91 GSX

[TCB91GSX]

Gave up on finding Evo8 wheels, went with RPF1’s
17x9, 45 offset front 35 offset rear. Yokohama Advan V601 245/40/17 tires… Excited to get rid of my black wheels. Black wheels created a void and didn’t offer any aesthetic.

 

[TCB91GSX]

My pinch welds have always bothered me on this car as the driver side was bent completely into the frame but that’s not what started where I’m at right now.

When entering my car I noticed some pine needles/dirt/leaves in between my fender and the body of the car when the door is open. Thought to myself, I should clean that out one day. Well here we are. I tried to brush it out with the door open and made little progress. Fast forward to pulling my fender liner and then pulling my fender off to the mound of dirt I found back there. Down the wormhole we go, so I after the fender, I pulled the side skirt and that thing just had literal chunks of built of dirt in it. Surprisingly only broke one of the bottom fender bolts and luckily it was the outer one. Some torch and vice grip time later I was able to work out the shaft of the bolt and keep the threads intact.

Next I used some heat and an adjustable wrench to straighten out my pinch welds. I am in the process of prepping for Rust Bullet automotive/black shell coating. Looks like it makes sense to do the entire length of the pinch weld and the interior of the fender. I found minimal rust so I’ll continue to clean it up and use the coating to contain it.

This is a laborious task with little reward…



….. anyways I recommend taking a look behind your side skirt/fender next opportunity you have.

 

[Mech Addict]

The reward is knowing there is no longer a bunch of mud packed in the car and a rust-time-bomb ticking.
I never regret doing this kind of deep clean/maintenance on my car. It’s from Florida, and fine white sand is EVERYWHERE. The only regret is when I break something in the process, which definitely does happen.

 

[AWD-Tony]

My pinch welds have always bothered me on this car as the driver side was bent completely into the frame but that’s not what started where I’m at right now.

When entering my car I noticed some pine needles/dirt/leaves in between my fender and the body of the car when the door is open. Thought to myself, I should clean that out one day. Well here we are. I tried to brush it out with the door open and made little progress. Fast forward to pulling my fender liner and then pulling my fender off to the mound of dirt I found back there. Down the wormhole we go, so I after the fender, I pulled the side skirt and that thing just had literal chunks of built of dirt in it. Surprisingly only broke one of the bottom fender bolts and luckily it was the outer one. Some torch and vice grip time later I was able to work out the shaft of the bolt and keep the threads intact.

Next I used some heat and an adjustable wrench to straighten out my pinch welds. I am in the process of prepping for Rust Bullet automotive/black shell coating. Looks like it makes sense to do the entire length of the pinch weld and the interior of the fender. I found minimal rust so I’ll continue to clean it up and use the coating to contain it.

This is a laborious task with little reward…



….. anyways I recommend taking a look behind your side skirt/fender next opportunity you have.

I found the same when I removed my fender. It rusted the lower part of the fender. Everyone with a 1g should take a look

 

[TCB91GSX]

The reward is knowing there is no longer a bunch of mud packed in the car and a rust-time-bomb ticking.
I never regret doing this kind of deep clean/maintenance on my car. It’s from Florida, and fine white sand is EVERYWHERE. The only regret is when I break something in the process, which definitely does happen.

If the passenger side goes as well as the driver side I can manage. I am worried about the lower fender bolts, but we'll see! I hate drilling out bolts.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Just out here trying to do God’s work…


After further investigation of the rocker panel, it was bubbled to the max from taking on wet, soggy dirt for who knows how long. It had a slight flex to it after all cleaned but I don’t think I could of pushed through it. I really did not want to do any surgery so if this fails I’ll resort to that..

Cleaned & prepped that area with a wire wheel to knock all the scaling off then used Metal Blast to etch. Scuffed the remaining rocker/kick panel the entire length with 80 grit about 2 in up into the face of it and then went 2 in into the back of the body (about where the factory undercoating starts)

Then cleaned, prepped the fender… ended up with a couple pinholes. I filled them with some glazing putty, I didn’t knock them down too much as they aren’t visible with the side skirts on so I didn’t really care. I ran out of time, so the fender is waiting for a coat of Black Shell.

We will see how this all holds up… Definately nervous about the passenger side.

 

[TCB91GSX]

This is a dedicated post to show how thankful I am for eraser wheels.

I did one section of removing 30 year old double sided tape with heat/alcohol and I hope no one ever subjects themselves to that. The eraser wheel still took some time but a couple drill batteries later and it was done. Almost ready to throw the driverside back together. Waiting for weather to break so I can lay the last little bit of paint.

 

[TCB91GSX]

On to the passenger side.

Pulled the fender, side skirt, straightened pinch welds, found more rust and stripped everything. To my surprise, it was better on this side in terms of the body but we had a casualty on the lower fender . After stripping it further, it looked like Swiss cheese. Very sad.

Options:
- Weld in patch panels - surrounding metal still retained some rigidity but it was super thin.
- Cut the lower section off my spare fender and weld on a new piece from the side skirt down (different color)
This was appealing but the Swiss cheese fender has a couple of dents and I’d rather save my good one for when I repaint the car.
- Use metal mesh and Bondo metal filler to fill the holes. I went with this. I’ve never used Bondo before, so here are my results. Still have a little bit more wire wheeling to do above the patches and then it will get a couple coats of Rust Bullet.

Overall, I think the repair turned out pretty decent and I was able to salvage a non-aesthetic/non-structural portion of the fender for atleast a little while longer.

I have been using Metal Blast as a final prep to dissolve any rust I couldn’t get to with the wire wheel.

While waiting for Bondo to cure, I drilled out two snapped bolts in the front bumper support. The front bumper support/front mount is coming off to clean up some cuts through the front support metal and I will also be cleaning that out as I’m sure there is some oil in it.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Wrapping up on rust proofing the rockers/pinch welds. Haven’t been taking a lot of photos…

1st picture is the Swiss cheese fender finished.

The holes cut through the front support for the intercooler were uneven, jagged, and cutting into the intercooler so I cleaned them up with a die grinder and then painted that area with Rust Bullet Black Shell and trimmed out the metal with Some plastic door edging..

Next, pulled my power steering cooler. Chopped the loop off the end and looped it closer to the reservoir. What a mess… but I was able to clean everything up and get it buttoned up nicely.

I did buy a Derale power steering cooler but couldn’t quite find a good mounting space off of the radiator.
There happened to be a 91 Eclipse in the junkyard, so I just pulled that power steering pump and cooler in case mine blows up or I wanted to put the OEM back on…

My front bumper was rusty and the way it was trimmed for the front mount was jagged/uneven. I cleaned it up with the die grinder, prepped, and painted…

Lots of time spent cleaning nooks and crannies that is hard to even quantify in a post.

My front bumper cover has a couple cracks that I am going to attempt to repair with some 3M semi-rigid epoxy. We’ll see how that shakes out.

I put the car back together minus the front bumper cover and side skirts because I needed to drive it to remember why it’s all worth it

Last few things to button up:
Front bumper cover repair/install
Side skirt install
Fender liner install

After this I’ll be diving in to a Evo3 EM install/Kiggly HLA/Valve cover gasket ..

 

[TCB91GSX]

Driverside intercooler front support passage pictures.. forgot how bad that side was.

 

[Dat240zg]

Nice progress! I appreciate the attention to the little things.

 

[jesse12345]

Awesome job on the pinch welds. I'll have to dig into those on mine eventually.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Bumper repair.

In regards to this and the fender, I’m curious to see what I can get away with. Well see how well both of these repairs end up. I have an extra bumper cover but I wanted to attempt repairing this one until I get the car entirely repainted.

For any of you that have gone done this road you know that our bumpers are constructed via thermoset PUR which leaves the options limited to what you can do. (Was really hoping I could hot staple it) Those options are: an airless hot welder, I only saw that Polyvance made one that was reputable but it was $200+. Or: Some sort of epoxy, I ended up going with 3M semi-rigid multi-purpose repair epoxy, which is marketed for these types of repairs. It is pricey, the tube I purchased was $24 on Amazon and it is a small amount. I didn’t want to buy an epoxy gun either so here’s what I did.

Mixed the epoxy by pushing it out in equal amounts with my fingers and then used a bondo spreader with a plate and mixed it up. Then I applied it with popsicle sticks. I had to work in small sections since I had move the clamp/tie down I used along the cracks to get it to line back up. The great thing about this method is you don’t waste excess material by losing it in the mixing tube, you can just put the cap back on and save the un-mixed portions for later. Working time was about 15 min, then it would “solidify”. Basically it turns into a flexible material. I dremeled out the back side along the entirety of the crack to create a channel for the epoxy to adhere to. Overall this seems to be really strong, I have lifted up/moved the bumper and nothing has came apart. We’ll see how well it does in real world conditions… Here are some pics..

 

[TCB91GSX]

Minor updates…

Picked up a PFB grounding kit, took a bit but was worth the wait. I ended up swapping out the following:
- Battery to firewall
- Transmission to frame rail
- Intake manifold to firewall
And then adding
- Alternator to frame

Still missing a thermostat housing to TB and TB to firewall, I’m curious how imperative these are, open to opinions. I really hate a cluster of wires or one that’s just running through everything.

While putting my positive battery cable back on I arc’d my ratchet against my throttle body elbow and it seized the ratchet. I sanded out the weld marks on the TB elbow and polished it, looks better than before … then had to take apart my ratchet, grind a piece of metal out, and then it it back together.. that actually works better than before too..


Received my touch up kit from automotive touch up.com and just did some rock chips and other small areas, the paint matches really close, if not perfect highly recommend.
I decided to paint the metal headlight bezels as it was pretty low risk and I was curious how it would turn out… they were slightly rusty anyways. I’m impartial on the results..


Found some good trim that goes on the exterior of the pillars at the junkyard, brought those home, swapped them out and then polished, they turned out super well.


Lastly,
I was washing my wheels before heading to a C&C. Drove out of the wash and the car developed a gnarly misfire, so I pulled the plugs and found cylinder 2 was pretty torched from detonation.
Swapped in some new BPR7ES, gapped to .28 and then went back to a 94 octane mix and the car is running super well. Still some slight knock here and there so I may try BR7ES.. I’m running 21 psi on a 16g .. we’ll see how it shakes out..

 

[TCB91GSX]

Bastard 20G built by the legend & cerakoted Evo3 manifold. Just received the turbo. Sourcing gaskets and should have this on soon!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Bastard 20G built by the legend & cerakoted Evo3 manifold. Just received the turbo. Sourcing gaskets and should have this on soon!

Is that the new 5+5 turbine wheel? Supposed to be the cats pajamas as far as spool and power goes. Where did you get the cerakote done?

Keep us updated on spool and general power characteristics. Looking good. Definitely could not live without my A/C though.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Is that the new 5+5 turbine wheel? Supposed to be the cats pajamas as far as spool and power goes. Where did you get the cerakote done?

Keep us updated on spool and general power characteristics. Looking good. Definitely could not live without my A/C though.

It is the 5/5 TD05HF turbine, so if that’s the one you speak of then yes .

I purchased it cerakoted, I’m hoping it holds up. It was more of a it happened to be cerakoted and I bought it vs I bought it based on that aspect.

Will definitely report back and post a video or two.

This car is pretty weekend/nighttime specific so no a/c isn’t really too bothersome for me but it cools off pretty well in the evenings here so I could understand not being to live without in a different climate !

 

[CrackedDSM]

It is the 5/5 TD05HF turbine, so if that’s the one you speak of then yes .

I purchased it cerakoted, I’m hoping it holds up. It was more of a it happened to be cerakoted and I bought it vs I bought it based on that aspect.

Will definitely report back and post a video or two.

This car is pretty weekend/nighttime specific so no a/c isn’t really too bothersome for me but it cools off pretty well in the evenings here so I could understand not being to live without in a different climate !

I do remember those Denver nights even in the summer were great for a non-A/C dsm. I went to high school at both Thunder Ridge High, and Englewood High. I miss Denver a lot sometimes. The sidewinder junkyard was my go to for dsm parts!

Appreciate the response.

 

[Dat240zg]

Great job on the build. I’m a couple of steps behind you - which is good; I have time to add ground cables to my next steps list…

Bryan

 

[TCB91GSX]

Well, crap. Breaking down the turbo/manifold and then ran into some previous owner bullshit.


Not sure what to do here, either put a new head on or put a time sert into those threads… let’s hear what y’all think.

 

[AWD-Tony]

Think only way to repair it is to get it welded, drilled & tapped, then milled for a flat surface.

 

[jesse12345]

Ouch man wish you were closer I have 4 heads laying around collecting dust.

 

[TCB91GSX]

I appreciate that, I actually have a couple extra heads as well. One needs a refresh and one needs rebuilt, machined etc.

Before we get into any of that, I am going to try some high temp JB Weld to get that piece back on there, which that doesn't really do much its more of a spacer at this point.. then thread in a new time sert. The threads are good, I think I know where I went wrong....

When I got the car awhile back, I was looking at my engine bay and saw that bolt missing, I looked down and it was sitting on the turbo feed line, so I put some thread locker on it and put it back in and went on my way. I had no clue it was a time sert. So fast forward to last night, it was locked in there and snapped that piece off and threaded out the time sert with the bolt stuck on it....

 

[TCB91GSX]

I was measuring for the new one.

 

[jesse12345]

Oh dang it already had one in there. I see what you are trying to do. I didn't know if you needed or even wanted to put another head on. I'm so anal when it comes to that stuff.