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1Gb Talon Rust Revival

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Didn't get a chance to work on the Talon much this weekend. Started on the sound deadening, but of course that uncovered other "issues" to deal with, which took time. Like these drain plugs under the rear seats. They are rusting out a bit so I wire brushed and sealed with POR15.
drainplugsinterior.jpg
por15interiordrainplugs.jpg


While I have the interior out, I decided to properly re-route the fuel pump power wire. I made sure it followed the original wire harness properly.
fuelpumpwirereroute.jpg


The door panels have needed a little work. Still dealing with that caulking or whatever the previous owner used. I'm making sure the door controls are on nice and tight. Now I know why they were a bit loose and sloppy before. The interior door handle bracket is also rusting a bit, so I'll be removing the rust and most likely priming/painting for some protection
interiordoor.jpg
bracketrustdoor.jpg


I then began the long job of sound deadening the interior. I'm using SoundShield because they include a layer of closed cell foam for extra sound/vibration deadening.
soundshield1.jpg
 
Slow progress so far on this part of the build. Cutting and placing sound deadening just doesn't excite me I guess, but here's what I did anyway. I completed the deadening on the passenger side and also the back seat area and started on the trunk area. I'm following the stock sound deadening areas for the most part and adding some here and there where I think it's needed. In order to get a decent cut, I used template tape. Put it on the areas you need to get a pattern for, trace it with a sharpie, then transfer it to the deadening material.
templatetape.jpg
sounddeadening222.jpg


I've never been impressed with the sound quality and speaker enclosure setup in the rear. There's just too many areas for the sound to go that's NOT out into the interior of the car. One of the areas is behind these speaker bracket enclosure. For starters I removed the stock foam on the back edge. It isn't even thick enough, or stiff enough to fill the gap behind this thing. I replaced it with a much thicker and more durable rubber surround.
Before & After
beforespeakerbracket.jpg
afterbracketspeaker.jpg

There are also several holes behind the speakers where sound can travel behind the interior plastics...I'll be closing them up to try and get the sound to all come forward toward the interior.
 
Didn't have much time again this weekend so worked on continuing with the audio setup...a few things I wanted to get done with this weekend was running the wiring and cleaning the carept.

Here's the carpet before. Wasn't too bad, but a few nasty stains and some wear in the normal areas. I think it turned out pretty well.
carpet11.jpg

Here it is after. Not a huge change in pictures, but it smells much better and the stains are taken care of for the most part.
carpetafter2.jpg


I used a small carpet extractor and a brush on a drill.
carpetcleaning.jpg

I ran the power and RCA cables as well. I'm running a 4-way rca, and a spare for an eventual sub I will install. Plus, the signal wire. I wrapped them in tesa tape to keep them all together and prevent any "rattling".
rcawires.jpg

I the installed my JL Audio C2-400X's/ I always add some foam tape to the back and front of the speaker to make sure my sound is directed into the cabin and prevent rattling.
frontspeaker.jpg
 
This is truly amazing work! Mad props to you.

I inherited my wife's 92 TSi AWD which has been parked in the garage for 4+ years. It was running fine before then and I'm about to try to get it on the road again. I'd also been thinking of things I'd like to change/upgrade, etc. as well as refresh cosmetically (headliner falling down, passenger dash de-glued, fading plastic, worn out carpet, etc.)

But honestly, after going through this entire thread, I'm not sure I have the fortitude for it. I would be like you, wanting to fix everything little thing.

All the sweat equity aside, how much money are you into the restoration for? Between new parts including custom fabricated ones, chemicals and paint, tools, it's got to be a ton?? I'd have to get a bead blaster or something too ... I can't imagine what this is costing.
 
This is truly amazing work! Mad props to you.

I inherited my wife's 92 TSi AWD which has been parked in the garage for 4+ years. It was running fine before then and I'm about to try to get it on the road again. I'd also been thinking of things I'd like to change/upgrade, etc. as well as refresh cosmetically (headliner falling down, passenger dash de-glued, fading plastic, worn out carpet, etc.)

But honestly, after going through this entire thread, I'm not sure I have the fortitude for it. I would be like you, wanting to fix everything little thing.

All the sweat equity aside, how much money are you into the restoration for? Between new parts including custom fabricated ones, chemicals and paint, tools, it's got to be a ton?? I'd have to get a bead blaster or something too ... I can't imagine what this is costing.
I don't have an amount for ya, but it's one of those things where the car is paid for and I don't need it as a daily, so I can just take my time with it and enjoy the process. To me, just having fun tinkering, improving, repairing is worth much more than the monetary sum of it all. My advice would be to just take your time and make the car your own. If you like making old things new and repairing and making things better than new in some cases, you'll have a lot of fun. If you're not from the north like I am with winters where they throw salt on everything, you won't nearly have as much as me to do with all the rust I'm dealing with. You also gotta remember, I bought this car back in 2003 so the money spent has been spread out over 20+ yrs.

You've also got this community to help you out with any advice you'll need and to keep your motivation high...I'm in here all the time looking at builds to help keep me at it. Keep at it bro! We got you! :)
 
You’re right of course. So I dug in today. First order of business was to rip out the janky old Viper car alarm. Got that mostly done, need to repair a few wires and extend the starter wire to fix it. They cut out a big chunk to add the kill relay, so now the original wire doesn’t reach itself anymore. Once I finish that up, then I can put the new battery in and see what’s what.

What did you find out about the door panel controls? Mine is really loose as well, and I had to pull the panel off anyway to get rid of the alarm door lock actuator. The vapor barrier is tore to shit as well, I guess I’ll have to cut out a new one.
 
You’re right of course. So I dug in today. First order of business was to rip out the janky old Viper car alarm. Got that mostly done, need to repair a few wires and extend the starter wire to fix it. They cut out a big chunk to add the kill relay, so now the original wire doesn’t reach itself anymore. Once I finish that up, then I can put the new battery in and see what’s what.

What did you find out about the door panel controls? Mine is really loose as well, and I had to pull the panel off anyway to get rid of the alarm door lock actuator. The vapor barrier is tore to shit as well, I guess I’ll have to cut out a new one.
With my door controls, the plastic rivets that hold them on, almost all were broken, so I repaired them and now they are rock solid. The vapor barrier I'll be replacing this weekend as well. Mine were fine, but I ripped them out and I'll be replacing with new plastic in some spots, but also using sound deadener material for the rest. So, my advice....remove the door panel and check the condition of the rivets holding them in. Go from there....that's the fun in working on these cars. One thing at a time.
 
Been a couple weeks since I've been able to work on the Talon...I've been doing some landscaping projects in the mean time. I did find time to work on it today though. This particular project is taking much longer than I thought.

I wanted to get the driver's side door done today. That meant getting speaker wire into it, sound deadening it, wiring it, installing the speaker and re-doing the vapor barrier...

I started with the speaker wire. It's a huge bi*** getting it through the accordion tube from the door into the interior. Took awhile, but I managed. I'm using 12gauge wire from Knu-Conceptz.
speakerroutingdoor1.jpg


I then began sound deadening the interior of the door. Way back in my teens when I used to do more car audio installations, I recall the "rule" being to cover approx 25% of a panel to achieve 90% effective sound deadening. So that's what I aimed for. The "tap test" on the outside of the door confirmed this pretty well. I used more deadening the close I got to the speaker housing.
soundshield22.jpg
soundskin1.jpg

This piece that houses the grab handle was a bit rusty, so I used rust converter, primed and painted it black.
doorgrab1.jpg

I used a sponge bass blocker pad right behind the speaker housing, on top of some sound deadener for max absorption. I'm trying to get as much of the sound from the speaker into the interior of the car. I'm using 6" JL Audio speakers so these are sized for that.
soundshield2.jpg


In areas where the wiring harnesses in the door may vibrate and make noise, I cover them with neoprene rubber and secure with Tesa tape.
wirewrap.jpg

I re-did the vapor barrier where I couldn't use sound deadening effectively. Our doors are kinda weird how they routed the lock and handle mechanisms...they go both inside and outside of the door, so I used new plastic in these areas. I used Killmat sheets cut to size to cover the holes where I didn't want to use plastic like the stock configuration. To secure the plastic, I used strip caulk. Here's the finished product. I also used foam speaker rings on the outside of the speaker and techflex on the larger wiring harness.

doordone1.jpg
doordone2.jpg
 
Maybe you are going to cover this next, but how did you fix the little screw standoffs on the back of the controls plate for the door panel? I took mine apart and every single one of them are broken and the PO tried to keep it together with hot glue. Didn't work.
 
Maybe you are going to cover this next, but how did you fix the little screw standoffs on the back of the controls plate for the door panel? I took mine apart and every single one of them are broken and the PO tried to keep it together with hot glue. Didn't work.
What I did, and I'm sure there are better ways, but most of the rivets were still there, just broken, so I pried them out and used a drop or two of JB Weld, 2-part epoxy adhesive, then reinserted the broken part of the rivet. It essentially just redid the original way of keeping those damn control plates intact. They are rock solid now. And with me fixing all the broken door clips, my door panel has never felt this good.
 
Enjoying the Build Thread. It's great to see another DSMer in MN. The restoration you are doing looks fantastic. It's nice that it is fun for you.
 
Still slowly working on this interior job...taking awhile because I've been working on some other things outside of my home now that's it's fall. gotta get the lawn renovated as well.

Still making work on the rear speakers this weekend, but I got them all sorted and installed.
First thing I did was cover up a few of the holes behind the stock rear speaker location. there are so many ways the stock audio configuration is garbage and this is one of them. Music is able to go everywhere, BUT where it's intended to go. As a result, I covered up a some of the areas in the rear.
reardeadeningholes.jpg


I then took some time and really deadened the stock speaker mount. Inside and out.

speakerenclosureinside.jpg

I made sure my speaker terminals were perfectly done as well.
speakerterminalsneds.jpg

I then wrapped them with neoprene rubber and tesa tape so they don't vibrate and cause noise.

speakerinstall2.jpg


installed and ready to go. As you can see, I also wrapped the stock speaker terminals with rubber as well and tied them back on themselves so they aren't floating around and causing noise as well.

speakerinstall1.jpg
 
Limited time again this weekend. Continued with the monotony of wiring the sounds system. Lots of little stuff, like routing the speakers cables and securing them across the car. I have my power cable running along the driver's side of the car and the RCA's and speakers wires all running along the passenger side. There's A LOT of wiring going down that side.

Got the carpet reinstalled today...damn it looks so much better all freshened up. It makes me a fan of the tan carpeting again.

cleancarpetinstalled.jpg


After that I got the seats back in the car after a good scrub down. The seats are not in the best condition at all. I actually like the stock seats, so I'll probably bring them all in and get them redone at a really good upholstery shop here in the Cities.

seatsinstalled.jpg


The stock hardware for the seats had seen better days. Since some of these bolts actually bolt all the way through the car and are subject to the elements, I wanted to replace them with better/new stuff. After rechasing the threads of course.

seatbracketbolt.jpg
seatbracketbolts2.jpg


As far as the door control fix...I took a quick pic, but it doesn't show a whole lot. I pried out these broken plastic rivets, put a few drops of JB weld epoxy in the hole and reinstalled the rivets. This essentially "re-welded" them back together. Working well so far.
doorcontrolsfix.jpg
 
Had a little more time this weekend, made a little more progress...
Noticed my passenger side seat bracket had a little rust on it...removed the rust, primed and painted.

beforebracketseat.jpg
afterbracketseat.jpg


Began working on the interior pieces. Getting them all cleaned up, etc. I wiped both sides down with all purpose cleaner.

cleaninginteriorpieces1.jpg


Several pieces have weather stripping that was disintegrating. I removed, cleaned and replaced...

beforestripp.jpg
duringweatherstripp.jpg
afterstrippinginterior.jpg

I also continued placing sound deadening material in the nooks and crannies of the interior...There's a lot of areas to get into that's for sure..

soundshieldinstallside.jpg


I needed to add some more bling so I ordered a CAS cover from Frontline Fabrication and got that all buttoned up too.

cascover1.jpg
cascover3.jpg
cascover2.jpg
 
Continued with the interior. These brackets in the trunk were looking pretty crusty, so I removed and blasted. I just coated with a matte clearcoat to keep them looking fresh.

truckbracketsbefore.jpg
truckbracketsblasted.jpg


I am still cutting and shaping the sound deadening material. I'm mostly done with the interior. I still have to do the right door and panel, but I need to move the car to give me more room, so I'm finishing up everything else before tackling that. I'm also routing all the wiring as I go.

In the trunk I'm mainly recovering the factory sound deadening locations and adding to thinner panels that may resonate. I'm making sure I do the trunk really well as I'm planning to add a single subwoofer at some point.
sounddeadning4.jpg
trucnksounddeadened.jpg


Finished buttoning up the driver's side interior panels and got the rear seatback and seatbelts all bolted back in. It's tricky working with UV blasted, 30yr old plastic. You never know when something will crack.
driversinteriorcompleted.jpg


This week I'll be working on the passenger side panels and mounting my new JL Audio 5-channel amp to the seat back before I mount it back in the car. I had my old amp mounted this way and it worked great for many years.
 
Got a lot done this weekend. the interior is all buttoned back up...well, 95% of it is. I started off by cleaning all the little bits and pieces that go back into the car. All the panels and pieces I cleaned and treaed with 303 protectant to hopefully give all these 30yr old pieces a little more life and pliability. I was shocked at how much better they looked afterwards.
interiorbitsclean.jpg


Some of the bits were looking pretty worn, so I prepped and painted with a tan vinyl and plastic paint I found. It's pretty close to stock and made things look way better. I mainly did the little covers.

Before:
interiorbuttonbefore.jpg


After:
interiorbuttonafter.jpg
interiorfrontclean.jpg


I also cleaned up the small carpeted interior panels. they were much dirtier than I thought.
Before: Th pics don't do it justice, but these pieces were pretty stained and gross Something was spilled in my interior many years ago.
interiorcarpetbolsterdirty.jpg
interiorpaneldirty.jpg

After:

interiorcarpetbitsclean.jpg


The metal panel on the back of one of these was always loose, so I fixed it up and made it rock solid again. Most of these staples were gone/broken. So I replaced them.

interiorpanelstapled.jpg

This interior is starting to look damn good!
interiorcleanseats.jpg


Next up was getting the amp installed and wired as well as the stereo harness. I went with the double-din Alpine ILX-507.
Before:
wireharnessbefore.jpg

All wired up:
stereoharnessdone.jpg

stereonewinstall.jpg

I'm going to have to figure out a trim piece to make this look better. If anyone has any ideas of one I can just purchase, please let me know.
I then went to work on the amp. I use ferrules to connect to the amp. I crimp the smaller gauge wires, and for the bigger ones I just crimp them using the amps connections.
ferruleswires.jpg
ampwired.jpg

For where the carpet on the back of the seats connects to the floor pan, I needed something better than stock. Over time, the holes in the carpet stretch out and the clips aren't big enough to fill it and keep it secured. I had some of these bumper retainers sitting around and they worked perfectly as the overall diameter is bigger than the stock ones. You can see the stock ones on the left here....

interiorclipsnew2.jpg
interiorclipsnew.jpg


I decided it was time to get the car off jackstands. It's been on them for about a year and a half now...I wanted to see where the suspension was sitting so I could set the coilovers eventually.
caronground2222.jpg


I'll let the suspension settle a bit and get the coilovers setup next week.
 
Today I wanted to get the sound system all finished up and set the coilover height.
Getting a sub in an AWD can be a bit tough with the spare tire hump in the hatch. I didn't want to cut and flatten it, so I searched for a solution that may fit. Initially, I was thinking I'd get something for one of the rear corners of the trunk, but seeing as it's such a weird shape back there it might be tough. Then, as I was sitting back there looking, I thought, if I could get something narrow enough I could put it right behind the hump. I measured it and I knew i had about 15" in height and about 5" in width I could go...length was pretty long so I wasn't worried there.

I knew for sure I wanted one 10" woofer and I wanted a sealed enclosure. That would give me enough punch and not weigh a ton while leaving me trunk space. After I did my research, I found this.
subbix3.jpg

It's a shallow mount 10" sub that packs quite a punch according to reviews. The enclosure is just under 5" deep and just under 15" tall. Perfect!! I went to work getting it all hooked up. It's was a quick process since I had already wired everything for a potential sub.
subbox1.jpg
subbox2.jpg
subbox4.jpg

Next up was getting the coilovers setup a bit. I knew I needed to drop them quite a bit.
Here's the gap I was dealing with.
coiloverbefore.jpg


I wanted a nice clean look, but not super low. Here's what I ended up with. I may end up tweaking it more after the suspension is worn in a bit.
afterdrop1.jpg
sideafterdrop1.jpg
sideafterdrop2.jpg


Next up was getting her started and setting the idle. This took a bit. She was surging all over the place. I needed to reset my BISS settings, then re-do the TPS setting in ECMlink. Finally got her settled down after I realized the ECU was thinking the throttle was about 4% open. A quick check and re-set of the throttle cable and a reset of the TPS adjustment in Link and we were in business. Idling steady at my set 800rpm. Found out I have a decent sized exhaust leak at the turbo to downpipe connection so I'll take care of that tomorrow.
 
This week I needed to address the alpine parking brake lockout and my nasty floormats.

These new Alpine head units have a lockout where you can't get into various menus unless the parking brake is engaged. i didn't want to hookup the wire to my parking brake so I looked into various ways to bypass this stupid "feature". I found this bypass on ebay and ordered it. It's pretty straightforward. You just splice into various wires in the Alpine harness. Worked like a charm!
bypassstereo.jpg
harnessafter22.jpg


The next item on the list was more of an annoyance. When I ordered my Kiggly alternator pulley, the company I bought it from recommended a specific belt to accommodate the bigger pulley...that one didn't work at all, I was maxed out on adjustment and it was still pretty loose. I then ordered a slightly smaller one and installed it and it was also maxed out on adjustment, though it was a bit tighter. I thought it might work, but I was having massive belt squeal even at idle. So, I did some digging and ordered a new belt about an inch smaller in O.C. It was a tight fit, but no more squeal and I'm about in the first 1/3 of the adjustment range so lots more to go if I need it. Here's the one I got in case anyone needs to know in the future. I believe these fit Montero Sports. Here's the part #:
newaltbelt.jpg


Next up was dealing with my nasty-ass floor mats. I forgot I even had these, but they were put away when I ripped out the interior. I don't have any for the rear...I don't think I've ever had any. I did the same process I did for the interior carpet. Here they are before I cleaned them: Lots of dirt and wear at the heel points.
floormatsbefore.jpg


I rinsed them, spot treated, used a brush on a drill and finally used an extractor...
floormatsduring.jpg

Here they are after one pass:
floormatsfirstpass.jpg

the passenger side I only had to do twice...the driver's side I did 4 times. It's not perfect, but way better than it was. I also used the same spray I used for some of the interior bits and sprayed the outer leather trim on the mats. They were in rough shape and very discolored so this worked well and gave it a nice contrast border that matches the interior trim a bit better.
floormatsafter.jpg
floormatsinstalled.jpg

After all that I wanted to do an updated boost leak test. My idle is still not perfect...it never has been. It's acceptable at time, but I would sure like to have a rock-solid idle even at startup. Might be a pipe dream, but I will at least rule out other things first.
boostleaktester.jpg

I didn't get very far...as soon as I added some air, I found a massive leak at the CBV adapter/gasket. I tried tightening it and nothing, so off it came. I added a bead of RTV and will let it dry for a day before trying again.
rtvbov.jpg
 
Redid a boost leak test again...BOV is solid now, but I now have a large leak at the J-pipe/turbo connection. I hate J-pipes...so damn hard to get to. I finally got it removed and pulled the old gasket...turns out there was another gasket hidden in there completely flattened so much that i didn't realize at first that it was even a gasket. I'm tired of these gaskets not doing much so I'm going to try RTV this time. First thing was to get both surfaces cleaned up. They were pretty gross.
Here's the J-pipe half done
jpipecleaning.jpg
turboflangecleans.jpg
jpipertv.jpg
rtvedjpipe.jpg


While I was waiting an hour for the RTV to setup before tightening fully, I was looking around the engine bay and remembered I still have a 74mm S90 TB sitting around. I bought this thing WAAY back when these were brand new to these cars. I never installed it because it would completely change my intercooler piping as the inlets are different between this one and the stock TB and I wasn't ready to change them at the time...then I just forgot about it.
s90.jpg

As I was contemplating getting this thing on I was realizing I don't really like the routing of my intercooler piping anyway. I've also been wanting to get a Tial BOV, but I'm no welder so I never did due to the flange. Then, I figured since I have this S90, I'd hate to mate it up to a stock intake manifold that I'd have to hog out to match the TB...maybe I should just get a new intake manifold too??? Decisions.
Either way it was time to rip it all apart again...
I def won't miss this bullshit. I've always hated these two bolts.
boltontb.jpg


20 min later.
tbremoval22.jpg

removing the intake manifold is kind of a bi*** if you don't remember a few things. I removed it several years back and apparently I had forgotten all of them. Here are a few tips if u have to remove it:
1. Remove the fuel rail for easier access...not 100% necessary, but it helps. I just tied it and the harness up out of the way with injectors still attached.
2. Don't forget all the stuff bolted onto the IM in the back and underside.
3. The ONLY way to get at the four 12mm bolts underneath the manifold is from the passenger side. Be prepared to lay across your engine bay in weird contorted positions.
4. Remove your starter motor to help access them.
5. Swear a lot.

ewwww....
dirtyrunners.jpg


Took me about an hour to get her out.
imout.jpg
intakemaniout.jpg

I'm thinking while I have it out I'll probably remove the A/C and change out the brake booster for a 3g version. Anything else I should do while I have it out???
The AC takes up so much room...can't wait to get rid of it. Hasn't worked in years anyway and I'm def not going to get everything all switched over and updated to R-134a. Not even sure we really can at this point as I believe we need all new updated components. I don't think we can simply just fill with newer freon and have it work properly. Correct me if I'm wrong.
acremoval.jpg


I placed some orders and a new intake manifold, BOV and fuel rail are on the way!
 
I see the “while I’m in there” bug got you pretty good this weekend!

The only thing I can think of to check while the intake is off is the knock sensor :idontknow:.

I’ve never heard of replacing all the AC components to change to r134, I hope that’s not true. I need AC where I live!
 
I see the “while I’m in there” bug got you pretty good this weekend!

The only thing I can think of to check while the intake is off is the knock sensor :idontknow:.

I’ve never heard of replacing all the AC components to change to r134, I hope that’s not true. I need AC where I live!
Yeah, it hurts a bit to tear it down again, but the weather is going to be getting colder here soon in MN, so what else am I gonna have to do in the winter?

Knock sensor is almost new, but I'll def torque it down while I'm back there, I remember it was tough to get it torqued with the IM on.

I changed just the drier and used oil that is compatible with both 134 and R12 and filled it with r134, AC works just fine.
Good to know! Dammit, now I have some things to think about. I could have sworn I read somewhere in here years ago that we needed to swap some stuff out. Thanks for the info!
 
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