jaffro from time to time great guy and lots of fun to talk to. We chatted a while in ohio last year, and have know him for years and seen him in ohio whenver hes there. Great story.