91 Talon TSi AWD

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91 Talon TSi AWD

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After searching for about eight years, I finally found my unicorn: an unmolested 1991 Talon TSi AWD. These are the pictures from the ad I responded to. The seller said he got 100+ hits on the car -- I happened to live 30 minutes away and was ready with cash in-hand, so I won

The car was in generally good shape: rust-free and running. It was missing carpet on the driver's side and was sorely in need of a paint job but beyond that I couldn't see (or hear) any obvious problems.

 

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After driving the Talon home for the first time, I got a text from the previous owner saying: "Now you've officially driven it more than I have!" I'd known it was a garage queen but I figured he'd at least taken it out once in a blue moon. Guess not!

The next morning I was excited to play around with it, but, in true-to-form DSM fashion: it wouldn't start. The battery seemed okay so after some poking (read: banging) around I figured the starter had died, so I ordered a new one. In the meantime, I decided to attack the carpets, which were thoroughly nasty. I'd also ordered a new shift knob because the stock one is hilariously phallic.



Upon removing the seats to examine the carpet, I found a bunch of change, fingernail clippings,and a spare windshield wiper(???).

 

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The carpets were completely unsalvageable, as you can see by the pictures above, so I decided to rip it out and replace it with black carpet. Eventually I'd love to do a full interior color swap (I much prefer the gray/black to the tan/brown scheme) but that's fairly low on my list of priorities.



Underneath the carpet was straight-up dirt and moss. MOSS. It looks like there had been some water damage on the front driver's side. It took me three solid scrub-downs and an entire roll of paper towels to cut through the layers of caked-on gunk.



Taking apart the center console was a fun new adventure (oh, by the way, I've never taken apart a car before) and luckily not too complicated. Now that the old carpets were out, the floors were clean, and everything else was out of the way, I could start installing my new carpet.



In the meantime, I replaced my starter and was super excited to have my car running again.



Except it didn't. Damnit.

Thankfully, I'm fortunate enough to have some extremely knowledgeable friends who suggested disconnecting the clutch safety switch, and therein I found the problem: there's ordinarily a small piece of plastic that engages the switch, preventing the car from being turned on without depressing the clutch pedal. That little piece was missing. I theorize that it fell out the first time I drove it. By disconnecting the switch altogether, the safety mechanism was removed and now my car can start without pressing down any pedals! Let's call it a feature, not a glitch.

So that means the new starter wasn't really necessary. Oh well. But hey, always good to have new parts, and I also got elbows-deep under the hood and was able to get cozy with an unfamiliar engine.

 

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While pulling out the back seat, a couple of random sockets fell out of the seatbelt holes, including a 10mm. I'm choosing to believe it was a gift from the DSM gods.



I also found a secret compartment in the armrest that contained a surprise: condoms that expired in 2003. Props to the previous owner for being safe!



Laying in the new carpet was tricky but the one I bought from RockAuto was pre-molded so that made it easier. Still, we had to cut all the necessary holes and trim the edges down.



It took a few hours and a lot of work, but after clipping it in and reinstalling the center console piece, the carpet started to look pretty good.



While I was working the carpets, I got up close and personal with the doors and decided I needed to do something about those too: the carpet on them was still beige (and stained), the plastic/vinyl was scratched af, and there were rust stains on the speakers. So my plan is to dye the carpet and spraypaint the vinyl black. I also plan to spraypaint the armrest (which is currently dark brown). Eventually I'd like to do the entire dash black but again: priorities. My wonderful husband (who's been my #1 enabler throughout this process) kindly took it upon himself to order me some new speakers since the old ones were beyond repair.



Next steps: finish up with the new carpet, dye the old carpet/vinyl components, get the seats back in, and finally drive this thing! It's officially registered at the DMV (accidentally typed "DSM" first, hah) so it's ready for the street. I anticipate a whole new set of problems cropping up as soon as it's out and about, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Other exciting plans coming down the pike: coilovers c/o RedShift Motorsports! Cannot wait to get those on. I've also started researching exhausts and intakes (very open to suggestions -- this is all new to me).

I've been (playfully) teased for wanting to turn a 1G into an autocrosser, but I'm a believer. Maybe it won't be nationally competitive but with a few tweaks I have faith that it will be a blast on course.

 

[pat white]

by the looks of the doors and floor u got urself an awesome car there ..congrats!