99 GSX Street beast

[jgio213]

This is the Build Thread for 99 GSX Street beast. Reply below.

 

[jgio213]

Here we go again. After a couple years being clean I couldn't pass on the opportunity to scoop this 99 GSX up. This is my first eclipse after coming from 3 different Talons and I'm really excited to make this thing a damn near perfect 600HP street car. It came with all the goodies but it needs a little attention to detail and TLC to get it to the next level in my opinion. It is an excellent platform with all the mods and goodies you can dream of. It was professionally assembled by the RX4 speed-shop, built motor, built trans and runs on ethanol currently. I plan to bring it to the guys over at RRT to get it fine tuned on the dyno and see what this setup is going to throw down.

One of the first projects is cleaning up the undercoating and making that all pretty again. I spent 8 days underneath the car degreasing, cleaning, and applying a protection coat of POR15, wool wax and all new rubberized undercoating in all 4 wheels wells and the entirety underneath the car. It's a painstaking miserable process but it's worth it to ensure this shell lasts forever. Although I don't drive them in the winter and keep them stored in the garage this is still New England and they love throwing salt and other crap on the roads so this is a cheap materials cost, high labor preventative measure for the car. Strut towers are beautiful, rockers are solid and the trunk/ spare tire area are clean.

Other winter plans are to clean up and properly reassemble the interior, and put the missing bits back in it.

 

[jgio213]

Motor Assembly Goodies. Love the gold powdercoating. Can't wait to repaint this engine bay to make it really pop in there though.

Going to need a bigger garage....

Already ordered the carbon bumper shutters and looking forward to putting a carbonetics splitter / diffuser on this someday.

 

[jgio213]

Been laid up for a few weeks following surgery, but it was a nice day out today so got out and moving in the garage for a bit and decided to tackle a simple little project. Added the bumper shutters to the car today and I'm really pleased with how they look. Nice to block off the giant fog light openings since I don't have them anymore. I think it's going to be a real nice touch with the carbonetics front lip / rear diffuser. That's my next present to myself, can't wait to get those ordered. Shoutout to @gofer for the bumper shutters, Thank you!

I was looking at some big brake kits because I plan to provide this car with some track duty this year but since I'm running 16x8's currently I don't want to drop too much money on a whole new setup just yet, would rather put the money elsewhere on the car. So going to new pads and rotors here soon and get the OEM Calipers and brackets cleaned up and repainted. They work but they're showing their age and need some love.

Coming up soon also I plan to pull both bumpers off sand them down and try my hand at respraying them. I have a kit from paintscratch and they say it's a pretty good match and finish so hoping for good results or else I'll have some pro respray them.

 

[jgio213]

Well it was a good day today. Sold my WRX to free up some cash, and like any good DSM'er I put it straight into parts. Picked up a nice set of RPF 1's 17x8 on brandy new Hoosier slicks and some evo 8 Brembo fronts today from a local guy in the community. I love the current wheel and tire setup on this car, they're wedsport TC005 16x8's, but if I want Brembo's and to track this car, this will be a far superior setup. Also got together all the bits to put the tan interior back together. I placed my order through carbonetics for the CF front splitter and rear diffuser. Really excited about those pieces, but its going to be a long wait. I'm torn between taking the entire interior out of the car caging it and going with just a race set up. Future plans for this car will hopefully include a lot of lap days with this new organization I've partnered up with to get Veterans out on the racetrack in all kinds of cool cars. This GSX will hopefully be one of them if I don't die during the shakedowns... I've never built a car for the track so I'm expecting a very sharp learning curve coming my way. First step is to get the brembo's rebuilt and some new powdercoat, and need to track down a set of rears still as well. Really excited to get working on this setup, stay tuned!

 

[jgio213]

Had a few minutes to myself in the garage and decided to see what these RPF's will look like. Actually love the look with the drag radials on there. With plans for more road track use though I'll be putting a new set of tires on these. Once I compile all the parts for my suspension, wheel, brake set up, I'll be sending most of it out for fresh powdercoat for the wheels and Brembos. My parts wishlist keeps growing though and I was looking into the Volk rear end set up and wow that thing looks impressive. It may have to go low down on the wishlist for now but I really hope I can through that entire setup on this car someday.

Also found this nice little carbon cover for the trunk key area from a local guy in the community. Really think this going to look great once I figure out how to secure it on there properly. I'll do a little homework and testing before throwing sticky glue on there. Other than that still hunting for parts and planning this all out.

Cheers

 

[jgio213]

Mounted this little carbon 3rd brake light cover on the car today. I used JB weld plastic epoxy to bind it to the piece. I used a full syringe and about 6 clamps to hold it in place for over 24 hours. Wanted to give it plenty of time to set up and cure. I think it is going to hold up real well on there and last for quite some time, it is pretty solid. Looks great on the car, going to go real nice with the carbonetics pieces whenever they show up. Don't mind my ugly ass reverse lights, I tried to "smoke" them up a bit with nightshades and I butchered it. Going to clean them off and try again. Pulled the trigger on some JDM galant knuckles from Japan. Seems like a pretty legit source and another guy on here has used them as well but really looking forward to getting this Brembo swap going. Going to cost me a small fortune in powdercoat but I'm really excited about this brake setup with the RPF1's, I think it's going to all come together really nice. Ordered new center caps for the RPF1's, going to bring those over to my local tire shop to pull the DR2's off for me so I can put those up for sale. Haven't decided on which tire I'm going to run yet but it will geared more toward racing versus street.

 

[jgio213]

Finally got to spend some good time on the car and gathering some more parts. Took a drive out to CT to pickup a complete, very nice gray, interior. I don't love the tan, so I'm going to be going with a gray and black combo instead, because I love the black dash, black wheel etc. I think it's going to look real nice when it's put all back together. So today was all about disassembly and cleaning really. Once the carpet dries out I'll get some pictures of it when it's all put back together. The interior on the car wasn't hateful before, but it was definitely lacking, so this is something I've wanted to do since I got the car. I think I'm going to keep the bride seats in there with the gray interior because they'll be a close enough match, and they're honestly more comfortable. I'll just keep the OEM gray seats on stand by for resale. I changed out the door inlays, taking out the gray controls / vents and using the black inlays, and I think it makes for a real nice two tone look. It was easy to swap those out luckily, just 10 little screws holding them together. Other than that still waiting on a couple backordered JDM knuckles to do my Brembo swap. Also picked up a decent Koyo RAD and some FAL slim pullers so I'll be taking the old OEM rad off soon as well to get this in. It cleaned up real nice, I'm going to work on straightening out the fins soon as well. I'll have more soon when the interior is back together.

Cheers.

 

[jgio213]

Little more work on the interior today. Real happy With the gray doors and black inlays. They came out great. Only tricky part was getting the 3 screws behind the defroster duct. I drilled out 2 5/8 holes to get to the top corner ones. Plugged the holes up with interior trim caps after the swap. Carpet turned out great after a few washes. Threw a few more panels on as well. Hoping to tackle the headliner and sunroof next. Had my apprentice with me today. Cheers...

 

[blcktalipse]

Panda DSMs have always been my favorite

 

[jgio213]

Little more interior bits today. Reinforced the glove box metal frame because the plastic bits of the dash were broken. So cut these pieces off some table saw clamps because who the hell needs those. Worked out real well, no more floppy glovebox. Took the sun roof out to try and get it less rattley. Didn’t make much a difference, I think the tracks just old and has a lot of play. Works fine though. Will hopefully get the new headliner and such back in tomorrow and planning to fix the fuel level sensor before putting the rear back together. Coming along well.

 

[jgio213]

Busy, busy, busy... New Koyo radiator went in with a single FAL slim puller. Couldn't fit 2 fans with the T3 manifold yet, so basically made my own single fan setup with the brackets I had and it came out great. Really glad to have the old banged up OEM radiator out of there. Flushed coolant and replaced with a 25/75 mix, fresh distilled water and some water wetter. Rewrapped the upper and lower rad hoses with header wrap. Gauge stays consistently below the half line, I don't have an actual water temp gauge but it's staying cool. Used the old OEM fan connecter as a pigtail, pretty simple to wire up. Went to work today with the clay bar and some detailing on the outside. My bum ass shoulder is absolutely killing me from all the wax on wax off but the results are worth it. This tire and wheel setup looks killer but I'll be ditching the DR2's for a more favorable street / track tire, probably in the 235/40 range so it's not so tight. Think I convinced Raif over at RRT to take the car in for the dyno so fingers crossed he gives me a date! More to come soon, can't wait to see what numbers it actually puts out.