1997 Eclipse "Spyder GSX"

[Deebeaux]

This is the Build Thread for 1997 Eclipse "Spyder GSX". Reply below.

 

[Deebeaux]

Placeholder post for some of the initial pictures and "current" state of the car before I post the changes/mods/repairs. Will edit this later.

 

[Deebeaux]

Last weekend was spent dealing with the typical rust welded rear toe control arms. Got the old arms out, but the new ones don't fit. I was unaware that AWD rear toe control arms don't really seem to be produced anymore and FWD is about all you can find so you have to come up with .535" spacers. Found a couple solid posts here on it, so thanks to the community for that.

Additionally, I decided it was best to just finish rebuilding the entire rear suspension since it's looking like the donor car for my GSX drivetrain was a rust bucket. Didn't realize the rear track arms are basically unobtanium, so in the midst of rebuilding those. Have acquired new end links to replace the complete dead old ones, bushings are in route along with the necssary tap and or rivnut tools to repalce the broken bolts for the rear ABS speed sensor wiring guides. Just some shots of the carnage. Getting these off when they're rust welded required creativity, carbide tipped blades, and a 3 gallon bucket of profanity. In retrospect the fire wrench may have been quicker, but the drive to storage and back meant the carbide won out.

Not pictured, I've got the rust knocked off the track arms, they're ready to get tapped/rivnutted and painted. The holiday weekend has some time reserved for finishing up the rear suspension rebuildd/refresh so we can finally move on to getting the car stored/maxed on the stock turbo and seeing what else goes wrong before going further.