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Street Build 97 Eclipse GS-T - Going back in time

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GregoryRyan

Supporting Member
167
113
Jul 22, 2013
Millstadt, Illinois
Howdy DSMers,

It was a late night heading back from a party a close friend of mine and I had gone to, and we were getting ready to hit an on-ramp to HWY I-55. Fortunately for me, he had just a few days prior, purchased a 1997 two-toned gunmetal grey with black top GSX that had a considerable amount of modifications. I just remember rounding the corner and blasting off, feeling the boost kick in and hearing the EVO III 16g turbo spooling up and flying down the highway. I was hooked and ever since then, despite owning a handful of 1st gen talons and eclipses I have never owned a 2g but always wanted to.

Fast forward a couple...er ten...i mean 20 years from then and I now have four kids and have basically said goodbye to tuning cars and any hope of ever driving something that puts a huge grin on my face, until about a month ago. Sitting in bed, finally given the "Ok" from the boss (wife), that I could potentially get a project car, I came across a 1997 GS-T that had been sitting for 5/6 years, spun rod bearing and needed a LOT of TLC. It was just three miles down the road from my house and they were asking 500$ and needed it gone as they were moving out of their house. 45 minutes later, a little bit of haggling, 220$ and 100$ to tow it down the street and I had my first 2g Eclipse. And so the fun begins.

Here are a few of the shots of the car right after the tow truck left. For a split second, I second-guessed myself when even the tow truck driver made a comment “I don't usually tow cars in...um...in this sort of shape”, eh it will be fine...right?

May 5th, 2018 - Intro:
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After taking the first couple of pictures I was ready to jump in with two feet (figured it made sense to make this the first update). I spent the next 4/5 hours tearing everything out and going through everything that was in the car. Most of it was complete trash, but let's see what all I got done...I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

May 5th, 2018 - Remove interior, wiring harness, and dash:
First things to go were the seats, as you can tell the car is quite filthy.
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Then all the interior panels, door panels and dash need to come out. If you look closely you can see there were a few (four total) mouse nets in the car. One in the rear near the antenna motor, one under the back seats, one next to the ABS ECU and one in the passenger fender.
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Once everything was pulled I started scrubbing and cleaning the car
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Sprayed rubberized undercoating in the spare wheel well as a first step to preventing further rust and reducing noise
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During the pull, I noticed the interior wiring harness was completely hacked to crap, so in efforts to make sure electrical issues don't rear its ugly head in the future, I decided to pull the dash and harness to replace it.
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And here it is all gutted, cleaned (mostly, or so I thought) and ready to start restoring (again...or so I thought)
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Your interior harness isn't bad, I've seen and fixed much worse

I don't see much of the interior harness in the pic you posted, just a poorly hooked up Clifford brain.

I see about 15 points in @Audiyo 's pics that are glaring, and if this is a true resto, I can't blame him for pulling it to address the issues, locate any others, test and clean the harness up. It's tedious, but very rewarding once you finish up. Welcome OP and good luck with the resto/build.
 
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