I finally got around to removing the full blown rats nest and installing the 3 gauges ill run for awhile. It took me a minute to figure out how I wanted everything ran in this car. It's all fused and routed to where I can figure out an issue if there ever is one. So the interior is finally fully back together, aside from the trunk.

Along with messing around with the interior I did get the engine bay sorted some more. I still haven't figured out my turbo/exhaust setup yet. I really would like to run the exhaust out of the back, for now I shoved a dummy setup back there. I have to have something fill in the giant cutout back there. I'll probably run the bumper setup for awhile and see how it goes.

Things have been moving real slow again. I'm just trying to do everything proper and not rush it. I'm still on the fence about keeping e85 or swapping back to 91. It's all setup for e85 but the car will do more sitting and I don't really want to have to worry about the fuel going bad. I really would love to see how it rips on e85 but I told myself I wouldn't rush anything this time around. I don't even know if I'll be able to test drive the car this summer yet.

It's a shame all these sun roofs rust out. I could see the seal bulging pretty bad so I let each side of the sunroof sit in some rust remover. It took about a week to finally get to where I'm at. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I wish I could have used some por15 but I didn't have any so we will see how long this lasts. I'm going to try my hand at redoing the sunroof shade as well.

It's these little things that keep me going. I'm going to also try to swap the aluminum pan back to steel so I can run a full exhaust.

Somehow I was able to somewhat attach what I could to the shade. It's not perfect but it will do for now. I'm just trying to keep everything as original with the headliner since it's not sagging at all.

I got around to swapping oil pans to fit the full length exhaust that ive been dying to have back on the car. I did buy an ebay 3 inch catback that bolted up just fine. I also swapped back to the generic exhaust manifold that you can buy on ebay and im kind of happy I did. It fit my downpipe I made like 4 years ago. It freed up quite a bit more room too which was a plus.

My next big goal will be if I really want power steering or not. It takes up quite a bit in the bay but I'll have to see. I'll have to relocate the coolant reservoir to somewhere which wouldn't be terrible. We shall see.

When I lost a power steering pump on my '98, I bypassed it and my car was still easy to drive without. That is until I installed a smaller racing steering wheel. At that point trying to park the car got a little difficult and I decided to make the system functional again. I guess it depends if you're going to swap the steering wheel or not. Also depends on tire specs too. I was running hard 205's at the time. But upgraded to soft 215's around the same time as the steering wheel. I wouldn't even think about PS on a drag car but you definitely lose comfort in certain situations. I drive a Ranger with no power steering everyday but the stock wheel in that is even larger than in a 2g and I also run higher tire pressures.

If you dont think it's to bad maybe ill ride it out for awhile. Ill have to see how it feels first. I do like having all of the power steering mess out of the way.

I decided to just say screw it and throw some power steering in. I loved the room in the engine bay but I have to make this thing how I would of in my younger years. I can honestly say I don't think I'd ever get rid of it unless I'm going for some serious power.

I honestly don't think I'm going to get to drive the car before winter, so I'm starting a list on things I need to do. I would rather have most of the things that I want done to the car before I actually drive it. I also think having this nice long break from driving it will give me a bunch more motivation.

This is my highschool dream build. I've always wanted this car back and now I have an exact replica to build off of. At the end of the day its just a gs but man this car is a special peice to me.

I dont know if I said it already, but I like the choice of using a 2.4 valve cover on the 420A. That's what I ran on by best build. It relocates the oil cap to an accessible location if using a strut bar, has a much larger port for the PCV/breather to help clear blowby or slipping boost, and sits lower/slimmer as well. I also had a lot of people asking at car shows if I actually had a 2.4 in my ride. The answer was no, but that it ran even better

If you had this in high school, then I was the guy who once got a ride home from school in a GS and instantly fell in love with the 2G. It was this same red and had nearly identical wheels.

It was my first time seeing an eclipse in person, looking at yours reminds of that car, that started it all.

BLACK'98DSM said:

I dont know if I said it already, but I like the choice of using a 2.4 valve cover on the 420A. That's what I ran on by best build. It relocates the oil cap to an accessible location if using a strut bar, has a much larger port for the PCV/breather to help clear blowby or slipping boost, and sits lower/slimmer as well. I also had a lot of people asking at car shows if I actually had a 2.4 in my ride. The answer was no, but that it ran even better

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The only thing I don't like about the 2.4 valve cover is the spark plug holes don't line up at all. It just bugs me for some reason.

miliman13 said:

If you had this in high school, then I was the guy who once got a ride home from school in a GS and instantly fell in love with the 2G. It was this same red and had nearly identical wheels.

It was my first time seeing an eclipse in person, looking at yours reminds of that car, that started it all.

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I'm not going to lie driving to school everyday with my bro in that exact car was so awesome. I loved that car ever since. I now have that car with one added plus, which is the manual. The wheels are close enough to what we had so I don't mind them.

I love the turbo cars but nothing fetches that feeling like what I once had.

I literally couldn't help myself, I started digging in on the drivers front. If I'm not going to drive the car this year I might as well get a head start on the rust repair. I usually don't get lucky with some light rust here and there, it's usually full blown rot. That being said I've been able to get to alot of the welded nuts and throw heat at them to avoid snapping any bolts. I've been taking it slow and using a wire wheel to see how much I have to cut out. This isn't even that bad compared to what I'll have to repair next.

The next update will show the drivers wheel well fixed. I'm ocd so ill be doing it as perfect as I can.

I've decided to start tackling pretty much all of the rust areas. I'll start with small chunks like the drivers front that I'm currently doing. I had to pull the carpet back anyways and I'm very happy with how little rust there is. So far all I have for rust is the wheel wells and rockers for the most part. I might even pull the engine and transmission just so I can repaint the bay, there are rust bubbles under the paint in some areas.
I'll also have to figure out how to straighten the drivers floor back out. Looks like someone did the old classic floor jack underneath the actual floor.

I'm just diving right into the meat of everything because I'd like to attend the shootout next year with the car. Since it'll be my first time I'd like to have the car fully complete and there as well. 1 year should be plenty of time. I really wanted to go this year.

Such similarities
For the rust behind tower on driver side you gotta come from wheel well- I’m sure you know .

The sheet metal there is super thin !
When I redid mines I also added a sheet metal patch over the original to add strength incase of rocks/ debris.


Happy to hear you’re gonna restore her !!!!
It used to be just get another shell , but them days is gone it’s all restorations moving forward.

Wow! Yeah same exact spot. The nice thing is at least it's only a single layer. I do have nasty rust up top too which is technically 2 layers, that gets fun. I also do still have my rust free parts car which should help me. The only plus side to this gs is that the frame isn't totally rotted through like my rs. Somehow I finally got lucky on that part, same with the belly, nice and clean underneath.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who fixes the rust instead of scrapping and finding new. We are going to start running out of cars. This day and age all of them are worth saving, rs/gs/gst/gsx.

miliman13 said:

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On a side note, I'm actually super pumped that I wasn't the only one who got introduced to these cars from a red 2g gs. Nothing beats that very first time. Man that's awesome!

I've been going hard at it these past few nights. I got the car wrapped in plastic and started going to town on the rust. The floor is fully complete which didn't take long at all. There were weird holes drilled that I had to weld up and paint.

I went after the floor first so my interior didn't have to stay out of the car too long. I'll probably scrub the carpet before I put that back in as well. Boring update but it's progress.

The last 1G I bought must have had each and every deadly disease somewhere in the interior. So I can appreciate a good teardown and cleaning. A part that some skip over but shouldnt.

BLACK'98DSM said:

The last 1G I bought must have had each and every deadly disease somewhere in the interior. So I can appreciate a good teardown and cleaning. A part that some skip over but shouldnt.

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It's pretty much a must on these cars, especially here in the rust belt.

My curiosity got the best of me and I just had to yank the side skirt. I knew the rockers were bad but I didn't expect this level.

Hate how easily the side skirt ribs rip off, and yeah that’s a hole
Looking forward to seeing her restored

miliman13 said:

Hate how easily the side skirt ribs rip off, and yeah that’s a hole
Looking forward to seeing her restored

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Yeah someone had it screwed on the back and when I took that screw out the thing just flopped on the floor. It's a little depressing but I'll probably fiberglass the front cap to the sideskirt like I've done before. It makes it one solid unit so I don't have to worry about those deals at all.

It's going to be interesting this time around. I'd like to keep as much of the factory metal there but I know the cancer has spread. I'm almost better off cutting chunks out at a time instead of trying to weld in one giant piece.