This is the Build Thread for 1998 TSi AWD “Misty”. Reply below.

I’ll start with a little backstory. Some of you may remember me or my last build. 11 years ago I foolishly sold my super clean low mileage 1997 Talon TSi AWD, known as the “black widow”, to pursue a classic car restoration. Long story short, in 2020, my completely torn apart classic car (1959 Buick Electra 225) sold without ever even being offered for sale. At the time I had a 10 month old and we found out a couple months later that we were expecting our second baby. So I spent the next few years focusing on being Dad. Well the kids are growing way too fast, and one is in grade school, and the other is in his last year of preschool already. With the school year fast approaching, and them not needing as much attention as before (and finally getting approval from the Missus) I started my search for another fun car.

On July 19th of this year I very excitedly rejoined the DSM world. I bought a pretty much stock 1998 Talon TSi AWD with 108k on the clock. I drove the car 530 miles home with no issues other than needing to add some clutch fluid. I named her “Misty” as a nod to her fairly rare, 1998 only, Silver Mist Pearl paint color.

I listed this build thread as a “show car build” because I don’t plan on doing any modification to the car. If anything, it will get reverted back to completely stock.

Here’s a couple photos the day I bought her.




The car is mechanically sound with just a few minor things needing some attention. But cosmetically she needs some love. As she sits, the car is what they call a “10 footer.” For those who aren’t familiar with the term, from about 10 feet away she looks great, but as you get closer the blemishes start becoming more obvious. It has some minor hail damage, with a few pretty good sized hail dings here and there. Second, it seems as most of the miles were highway miles and there is significant rock chipping on the front end, windshield, and front part of the roof. It also appears to have spent a lot of time out in the sun. The black roof is slightly oxidized and starting to weather check, and the clear on the top side of the spoiler is completely gone. And lastly, there is rust beginning on the bottoms of the doors, a small amount of rust on the back end of the rockers, and some rust starting on the inner structure of the hatch.












The interior is in very good shape. The previous owner said there was a dust storm that blew through his area a few months back that coated everything on the car, inside and out, with dust. Even though he did a good job wiping everything down, there was still remnants of the dust storm in all of the cracks, crevices, vents and hard to reach places. The seats are in nice condition, but the vinyl is a bit dry and hardened. There is some minor wear on the front seats. The carpet is pretty clean, but could use a good cleaning/stain removal.





I am a body tech by trade, and I detailed my way through body school. If you remember my last car, you already know I’m extremely particular and have a good eye for detail when it comes to my car. That being said, the plan is to give her a full detail job, starting with the interior, then probably moving to the engine bay. I will do what I can with the exterior for now, but the rock chips and weather checking is beyond what paint correction can repair. The overall goal is to eventually fix all of the body damage and give her a fresh coat of paint.

That’s all for now, some more updates are coming soon.

I ended up starting my full detail in the trunk, not sure why as that’s not typically seen. Anyway, I pulled the entire trunk out and cleaning everything. The rear washer wasn’t working so I investigated that problem while I was in there. When I pulled the reservoir and bench tested the pumps, both worked just fine. I’m not sure if it was just stuck from sitting, or reseating the connector was all it needed, but I got lucky and when I reinstalled it, both washers were functioning just fine. I also took the opportunity to put some rust converter on some surface rust on the spare tire mount. Lastly, all of the plastic trim pieces got cleaned thoroughly and reinstalled.








While I was at it, the taillights had some gouges in them, so I pulled them out and sanded/buffed the damage out.







Found someone’s old stash in the passenger side inner trunk, just behind the rear wheel. They also left some zigzags on the driver’s side visor.





There was also some old tint on the windows that was so sun baked I could hardly see through it. So that all got peeled off and cleaned up.



No more tint!




I forgot to get a picture before I put all of my junk in, but here’s the finished product. It’s not perfect but it cleaned up very well! Ignore that nasty cargo cover, thanks to Mr. Stoner who forgot his weed in the trunk, it’s full of burn marks. So thats going to get replaced as soon as I can find a nice one.






Up next: interior!

Interior is making some good progress, but is still an ongoing project. In between letting cleaners soak or conditioners set in, or when I just get sick of cleaning, I do some smaller side projects. Here’s some odds and ends I’ve fixed while working on the interior.


The wiper arms were sun faded and the front two had lots of rock chips. I removed them, sanded them down, and repainted them.

Before:


First one sanded:



Second one sanded down:


During paint:


Done and reinstalled with new wiper blades:





The car came factory with keyless entry, but the fob got lost somewhere along the way. I had this as a spare fob from my old 97 in a drawer still after 11 years. I programmed it to this car and while doing so my daughter added her seal of approval to my keys. Fun side note: car still has it’s original key after 27 years.




Polished up the Thermal exhaust just because. The second picture shows how it all looked before.





I noticed when I bought the car the intercooler was pushed back causing the splash guard to sit dangerously close to the tire. Luckily it only made slight contact. I’m guessing it was caused by an animal strike that forced the IC backward, bending the mounting tabs and also bending the core slightly. So I pulled the IC and straightened out the mounting tabs. Then put it in a vice with some blocks of wood and used a rubber mallet to straighten the core out as best I could. After it was fitting better, I combed the fins as much as I could so it will function more efficiently.

Before:


This picture shows how bent the lower mounting tab was.



After:




Last little nitpicky thing I did was scrape all of the water stains off of the edges of the windows. Was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be, especially for something not really noticeable. But it annoyed me so it was worth it in my book.

Before:


After:




Hoping to get interior finished up soon. There should be another update before long.

What paint did you use on the arms? Looks great!

DreamChaser7 said:

What paint did you use on the arms? Looks great!

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Thank you! The green colored primer is an etching primer, and that paint is SEM Trim Black. It’s a great paint for stuff like this, it’s available in rattle cans and levels out nicely. I also used it on the little metal ring that the cigarette lighter sets in. I’ll add pictures of that when I post the interior update in the next couple days.

Interior is finally done for the most part. It cleaned up very well! The only few minor things keeping it from looking almost like new are some wear on the front seats, missing sun shade, minor stains around the pad on the driver’s side foot well, worn steering wheel, and the very common bubble on the top of the dash where the cluster is. I plan to eventually address those, but this will do until I can find those things in good condition.


So here’s what I started with. A good start for sure, but the picture doesn’t really show all of the dust and dirt in all of the vents and switches.


I started in by pulling the back seats to condition them. There is little to no wear on them so not a ton of work was necessary. I used a brush and some interior detailer to clean all of the crevices, then used Wizards leather and vinyl conditioner to soften them up some.

When I removed the rear seats I found a little surprise underneath. Two mouse nests. Good thing no mice were still living in there!




Ended up pulling the side panels to vacuum all of the rodent shit out.
A cool side note: the rear speakers are original and still work great .


While I had the side panels out, I looked into why the front seatbelts didn’t retract very well. Turns out the driver’s side had a twist in it under the interior side panel.


And the others were just dirty which apparently causes them to bind up on the guides. So they were all removed, sprayed with Super Clean, then pressure washed. Quite a bit of dirt/oil had built up in the fibers, it’s easy to see the washed versus not washed portions.



After the rear seat area was done, I moved on to the center console. Pulled the storage box out and found yet another mouse nest.


Also pulled the cup holder and ash tray. This is the inside of the cup holder. I forgot get pictures of the ash tray, but it was just as bad.


Again using Super Clean and allowing it to soak, then cleaning it out with dish soap and warm water, they came out looking great.



Then I tackled this eye sore. It bothered me every time I drove the car. I sanded all of the rust off, then primed and painted it. Also installed a brand new shift knob!



Then I started on the dash and door panels. The vents and controls all had a bunch of dust in and around them. I couldn’t get it all out with them still installed, so they all got removed and got a thorough cleaning. I was so busy working that I forgot to take pictures of most of the in process, but they all got pretty much the same treatment. I used Q-tips to get in all of the vent grills. All of the buttons were removed from the bezels as well.



The gauge cluster even had dust that had gotten in the hole for the trip odometer reset (visible right under the reset button) so I pulled the clear lens and cleaned that all out. I noticed some scratches on the lens so I also cut and buffed it while it was removed.



Moving on to the front seats, they were a bit more work because they have more use and wear on them. But they cleaned up pretty well, I’d give them a 7/10. They also got conditioned. Here you can see how thick the dust was in all of the hard to reach areas.


After cleaning and conditioning.




The last step was the carpet. I wish I could get it more clean, but 25+ years of set in stains are near impossible to remove. I did my best and am happy with the result. I may pull the carpet and dye it in the future to make it look like new.

Driver side rear before then after


Driver front before then after.


Passenger front before then after.


Passenger rear before. Apparently I forgot to get an after picture, but I’m sure you all get the idea.


Here’s the water that was being pulled into my carpet cleaner. Nasty stuff. I had about 10-12 tanks like this come out.




I found a nice cargo cover so I threw that in and it goes well with my freshly detailed interior!

Old and new. Look at the difference in color.

Burn holes in the old one.


Here’s a few finished shots.




It literally feels like I’m driving an entirely different car than I originally bought. On the long drive home after buying it, it just felt like an old car that needed work. Now it feels like I’m driving a nice car, although the exterior isn’t quite as nice. I took it to a car show with my dad last weekend and while I was wiping it off he said “This doesn’t even look like the same car anymore, now that you have it all shined up.” So I guess my hard work is starting to pay off.

I still have plenty of projects with the Talon planned for this fall, so I’ll try to keep this thread updated.

Just sharing a few pictures of some fun I had with the Talon since I got it in July. I went to few car shows with my dad and his ‘67 Chevelle convertible.




And here’s a few pictures from a couple weekends ago. My friend with a 3kGT VR-4 and I went for a spin around town. Was a lot of fun and we even stumbled upon a 2G Spyder that joined us for a bit.





Car show season is about over here in North Dakota, and the nice days are numbered. So sadly, I won’t be able to drive the car much more this year. But I’m hoping to get some projects done this fall and over the winter and spring.

Spring is finally here in ND! The last month has been a roller coaster as far as temps go around here so I have been out in my (unheated) garage as much as I could, weather permitting. I’ve done a ton of suspension and brake work, all to OE spec. She should ride and handle like new. Parts replaced are as follows.

Front:
Upper control arms
Lower control arms
Lateral control arms
Wheel bearings
Tie rod ends
Sway bar links
Springs
Struts
Brake rotors
Calipers
Brake pads
Splash guards
Rubber brake hoses

Rear:
Springs
Struts
Spring insulators
Calipers
Rotors
Brake pads


Here’s the pile of parts waiting to go on.


Before, things looking pretty rusty and crusty.


Blown strut, made me decide to replace springs and struts.


Of course this dang bolt broke, but I got it drilled and tapped with no issues.


Old rotors, definitely time to replace!


Front passenger side torn down and ready for rebuild.



Everything all buttoned back up in the front.


Melted rear spring insulator. Not sure why these melted.



And here’s the rear all buttoned up.

The car is sporting a new look starting this year. It’s so unmolested that I decided to go back to all original.




I found a set of OE wheels and wrapped them in Toyo Extenza HP II 215/50R17 tires.



Pardon the monster truck look, the new springs and struts have yet to settle.



I was able to find a very nice OEM radio over the winter. This model stereo was equipped in this car from the factory. Haven’t installed it yet, but am planning on doing that soon.



And last but not least I am very happy to have finally found a set of fog lights to replace the broken drivers side.


Looking so much better!

2GbTalonGuy said:

The car is sporting a new look starting this year. It’s so unmolested that I decided to go back to all original.

View attachment 789554


I found a set of OE wheels and wrapped them in Toyo Extenza HP II 215/50R17 tires.
View attachment 789553


Pardon the monster truck look, the new springs and struts have yet to settle.
View attachment 789548


I was able to find a very nice OEM radio over the winter. This model stereo was equipped in this car from the factory. Haven’t installed it yet, but am planning on doing that soon.
View attachment 789552


And last but not least I am very happy to have finally found a set of fog lights to replace the broken drivers side.View attachment 789551


Looking so much better!
View attachment 789550

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Pretty car. There are likely a lot of DSMrs that dont realize the rarity of those wheels. Only the 2gb talon and eclipse had dedicated wheels for the AWD. Since the Talon is the lowest production I think it was less than 2500 cars for 97 and 98 combined.

pauleyman said:

Pretty car. There are likely a lot of DSMrs that dont realize tje rarity of those wheels. Only the 2gb talon and eclipse had dedicated wheels for the AWD. Since the Talon is the lowest production I think it was less than 2500 cars for 97 and 98 combined.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I also think many don’t really know that they’re pretty rare. When you do see them for sale, they’re usually not too expensive. It sounded like the person I bought them from wasn’t a DSMer at all, she said her husband bought a storage locker that had them in it. She said along with the wheels was a really clean set of headlights and a bunch of Holset compressor housings.

A small update:
I’ve been doing some smaller projects this late spring while enjoying the car on nice days.

I got another big step closer to returning Misty to completely stock by having the factory exhaust repaired and reinstalled. The flex pipe was nearly rusted off. And we had to cut the mid pipe to transport the exhaust system home from SD. So that was welded back together and reinstalled. It’s like driving an entirely different car now with the stock exhaust. I do kind of miss the Thermal though if I’m being completely honest.



Having the exhaust replaced brings me to my next goal for the spring. Repairing everything that was illuminating a light on the dash. After replacing all bulbs a previous owner removed to ignore the issues, I had a check engine light, ABS light, and washer fluid level light even though the washer bottle was full. The CEL was all codes for emissions since the downpipe that came with the Thermal exhaust was cat deleting, I was finally able to clear the CEL today.

The ABS light was because the front right sensor wire had a broken wire clip and contacted the tire. I replaced the sensor when doing the suspension work.


The washer fluid light was just a stuck float sensor in the bottle. I removed it and cleaned it up well and it works great now. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.

I also did about the only “mod” I plan on doing; swapping to the 99 silver faced gauge cluster just because it goes so well with the silver exterior. I mileage matched the new cluster and here it is installed, running after about a 30 minute drive, with all bulbs installed, and no lights illuminating.

Now I bet you’re thinking that the oil pressure is low. But it usually took a minute to come up and read actual oil pressure after a startup. I looked into that and found the wire going to the oil pressure sensor had been “repaired” and was hanging on by one strand of wire. It was also resting on an oil line and that would eventually wear through. The wire terminal came off when I barely touched the wire. So I grabbed some spade terminals and some yellow wire and made a new, OEM spec wire for it. Thankfully the part that clips to the OFH was still there and I could re-pin it.



It does read a bit quicker than before, but still a little slow. I’ll order a new oil pressure sensor soon.

I also went to install the factory radio but found out whoever installed the aftermarket head unit cut the factory radio connector off and hard wired the Sony unit in. They also put in a line output converter, and from what I can tell by looking up the instructions, it is incorrectly installed. So I get to remove the dash and replace the dash wiring harness. I found a good harness, but I figure that if I’m going to remove the dash, I might as well replace it with one that doesn’t have the vinyl peeling up behind the cluster. So I think I’ll remove the converter, correct the wiring and run it until I can find a replacement dash.




Also found that the Fuel Pressure Solenoid was missing and someone had zip tied a relay in its place and plugged the FPS plug into that. So I ordered a new FPS and some vacuum line and corrected that.




And here’s a picture just because she’s pretty. And because I can finally say that everything with the car works. A/C, Cruise control, ABS, emissions, and fog lights included.