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99 GSX Rebirth/Clean-Up/Build

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bettfootball

10+ Year Contributor
629
901
Mar 7, 2010
Edina, Minnesota
When I turned 16 I purchased my 99 GSX from a woman in Chicago, and wanted to build it up to be clean and look like how a GSX should have come from mitsubishi.

Here is my ongoing build.

How I bought the car

99 GSX Auto
Northstar White
Black leather interior
89,000 on body

Engine:

Stock 7 bolt
89,000 on it
powdercoated valve cover
jmf heat shield

Appearance:

Shitty chrome pitted wheels 17x8
Ebay full 3 inch exhaust
intercooler core (just for looks)

Day I bought it
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Not much happened for a while since I was paying almost 280 a month for full coverage. I paid 6500 for the car in cash so I didn't need full coverage, but wanted it just in case for a couple of months.

The first thing I did was paint the ugly rims black so they didn't really stand out.

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After cancelling full coverage and switching to liability, I had some more funds ready. I purchased;

Punishment FMIC
Safc2
Megan Boost gauge

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After cruising around my gsx all that first summer for about 10k miles, I really started to research dsm's, their problems, what makes them work, and why they fail. I learned a ton by messing with things and tearing shit apart in the bay, reading on forums, and studying everyones build threads.

Winter rolled around and one afternoon it threw a rod in the high school parking lot while leaving for lunch.

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I really didn't know what I was going to do at this point. Wasn't sure if I should just sell the shell or try to find someone that could help on the rebuild.

I found a guy through a guy I knew that said he would help putting a new motor in. My plans were just to get another 7 bolt block and call it a day but he pursuaded me into a 6 bolt, telling me it was an easy swap and he had done it 100 times.

So my car went into his shed and he began telling me things I needed to buy.


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Well this buddy of mine told me he could do all this work for around 600 bucks. Me, not knowing dsm's that well, believed him. Well he tore my whole engine bay apart within two months or so and started running into trouble with bolting the 6 bolt to my auto trans.

This whole time my car was in his garage an hour away from me I became pretty worried about it. So I started doing tons of research on what it takes to swap a 6 bolt into an auto. I found a lot of parts that were needed that would double my budget that he said, those parts being;

Kiggly 6-bolt 2g adapter
6-bolt cas/adapter harness
Pretty much everything on the timing

After all of this I decided to pull the plug on him helping and took the car back to my garage to do the work on my own.


Car in my dads workshop

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Keep in mind I had never done anything like this before so I was new to everything and working alone haha.


Managed to get the motor out all by myself to start checking everything out.

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The carnage I found when removing the head.

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While the engine was out, I really wanted to do some stuff to the bay/car. This stuff included;


Engine bay shave
Engine bay repaint
Wire tuck
Battery relocation
Abs delete
Fuse box relocation
Power steering delete
A/c delete
Fix a little strut tower rust
 
The car was a northern car so yes, it has some rust around the metal edges and what not.

The bay was disgusting.

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I took the whole abs harness out.

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I then started to gather up all of my 6 bolt swap parts that I would need.

I picked up all of the following over the span of a year and a half while my car was sitting in a garage.

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These are all the new parts that went in to the eclipse.

Engine:

Eagle rods/wiseco 9:1
Oem 6 bolt front case
OFH
BSE kit
New alternator
New water pump
New dipstick tube/ dipstick
New Oem black 6 bolt timing cover (galant)
New valve stem seals
All new OEM bolts
ACL tri-metal bearings

Turbo/Intake:

Small 16g fresh rebuild
New FP Blue drain line
New ss feed line
Injen style intake
Extreme Psi t bolt clamps (tired of the shitty ones)
Voodo MBC

Fuel:

Denso 660's
6an filter to rail

Exhaust:

3" Apexi N1 downpipe
3" Apexi N1 cat back
Megan ss o2 dump

Suspension/Wheels:

BC Racing type BR Coilovers
Enkei RPF1
Potenza RE-11

Well my dad wanted my car out of his garage so luckily my buddies dad had just rented out this big ass warehouse 5 minutes from my house he let me move into.

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Now that I had a great place to work, I really got the ball rolling on getting this bit%h back together!

I had the whole motor together and began working on the engine bay.

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All the aluminum parts were soda blasted and painted aluminum with a clear on top.
 
I removed the trans/ subframe and cleaned everything up as good as I can.

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Then I began on my engine bay shave.

I knew what bolt holes were being used and welded up all the other ones I didn't want to be seen.

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I thought how I could get all the paint out and start over fresh for a couple days when decided to just strip the whole bay.

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In between working on the bay I turned my attention to my transmission. I power washed the #### out of it and had it soda blasted so I could paint it. Also picked up a new OEM dipstick for it since the other one was fried.

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I then used rust inhibitor on all the bay, then primered, and used more rust inhibitor on the known parts that get rusty.

I used standard "high performance rustoleum" because I saw a guy had good experiences with it so gave it a try.

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Haha yes I know I don't have to heat wrap it, it won't make a difference, it is just for looks!


There are a few more things that I bought while re-doing the bay.

AEM boost/oil/wideband gauges
STM oil cooler kit
B&M trans cooler kit
Authentic Greddy type s


Here are some pics of the parts and installs.

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While I was doing this I noticed my front bumper was looking pretty gnarly, along with my front fenders so I sent them off to get painted.

I also picked up;

Oem front emblem
Oem fog light covers
Foglights, ( I didn't have any)
And put an HD lip on my fresh bumper.

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Now I was ready to throw the engine in.

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I had also put on my new BC coilovers and wheels

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This was the first time it was all back together in a little under 2 years

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And the engine bay shot when it was just put together.


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I decided to take some new pictures with my dads new camera gear.

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I took it to MOD this year, first time it has been to any kind of show really.

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Well that pretty much took all of the summer and I had to put it under wraps, in a new garage, while I went to school at Iowa State.


Here are some pictures of it that I took right before I left for school.

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I went back another weekend and took some interior shots since I haven't really taken pictures of that before.

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My girlfriends mother goes to Germany a couple times a year so I figured it would be a good way for me to get some rare parts from over seas.

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I went back and put them on/wired them up, thanks to the spidey write up here on tuners.

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Ever since the BSE I've had some pretty high oil pressure so over break I decided to port the OFH.

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I also took the time over break to fix my camber via the bolts in the upper arms in the rear, and also to put some spacers on all four to bring the tires out to be a little more flush.


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With my tax return money I went ahead and purchased some much needed parts :)


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Full evo 8 Brembo kit with rotor pro slotted discs and 2g brembo adapters.

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These things fit perfectly.

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This is just for mock up, I will be stripping them and either painting them or getting them powdercoated.

I also picked up this little guy.

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This is pretty much were my project stands right now. I'm sure I forgot a ton of crap but I did my best. When I return from college I will be sure to post up more pictures of what's going on with my build.

Future plans

Install my evo 9 fuel pump
Purchase evo 9 recaros
Get rear bumper/ sideskirts repainted
Get tactrix 2.0 cable with ecuflash/evoscan
Roll rear fenders
5spd swap

I do not plan on doing anything else performance wise, I'm not so big into that kind of stuff. I just really want my eclipse to be clean and be done right. I don't plan on driving this thing everyday, but do plan on just keeping it until it rusts apart or gets totaled.
 
So fresh'n so clean. You have an awesome build going. So jelly of the interior. :D
 
Love. This. This is inspiring me to finish the 6 bolt swap in my '95 GSX. Thanks
 
Awesome build
 
Great looking '99 you've got. First picture you put up looks like where I used to live on Central Avenue in Bett. How do you like the BC coilovers?

Nope, thats crestview heights, by Pleasant valley high school.

The coilovers are awesome, plenty of adjustability. I have them as stiff as a rock right now but I don't drive much so I sacrificed ride quality for the lower stance.
 
Have parts on the way:

FP 4 inch intake with couplers
OEM double din brackets to put my mint infinity radio in
MINT evo 9 black steering wheel

Thinking about dying all the interior grey with SEM black dye. Also re-do the carpet and headliner in black carpet and suade. We will see about that though!
 
Very nice build and really clean! Nice job man, keep up the great work.
 
Okay well after another little spree at JNZ for oem crap I ended up with some sweet stuff.

OEM mitsubishi trunk decal
a majority of the OEM decals/stickers that they had
Fuel pump rewire
OEM GSX decals for the trunk.

So I have always wanted to get the oem gsx decal but I have always read that they stopped producing it, so I just ordered 2 'gs" ones from JNZ, well I got a call and they had some error with my order.

Through the conversation I mentioned that I didn't even have a "gs" and needed the "gsx" emblem but they didn't make it anymore and no dealer had it. Well JNZ then told me that they actually had 3 in stock at their warehouse, so I bought 2 LOL.

Next week I will probably finish up my brake job, fuel pump install and rewire, and maybe dye the carpet! My buddy also picked up a fender roller from eastwood so I will be doing that for sure.

Pisses me off that we keep getting snow because I wanted to take it out for a spin but doesn't look like that will be happening.....
 
Seriously nice build man! I must ask being in High School currently, HOW DID YOU AFFORD THIS BUILD? I mean I know it isn't like you bought everything at once but still. Also kudos on your mechanical skills at this age. I'm still teaching myself basic crap. And congratulations on the cleanest DSM interior ever, even though it's an automatic)=
 
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