95 GSX / 97 GST Spyder

[spyderdrifter]

Further Stripping...

Since last I updated, I've pulled the car apart even more and finally made plans for paint. All that remains on the car as of right now, that still needs to be removed, is the fuel and brake lines running under the floor pan, the windshield (which I started removing today), and the rear side windows. I rolled the car out today and power washed everything, rolled it back in and put it on jacks, and dropped the front and rear subframes.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Rolling Along...

The car has been up on jack stands for a while now. I finally got my "skateboard" (in a sense) built so I can roll it around the garage. Next will be saving for paint...

 

[spyderdrifter]

Moving Forward...

My dumbass removed the windshield since I thought the body was perfect, so the window frame would get paint too... wish I hadn't.

I decided to flip the car around so the rear subframe and fuel tank would be easier to reinstall. I'll flip it back around once the engine is ready to go back in.

I will also be cutting out the spare tire well eventually since I found damage there as well. The jack mount was torn and someone attempted to fix it with spray foam...

Here's how she sits as of today. Still gotta pull the driver door up from the basement, put on driver side side skirts, finish the interior, finish the rattle can special, and get a new windshield. Waiting for the cylinder head to be finished by the machine shop that's periodically closed due to how retarded this society is being, so that's hit or miss. Once I get the head back, the engine will be finished and put back in. All the running gear is already installed and waiting. I'm hoping to have it back up and running by mid June, but as always, anything can jump in and change that.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Pod Swap...

I decided to pull my gauges off the A-pillar like I had them in the Talon. I also decided I don't want the radio in the car anymore since I really don't listen to the radio anyway. Always use my phone or iPod. Since the radio slot is now vacated, I've used that area for my pillar gauges. I had some plexiglass scrap from some other project collecting dust, so I've used that to build my gauge holder. These are standard 52mm gauges, and I used a 50mm hole saw. I figured I'd have to do a bit of sanding/filing to get the proper size, but I didn't. They fit perfectly, nice and snug so they don't rattle or move around like they did in the pillar pod. The only sanding I did to the holes was to smooth the edges.

Here's where I've placed my wideband, didn't see the point in keeping the OEM boost and pressure gauges...

Here it was when in the Talon (the blue one obviously)...

 

[spyderdrifter]

Tedious Work Ahead...

I finally finished getting all the etacs wiring hooked up and got the dash and hvac controls back in. Slow progress, but better than nothing. Up next will be wiring the gauges up in their new location. I decided to hook up my battery just to run power and make sure I'm getting the right wires for the gauges, one being the headlight switch. Only problem is none of my lights are coming on except the high beams. The relay clicks when turning them on, but no light.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Continuing the Tediousness...

I figured out what went wrong. Just didn't have everything plugged into the Etacs box. I do now though, and I got electrical power. I'll start wiring my gauges a bit later tonight.

I also finally got all the weather stripping reinstalled around the driver door, so the door can now go on any time, probably once I flip the car back around to get the engine/trans in.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Red Shifted...

I finally got my gauges running on electrical power. I've been running through ideas the past couple days. Couldn't actually do anything due to my work schedule, but I figured it out and got it working this morning. I forgot to reconnect one of the pins on the headlight switch connector, and didn't have a good enough constant 12v source. I thought the radio constant wire would be enough since I will no longer be having a radio installed, but not so much (unless I didn't actually tap into the constant wire). I ended up tapping into a wiring mod I did back when I first bought the car that I knew for sure was a constant source. Works perfectly now.

Can't really tell too well in the pics, but the dimmer feature works too.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Small Update...

I ended up ordering a 2GB front bumper from Amazon since I couldn't get a good condition used one local. Received it the same week, folded in the box WTF. Guess the company was ok with not using a properly sized box, but it at least regained its proper shape after I left it sitting outside for an hour. Already sprayed it matte black to match the rest of the car. Got my driver side fender resprayed black as well. I also decided to put the trunk panels back in and got my plate and reverse lights rewired. Only did that because I installed all the Talon wire harnesses so I wouldn't have to concern myself with modifying another eclipse tail light harness to work the way I wanted it to work.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Light Upgrade...

My center brake light has been randomly not working, probably because of the crap plugs Mitsubishi used for the bulbs. So I upgraded the entire unit, came out pretty good, and bright...

I might start building boards for the tail lights soon.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Almost There... and it's Gone...

I got the LED board completed for my own gauge cluster, and it turned out pretty good, except for the piece at the bottom of the speedo that decided it was time to be its own separate piece...

But I went ahead and finished the board, and got it installed, and then had a real issue.

If I had the lights on, ignition off, they were fine. Once the ignition was on, they dropped power and dimmed. Wasn't sure what was happening. Thought maybe I had things wired wrong, but that shouldn't be the issue. I hooked them up just like every other LED build I've ever done. Then, I finally got it to work.....

....momentarily. The gauge cluster started to smoke, so I shut everything off and pulled the battery cables. I got the cluster back out to find the flexible PCB on the cluster is what fried, but still no known reason. My circuit board is still good, lights up properly, and doesn't have any burns or other damage anywhere. So now I gotta figure this out before blowing another cluster PCB.

Still good...

 

[lasershark]

well that looks pretty nice...

 

[spyderdrifter]

Another Day...

Been focused on my DD car for the past month. Got its replacement engine installed and the car finally runs again. After I got it running, I decided to take the opportunity to flip the GSX back around.

Then I got the driver door back on and that was about it until today. I decided to drop in the engine for now for mock up. Think I'm gonna do my own wire tuck since we all know the OEM engine harness sucks. Will also give me a chance to plan out the fuel system upgrades and some other things.

In the process of this all I finally deleted the power steering cooler line and looped the system. I don't know why I never thought about this before, looks so much better.

 

[GregoryRyan]

Progress is progress .

Two things, how did you get your trans mount to look so clean? Mine is all nasty looking. Second where did you get the brake fluid reservoir and slave cylinder reservoir brackets from? The stock ones are a copper/gold color and surface rust super easy, those look like billet aluminum and are quite nice looking.

 

[spyderdrifter]

That mount I honestly got in that condition. However, I did clean the mounts on my old spyder just with degreaser, brake cleaner, and a couple wire brushes. Did the job really well.

As for the reservoir brackets, I got them from this member. He lives in London, so shipping wasn't really that fast. By the time I got them, I had forgotten about them.

 

[GregoryRyan]

Does he still sell them?

 

[NWHTanK]

You just missed out in the latest group buy @GregoryRyan .

 

[spyderdrifter]

When I got mine, he wasn't doing a group buy. I just sent him a PM and he happened to have an extra set. Worth a shot. If he doesn't have any, you can at least grab a spot for the next group maybe.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Nothing really to update on the car right now except the cylinder head. Due to work hours and some other things, I haven't had a chance to tinker with the car. As for the head, I took it to a machine shop back in March to have them start working on it. Was getting it hot tanked, decked, new guides, a valve job, and having the proper spring height set. Due to my crazy schedule, one more thing came up that I hadn't been able to talk to them about until this past Friday. I went to the shop and checked out the issue. Some of the valve seats are pitted from probably water damage, so I'm having them replace all 16 seats. Now that this should be the last item for them to fix, they're on track to have the head ready for me to pick up at the end of August.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Interior Updates...

It's not much, but I went to the salvage yard looking for a door panel, and found one in a '99 Avenger. Sadly, it's tan, and my interior is black. Took it anyway to use parts. The Avenger also had a black center console assembly, so I took that too. Been wanting to give that look a try for a while, and now I get to. Fits well, shifter doesn't hit anywhere, and I can do the same gauge pod setup in the radio slot, and it'll maybe look even better than the DSM console. We shall see once I build it.

No contact in 1st gear, the closest it gets to the console.

So with that tan door panel, I stripped off the parts I needed for my full black door panel to be reassembled. Turned out pretty good.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Repeat...

I'm finally building the gauge panel for the Avenger console. Same process as before, same materials. Just have to create a new way to mount it to the panel. The DSM panel is a bit easier for that, but I'll figure something out.

*Edit*

Well I got this so far, simple yet effective. Not sure for the top yet.

Looks better without me holding it...

 

[spyderdrifter]

I finally got my cyl head back from the machine shop 2 days ago, way later than they promised like always. I'm no longer dealing with this shop and will send my crap out of state to a DSM specific place if necessary from now on. Fu@k the price, I want the quality. My head doesn't even look like it was decked like I was told. Not as clean in some areas like it should be either. I get it, not everything is going to be perfect, but they've had my cyl head since March, there's no excuse. And to top it off, they said I gave them 2 sets of intake valves, which I guess mistakes happen, but rather than call me and let me know so I could bring them the proper ones, they went out of their way to just buy new ones and drop them in, then charge me. Nothing like having my money wasted without my knowledge.

 

[AWD-Tony]

Wow. That’s some BS! Yeah I wouldn’t use them either.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Tiny Update...

Been a few months, not much has changed due to work changing my schedule due to people being "sick". But I did end up tearing the cyl head apart because I apparently forgot to drill the head bolt holes out the extra 1mm for the 6 bolt studs. Did all that, got the head back together and it's just sitting on the block now with a few of the studs keeping it from falling off. I bought the ARP studs new and now have one I can't remove the nut from, and 2 studs that are stripped in the hole that the Allen wrench sits. So I bought a set of oem bolts to use. Not going high horsepower or anything, so ARPs weren't really necessary. Oh well. I did get a new oem clutch reservoir for the billet mount. Will be getting a new brake reservoir soon as well.

 

[spyderdrifter]

New Year, New Parts...

I've done a bit of updates to the project since my last post. Got some parts on order that'll be here in a few weeks, or less. I've gotten tired of my car being pushed aside by, unfortunately, more important crap. So this year, the car will be revived.

The only things keeping me from dropping the engine and trans into the car, are camshafts, timing belt, and bolting on the clutch and trans. That shall be taken care of in the next week or two when I get my orders in. Went and threw in some new adjustable cam gears as well. Decided to treat myself. Ordered a new oil pan, as my current one has been abused for years. Nothing fancy, just a new replacement. Got a new brake fluid reservoir coming, and a few other parts I've been wanting for a while. These parts will be it for a little while. Should be all I need to get the engine running. After that I'll be tackling suspension enhancements, the car badly needs it. It has all the new shocks I put on my old Talon, but a lot of other parts need replacement.

Anyway, I've tinkered a bit with what I already have here. I decided to bypass the FIAV, and do it the free way (found here: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/free-fiav-block.391977/ ). I decided to do this mainly to just get rid of crap that's not necessary (to me). This isn't going to be a DD car, so I'll be ok with higher idle in colder weather. If not, I can at least reverse it, and buy a new water pipe. I cut the pipe off the main pipe that routes water to the throttle body. Looks a lot better I think, cleans up the clutter.

Before:

After:

I'm gonna search around town this week for a place to weld up the open hole in the pipe. I also swapped the ECT sensor from the front of the t-stat housing to the rear so the wiring won't be stressed by reaching a couple inches further. I will also be eliminating the two extra ports on the housing that were used for the FIAV. Will have whatever welding shop I use fill those holes too, then I'll sand/file them flush and repaint it.

More updates after my parts come in.

 

[FIBA M - EC17PSE]

I guess you don't need a heater core since you cut off the coolant going to it? I like the way getting the smaller pipes off makes a different to the person. I remember getting rid of my small turbo and cooler take offs and it looks much better to me but still stock to everyone else