Showcar Build 95 Eclipse RS turbo show car build

[jesse12345]

Yeah this winter is killing me. I just want to drive my car already. Putting the furnace in my garage was a game changer for sure. The cars get all the work done during the winter months. If your not to far out we will have to cruise sometime. All last summer I didn't see one eclipse on the road, we have to change that.

 

[UniversalUnreality]

Yeah this winter is killing me. I just want to drive my car already. Putting the furnace in my garage was a game changer for sure. The cars get all the work done during the winter months. If your not to far out we will have to cruise sometime. All last summer I didn't see one eclipse on the road, we have to change that.

Yeah, its been killer for me as well, been putting the parts orders on hold so I don't lose them in the garage, hope to get the car up and running spring time for sure, and at least get it out and breathe in some of that fresh convertible air! Im in the Brainerd Lakes area, 2.5 hours north of MNPLS. I havent seen a single 2G Eclipse anywhere up here except for the one in my garage, see the occasional 3rd and 4th gens but never 1G or 2G's. Be the last Unicorn's up here!

 

[jesse12345]

Oh frick your only 1.5 hours away from me. Thats not terrible. Yeah the grind never stops with these cars but once your out enjoying them it's a vibe for sure. With a top down thats a new kind of vibe.

 

[jesse12345]

I got the gas tank dropped finally. I may use the gas tank and rear subframe from my other car as well. I think that all is in way better shape. A couple more bolts did snap which I tried hard to keep from happening. I used a wire wheel then heat and some wd40 and they still snapped. Oh well, I'm still moving forward. The car is 100 percent stripped aside from the hard brake lines.

My next plan of attack is wire wheeling all the seam sealer. I'm going to re seal everything after I'm done with all the rust repair. I'm more than likely stripping the whole car down to bare metal and priming then a 2 stage paint job. I'd like to try painting again but I'm so ocd so we will see.

I dont want to cut anything off this car until I get my other car over here which will hopefully be this week. It's supposed to finally hit 50, crossing my fingers.
I can lift the car right now with zero effort it's actually kind of funny.

 

[jesse12345]

I finally got the talon back at my house. I'm not going to lie, looking at both cars side by side really has me second guessing myself. Does it make more sense to take parts from the eclipse and transplant them on to my talon? If I take parts from my talon I'd have to take the roof skin, strut towers, rockers, front and rear wheel well skins, and some trunk odds and ends. If it were the other way around and I took parts from the eclipse I'd need the front clip of course and maybe some odds and ends for the trunk since it's dang near rust free. I'd snag the hatch and doors as well as the hood. I feel like I need to strip the talon next and see what I have to do.

This is a very big decision and as much as I want to keep the eclipse and fix it, I don't want to chase my tail on fixing rust forever. For me personally I have a parts car for either one but the roof skin and rockers are really making me lean towards fixing the talon. I think I'd rather front clip swap again. If the eclipse didn't have that god awful homemade sunroof put in I would have probably kept going on it. The eclipse is still very much fixable rust wise, but that roof just turns me away unfortunately.

I'm super ocd and when I removed the rear quarter windows I nicked both sides and that right there just upset me to where I don't want to ruin another set. It took me ages to remove the first one carefully and it still isn't perfect.

So this is about where I stand with the two for now. I'll start stripping the talon and go from there. Either way I have parts overflowing in my garage at this point and one car shall be 100 percent complete.

 

[miliman13]

Tuff spot to be in….
Either way it’s work, looking at this last post it looks like we are both in same spots

 

[jesse12345]

It's super annoying, but yours doesn't look super terrible by the photos. It's no fun either way.

I spent the whole day cleaning the talon and thinking about what I'm going to do. I've decided not to butcher the talon. There's no damage anywhere and the rust is very minimal. I'm going to front clip swap it yet again. I'm going to swap everything over, it just makes more sense. The talon is in very good shape surprisingly and it only has 78k original miles on it.
It will be a legit 420a manual car the way I want it and everything is going to continue to be great. I'll either paint it the same color or white, I haven't decided yet.

 

[jesse12345]

Alright so I'm now changing my mind yet again. The talon has alot more damage than I originally thought. Now that I have it completely tore down I can see that the whole firewall is pushed in. I don't feel comfortable cutting the car dang near in half to make it legit. It not has become the doner car yet again. I'm glad I cut into the talon before I cut anything apart on the eclipse. The talon had some really awful repair before I got it and now that I can see what really happened, I don't want to go any further with it.

So I'm going to continue with the roof skin swap and then ill swap the rockers. The strut towers will be an easy repair. It's not the end of the world but the front end swap would have been way easier if it was a simple swap like before. I can always swap anything else I need to. I just know if I tried swapping the front end it'll never be the same as factory and I'm pretty ocd.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Can't help but to wonder how you got so good at this stuff. Cutting, welding, etc. Is it just practice/repetition? Impressive nevertheless.

 

[jesse12345]

Appreciate the kind words. I'm no pro but when I get a vision of the final product in my head I sort of just dive in. I've asked for help and everyone either says "it's not worth it" or "you can't fix that". After getting declined multiple times I just decided to take these challenges on by myself. I don't mind challenges but of course sometimes they actually aren't worth it.
I've sat around for 2 days just pondering this idea of cutting the eclipse for the talon. This time actually is not worth it which I'm okay with.

 

[pauleyman]

Appreciate the kind words. I'm no pro but when I get a vision of the final product in my head I sort of just dive in. I've asked for help and everyone either says "it's not worth it" or "you can't fix that". After getting declined multiple times I just decided to take these challenges on by myself. I don't mind challenges but of course sometimes they actually aren't worth it.
I've sat around for 2 days just pondering this idea of cutting the eclipse for the talon. This time actually is not worth it which I'm okay with.

I think most probably said that because a gs or rs eclipse isn't rare. Even now its likely you can find a complete car somewhere and be way way ahead just buying another car.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I think most probably said that because a gs or rs eclipse isn't rare. Even now its likely you can find a complete car somewhere and be way way ahead just buying another car.

I 100% believed this until I bought my 420a car.

These things are rare as f**k and parts for them are rarer and more expensive than any 4G63 counterpart.

A fun test if you don’t believe me, try finding a power steering pump specifically for the 420a WITH the pulley. Gotta make sure it’s for the dsm 420a.

I so wish they were everywhere and plentiful.

 

[jesse12345]

At least you can get the cars fairly cheap. That's about the only plus side. Everything around here is rotten unfortunately, so it seems fixing a less rotten one is about all I can do. I'd like to think any 1g/2g is rare since literally no one sees them anymore, around here anyway.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Being common was 20 years ago. No DSM of any kind is common now. Much less the ones that received hate back in the day.

 

[jesse12345]

It's sad how much hate the 420a got. I had 5 non turbos back in the day even before I knew about the turbo ones so I never hated them. I almost like them more now even if parts are getting scary to find. I will say this though if anyone is looking to make some power obviously the 4g63 is the way to go.

 

[Mikealj]

You could grab this one: https://www.facebook.com/share/1HA8S5eU3x/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

[jesse12345]

Dang that ones also in Texas. The other one I was interested in was in Texas. All the good ones are pretty far away from me unfortunately. I appreciate everyone helping me out to find a clean one. I'm still on the hunt for maybe one a hair closer.

That being said I have not given up on the rust repair. I've been spending alot of my evenings working on the strut towers. It's taking me longer than I'd like but you can't rush perfection. I'm trying to continue with the front so then I can get the engine and transmission back in.

 

[UniversalUnreality]

Dang that ones also in Texas. The other one I was interested in was in Texas. All the good ones are pretty far away from me unfortunately. I appreciate everyone helping me out to find a clean one. I'm still on the hunt for maybe one a hair closer.

That being said I have not given up on the rust repair. I've been spending alot of my evenings working on the strut towers. It's taking me longer than I'd like but you can't rush perfection. I'm trying to continue with the front so then I can get the engine and transmission back in.

Once I get my GST Spyder up and running and if I don't like it, if youre interested in a spyder let me know. But thats only if I dont fall in love with her when shes running. We know im not to far away.

 

[jesse12345]

I'm still very much picking away at this rust. I still have alot to do but I'm taking as much time as I can to make everything as perfect as I can. I am only human after all. I did sand blast and rust proof everything before I welded things shut. I've been absolutely swamped with other things in my life so this car has been on the back burner unfortunately. I hope to have more updates soon.

 

[miliman13]

Hey pardon my ignorance idk if it’s a 420 specific, but what is the cylinder on the tower ? What does it do ?

 

[electrohead]

Hey pardon my ignorance idk if it’s a 420 specific, but what is the cylinder on the tower ? What does it do ?

Upper control arm mounting point.

 

[jesse12345]

It all looks weird when cutting things up. I'm actually glad you brought those up because I need to remember to weld them. There only welded on the bottom side and they were cracked on my gsx so I welded the top side. I'll then use seam sealer like factory so you won't even notice.