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91 GST Budget Restoration - Street Beast LOTS OF PICS

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turbobird14

15+ Year Contributor
109
0
Nov 19, 2007
temperance, Michigan
Hey guys! Ive had this car for a little while now and have a build thread started on a local site but i figured posting on here would make sense, and be more enjoyed by all! I will update as the days go on from the beginning and ramp you up to where we are at now (kinda like a movie premier!! LOL). But ill give some history.

1991 BONE STOCK Eclipse GST FWD - 5 Speed with 252,000 FREAKIN I CANT BELIEVE THIS CAR STILL EXISTS IN MICHIGAN AND ISNT RUSTED OUT OR SMASHED INSIDE OUT miles....:hellyeah:

Bought the car for 600.00 off craigslist, of coarse, with supposedly a rebuilt motor and bad turbo. Got the car home and started to check it out. Turns out this blown turbo was fine. The wastegate actuator arm fell off the flapper on the turbo because the cotter pin wasn't installed and it was blowing all the boost right out. So i hooked the WG actuator up and installed the pin like a good boy and she pulled like a raped ape!!!! Body is good with exception for some rust holes and everything seems to be there! This thankfully hasn't been hacked apart so even for the miles I think its a good starting point! So at this point I have 601.29 into this car.....so I thought.

And thus begins my epic journey of a love hate relationship with another DSM.

Goals:
- Upgrade Turbo - OEM 14b or 16g with supporting mods
- 3" Exhaust and DP
- Tuning - DSMLink, SAFC, AEM EMS :/ (someone should donate LOL)
- Tight and Comfy (like yo mommas vajay-jay) suspension
- New Brakes
- Keep the clean look, Rims, Paint, Tint - New Front Bumper and OEM Fogs
- Interior Keep Stock and Clean
- OH! The Kicker....reliable - Baahahaha

Ugly little bastard!
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Aweful Konig Rims, Clear coat Peeling off everywhere, Some rust holes but clean other than that. Underside is in decent shape suprisingly!!
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Crappy aftermarket foglights, Cracked front bumper
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Buzz's Girlfriend.....WOOF
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I knew I was gonna have to redo the paint and some body work, but was interested to see how the black top would turn out. It appears to be in decent shape with no damage to the clear. Oh, and the purple tint has to go also.
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First thing I did was change the dreadful rims. I had a pair of 17" rare talon rims in my garage on my other project DSM (which will come out of hibernation soon) with good tires, so i decided to swap!!! :cool:
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Already looks a million times better!
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Hopefully I have more time tonight to add to this but for now this is all I can do.
 
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The cars paint is trashed with sundamage obviously, except for the black top! Super surprised that it wasnt spider cracked or oxidized to the point beyond no return. So I put a wheel on it to see if I can save it!! Paint Correction FTW!

Picture After It Was Washed! Notice How Oxidized!!!
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Just a real quick 50/50 shot to see how well it would come back to life!
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Really Happy with the result!!

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After the paint was checked out and the top fixed, I decided to take the car to my friends house. We had a garage party, which consists of someone needing to use his lift, to check out the suspension. It was blown out. The lower control arm ball joints were about to come out of the sockets, they were rusted apart, sway bar links broke, inner tie rod ends had play, and the kicker... Power steering rack was leaking from the hard lines. So A total Overhaul of the suspension began. On top of this the brakes were shot! The only thing that was in good shape surprisingly were the struts! Wasn't sure if I wanted to lower it or not, but I ended up keeping it stock ride height.

Side by side of the control arm. The opposite side was just as bad.
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Picture of the front end partly disassembeled. I didnt take as many pictures as I thought I did to document the front end stuff but it was all pretty wasted. The power steering rack was horrible and a PITA to remove but it all got done and drove very well to the alignment shop :)
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Completed mock-up before the rack was replaced (found out the rack was leaking after it was all back together for the first time)
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And my beautiful skills lining up the steering wheel......:banghead: Yes, the wheels are streight. LOL
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Much Better thanks to a favor owed to me!
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Next was the window tint. It was purpling, and had to be on there for a while. This was exactly what was the case because it took over 2.5 hours to remove it all. My back hurt when I was done to say the least.
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Went 35% all the way around to give it a nice little shade without being ghetto. Turned out really nice (will post pics later of this)


Now it was time to try my hand at cleaning up the body. I wanted to fix the rust holes and small surface spots that were coming thru in order to get the body redone. I was interested in paint.... but at the time i was dealing with dipyourcar.com right before they blew up on youtube. I was gonna be an installer for them at my new detailing shop i was building so i wanted to get familiar with the product. Never ended up going that route business wise but did go that route on this car! I couldnt have been happier with my choice. Since it was a budget build, plastidip is alot less expensive than a paint job, especially when DYC sent me the gallons for free :)

Nothing says "get shit done" like a smirnoff ice
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Some fiberglass filler to start - remember: this is the first time iver really attempted body work. I called a good friend whos parents own a body shop and asked for some advise. Other than that just by seeing youtube videos and watching a few people I gave it a shot.

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Dont mind the shitty intercooler pipe setup.... thats long gone.

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Sanded down the fiberglass and bondo'd it up. Did 2 steps of the bondo, light coats on each step and it came out pretty damn good!

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So I was planning on sourcing a new front bumper when we originally dipped this car so it was left off for painting. Since they were nearly impossible to find in decent shape I ended up just fixing the stock one. Of coarse this was after the fact of me dipping the car so there is a lack of bumper to go along with this progress at this moment. Its all fixed now.

I decided to go with a matte white and keep the gloss black top. Ill let the pictures speak for themselves.

Final Shots of the car before we began. I hit all the fixed spots with a black primer to seal it before we pressed on.

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Final shots of it lookin like booty

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Product nom nom nom!!!!

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First of 7 coats this needed to do a complete color change!!!! FML

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Franklin D Rosevelt just has to touch everything.

On a side note, if anyone is unfamiliar with plastidip, its basically badass for people who wanna stay cheap on body color change. It is made to be temporary, ut if you maintain it correctly it will last a while. The coolest thing is that it uses the vehicle body lines as separation points where the product will essentially "tape itself off". So whatever you would naturally tape over typically is sprayed with product and just peeled off! Im not gonna get into in depth of how or why it works like that so google it if you wanna find more info. So back to pictures:

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After 5 coats:

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Almost Done!!!!

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I would have covered the exhaust if it wasn't gonna be replaced anyway:
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FINAL PRODUCT!!!!
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Pics of it outside after a 24Hr cure!

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Like I said in the earlier posts, the windows got some mad tintz yo! Big Tim just slaving away!
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Looks proper now minus said bumper....DAMMIT!!!!
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Sorry for the poor quality:
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So at this point, I was driving the car around quite a bit and just enjoying it for the most part. The problem was as I drove it, it felt like it was losing power. Not long after this whole head-game began with me did a "supercharger" sounding noise started coming from the engine bay when I was in full boost. Ive seen alot on here and other forums how these are the turbos giving way or a pinhole boost leak really pushing air thru, so I decided to park it and start the engine process.

Being the ambitious type of guy I am; putting together a bunch of budget priced/ used forum part/ piece everything together type of set up; seemed achievable to me in the midst of building a brand new 4400 sq. ft. facility. Boy was I wrong....:cry: This vehicle sat in this resting area
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from September 1st 2012 until the end of the year, getting work done as we went. The problem now was I was just getting carried away as the disassembly went on and wanted to start replacing EVERYTHING!!! The car unfortunately rolled out of my old shop not under its own power with a toe strap towing it down the road to the new building. It sat outside under a car cover for nearly 8 more months until I finally had the resources and time to work on it again. So here is the progress documenting what happened!!
 
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I probably should have done a lot more How-To threads and taken alot more pictures but that wasn't on my mind ATM. Really, it should be more rather how-not-to, cause it would be alot more educational. Regardless charged ahead with out one single clue what I really wanted to do and BOOM! here we are with a pile of parts and a paperweight LOL.

FIRST THE PARTS :D
Most of the stuff was picked up off of a forum or used part on eGay, ill note what was new and what wasn't.

- XS Power Tubular Manifold

- Innovate MTX-L Wideband

- Autometer Boost Guage

- 3" Downpipe with O2 bung already attached

- FMIC with J-pipe and Pipe kit, Type RS BOV (found out later on that this is for a blow thru set-up.....i was quite pissed, you will again see why later)

- Dude threw in some generic boost controller, never used it.

- 2g MAF

- RC550's

- Punishment Racing Recirc O2 Housing

- NEW EBAY 16g Turbo

- Apex'i SAFC

- NEW FFWD Copper Gaskets

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Not a bad parts list to start. I knew I would be running into some issues along the way and would have to order parts as needed but I felt like this was a good start to go off of. Parts were all delivered and I started the teardown process.

TO BE CONTINUED! Muaaaahahhahahahahhahahahaa
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Looks good turbobird! Great job on applying the Plasti-Dip, it looks smooth. In fact the Plasti-Dip is the reason I'm commenting.

I Plastidipped my 2g several months back, white in fact! I just thought I'd give my small word of advice and tell you of my current experience in hopes that many will think hard before plastidipping their car. My car looked just like yours when it was first done, nice and smooth, vibrant color and just generally looked great. It was only a few months later that things kind of went south.

Rocks from the road beat up my bumper and the rest of the car has started to wear away because of rain the the Florida sun. Keep in mind this is after several full coats. The other issue with white is that it WILL get dirty. And if you want it to maintain its vibrant white color you must wash is pretty frequently. If left too long it'll just stain and it won't come out no matter how hard you try.

All in all it looks great and it's cool to see someone else do this. Thumbs up for sure! If you have any questions about what to expect or just in general let me know. Just know I don't mean any offense by what I said, just thought it would be helpful to offer my experience.
 
Looks good turbobird! Great job on applying the Plasti-Dip, it looks smooth. In fact the Plasti-Dip is the reason I'm commenting.

I Plastidipped my 2g several months back, white in fact! I just thought I'd give my small word of advice and tell you of my current experience in hopes that many will think hard before plastidipping their car. My car looked just like yours when it was first done, nice and smooth, vibrant color and just generally looked great. It was only a few months later that things kind of went south.

Rocks from the road beat up my bumper and the rest of the car has started to wear away because of rain the the Florida sun. Keep in mind this is after several full coats. The other issue with white is that it WILL get dirty. And if you want it to maintain its vibrant white color you must wash is pretty frequently. If left too long it'll just stain and it won't come out no matter how hard you try.

All in all it looks great and it's cool to see someone else do this. Thumbs up for sure! If you have any questions about what to expect or just in general let me know. Just know I don't mean any offense by what I said, just thought it would be helpful to offer my experience.

Hey guy! No offense taken. Plastidip is meant for people who meticulously maintain their vehicle. For the daily driver who washes it once every other week, not gonna happen. Also, its SUPER durable so if applied correctly (wash vehicle with dish soap, IPA entire vehicle, Spray 5 minimum even coats) it can take a beating with a strong degreaser and a bug sponge. Mine sat under a tarp for 8 months and after an intense washing....came right back to life. I also own a detail shop so i have the upper hand on products to test and use haha. Its also a temporary product so its not meant to stand up like a repaint would. The majority of vehicles that go for this product are exotics/ weekend warriors who put maybe 5k miles a year on their car and wash it every time they go home. I probably shouldnt have gone the dip route..... but for the price I cant complain
 
Not sure about the front mount piping kit, that looks a lot like a 2g UICP for a stock side mount.

Yeah it turned out to be a bust, nothing lined up, i thought there was possibly a pipe missing. Either way i scratched it as a whole and went with a different/ complete kit.
 
I found this PlastiDip thread on another forum a while back and have been stoked on it ever since. Great job and look forward to the progress.
 
So I started off installing the gauges first, idk why, maybe thats where i would stop and possibly have a running car still LOL? Who knows. Anyway it was pretty straight forward. I soldered and shrink tubed every connection... ran color coded wires....grommeted firewall passages, ran all wires in a group with existing wiring harnesses and wrapped it all in new plastic hard casing. So lets just say I dont f**k around when it comes to wiring cause I hate chasing down problems caused by shitty craftsmanship.....so I definitely wont be one of those people. haha

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During this I ripped alot of the interior out to make room for my big ass to work and just for ease of install of everything. I pulled the ecu in order to wire in the SAFC and to make sure of where i wanted to mount it all. The shifter also felt super sloppy so i ordered the samborski shifter bushing kit and also an OEM Mitsu shift sleeve bushing. The pictures are hard to make out, but it made a hell of a difference in feel. There was a ton of play in the shifter and would make it feel like i was missing a gear everytime I shifted the car.

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Notice the rubber bushings under the philips head bolt
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Not so rubber anymore
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Well sticking to the inside didnt last long so I started the teardown process
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I mocked up the Turbo and manifold just to see how it was gonna look. I LIKE!!!
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Thats gonna look good here....except for the fact that a few of the manifold studs decided to snap off.....:/ of coarse
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This just looks disgusting
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I just hate these little bastards....why you gotta go and break off in there!!!!
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Time to drill and tap these little bastards out
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I cant believe its actually working!
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YAYYYYY!!!
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All bolted up with new hardware!!! I love the FFWD copper gaskets!!! I also Got the chance to unload about 6 can of brake kleen on the bi*** also... finally have her looking a little more respectable.
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OH!!!! Forgot to chime back in about the FMIC. So this really chaps my ass because after I send all of these beautiful parts out for powdercoating.... i find out the Piping kit wont work.... It was my dumb ass that didnt mock it up first so I guess im to blame. Anyway it would have looked this good!!!
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At least the valve cover is staying....
 
So I mentioned that a little building project got in the way of this car project, we went from this shop (with random action shots!!! LOL):
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To this!!!! :):):):)
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I actually have a showroom!!!!!!

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build looks like its coming along nice. I could swear those are the Dahm Brothers cars in ## last post but i thought the lambo was in pieces right now?
 
Hey! You know my business partners LOL!!! Yes his lambo is in the garage getting a massage every night before he goes to bed. The GTR just got put away for the winter also.
 
Started back at it once the shop was done and operational. I was fed up with thinking about having to mess with the intercooler piping and ordered a VSRF 1g Front Mount.
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I also had a lot of time to ponder the old car when it was running and remembered everything that annoyed me about it. It had an idle surge (shocking) and the accel cable felt like it was binding up a bit. Ordered a non-cruise replacement cable and 1g TB from throttlebody.com. Went with a FIAV blockoff and new ISC just to be safe.
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Finally got the proper sized oil feed line which took me a hell of a time figuring out since this cheap ass ebay 16g was drilled wrong.
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And we went to work!!! LOL

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The old ass AC system was far beyond repairable so i ended up just getting rid of it as a whole. Pulled all the old AC lines and componants out to make room for everything else.
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With the VSRF, i never ordered the J-pipe with it because i already had one.... little did I know that it wouldnt work with the new setup. I should have expected this since nothing has gone together properly at this point. So i had to do a little modification to an existing pipe to make it fit! It worked out actually really well.
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Its starting to look like a motor now!
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I ended up making due with the 2g intake pipe the guy sent me with the 2G Maf, and turned it into a usable assembly for my car:
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