99 Spyder GS.. working on the 'T'

[jinscho]

Got the tune pretty well dialed in tonight hovering right around 22 psi (and it felt super smooth), but unfortunately had to call it a little early when I spotted some oil dripping off of the shift fork boot. Don't know wtf sprung a leak, but definitely need to get that figured out.

Also decided I'm ditching the 1G BoV. I don't know how people who run speed density put up with the canary song at 2k RPM.. it's f'ing annoying.

On a side note.. we found out that 10 full turns on a Halman Pro MBC will net you just shy of 30 psi on an EVO III 16g ....

 

[jinscho]

New parts in to complete the final few touches on the car. I inadvertently made the engine bay patriotic without even thinking about it.. red valve cover, white body, blue blow off valve..

Swapped out the 1G BoV, I just couldn't deal with the whistling sounds it made at 1800 rpm. In it's place went a GReddy Type FV. I never realized just how big of a difference a BoV could make.. but the car builds and holds 23 psi with ease now.

I also swapped out the dipstick tube o-ring to fix my oil leak, and dropped in a new wideband sensor as the old one had intermittent dropouts while logging.

Going to coordinate some time late next week to finish up my tune. Then it's time to turn some attention towards the body work the car so badly needs...

 

[AWD-Tony]

Good job man. Looks great

 

[jinscho]

Started pulling the car out of hibernation only to be met with a wonderful idle surge. The ISC had been acting up in the past, so I ordered a replacement off of Rock auto.

It helped, but still not quite right.

So, she's currently torn down for a boost leak test. Found a pretty nasty leak at the BoV, so I pulled that apart and resealed everything with some RTV. Now I get to wait 24 hrs for it to cure before trying again.

Also found some carnage on my air filter.. apparently it was bouncing against the headlight bulb cover and wore through the filter.. ordered a replacement (glad I found it.. was impossible to see until I pulled the intake pipe..

Trying to have everything buttoned up and the car back on the road by the 15th. I took a week off of work to hang out with the wife now that tax season is coming to a close (she works seasonally at H&R Block). She has never been in the car post swap, so I want to be able to take her out for a cruise while the kids are at school. Perfect weather for it lately too..

Fingers crossed I can figure out this idle surge before then..

 

[Clawless]

Nice to see you back!

 

[jinscho]

Nice to see you back!

Never left, just haven't done much other than drive the car! I received a promotion at work last September that allows me to work full time from home, so this was the first opportunity I've had since owning the car to park it in the garage, put a float charger on the battery, toss a cover on, and let it hibernate through the crappy northeast winter. Unfortunately, that idle time must've caused some seals to dry out and now I've got this idle surge to figure out. I'll have it fixed up in short order and plan to take some weekend cruises with the wife and kids.

All 3 of the kids are old enough to sit in booster seats, so I can actually let them ride in the car now. My youngest is already excited just because I promised to take her to school with the top down .

I plan to get some additional body work out of the way over the summer too. The front half of the car looks so much better than the back half since I sprayed everything properly up front during the swap. I'm going to weld up the factory holes from the oem spoiler and respray the back half to match the front. I may also scrounge up some cash to get the car dynoed at Evans Tuning up here in Mt Bethel, PA. I talked it over with the wife and she yelled at me for not just going that route the first time since the place is only 10 minutes from our house... in my defense, I didn't know they were there..

 

[jinscho]

The flange is apparently warped.. so, I pulled it apart a second time. This time, I pulled the belt sander out and went to town on the flange.. if it doesn't seal up this time, I'm just going to buy a new flange.

 

[jinscho]

Now that the drivetrain is situated, I decided it's time I deal with the overdue bodywork. When I originally bought the car, the previous owner had installed a primer black hi-rise spoiler (half assed installation...) and the factory mounting points for the stock 3 piece spoiler were just left open to the elements. I was indifferent on the hi-rise at the time, so I painted it to match the car, and did a quick and dirty body filler job on the stock mounting points for the three piece spoiler.

Fast forward to while I was doing the 4G63 swap, by that time I realized that I didn't like the hi-rise spoiler. The Spyder has limited visibility through the rear window as it is, and the hi-rise blocked all of that visibility. Not to mention, the half-assed installation the previous owner had done always bothered me. So, the hi-rise came off and I threw yet another quick and dirty body filler job to get us by for a while. The front of the vehicle received a proper body-work treatment at this time, so the front half of the car looks significantly better than the back half.

Well, it's time to fix it right. I spent the day today working on the driver's side rear quarter and the trunk lid. I stripped it back to the bare metal, popped out the quick and dirty body filler, and prepped the surface properly. I dented in the sheet metal around the factory mounting holes for the spoiler, and then put down a layer of bondo-glass to fill the holes with something structurally sound (I considered welding them shut, but I have very little experience with the welder and my attempts on some scrap sheet metal did not go well..). Once that was dry, I spent a few hours sanding. Once I was happy with the smoothness of the surface, I threw some glazing filler down, and then did some more sanding. Once all of that was done, I taped off the rear quarter panel and hit the panel with some primer so I could see the hi and low spots a little better.

There's still a few minor imperfections that need to be addressed.. but holy shit did that come out 1000x better than I had anticipated..

I need to pick up some sanding supplies tomorrow, but I can't wait until I can start laying down paint. If all goes well, we might be heading to some car shows this summer now that the body work is coming together

 

[jinscho]

Haven't posted in a LONG time since there was nothing to say. Car has sat mostly idle for the past few years since work went 100% remote and I rarely drive anymore. Unfortunately, my update today isn't a good one and I'm looking for some advice from the community.

Since the weather is starting to break in the northeast, I decided to take the car up to the local inspection station and get a new set of annual stickers slapped on for the ~100 miles I may or may not put on the car this year. What I had expected to be a simple visit turned into a nightmare scenario. Apparently, time caught up with one of the rear brake lines and brake oil had been seeping out and sitting on the frame for the past few months. This seems to have been the straw that broke the camels back, as the frame rail is starting to fall apart now.

This is the passenger rear wheel well, i barely touched the metal and my finger went straight through. How bad off am I? I know this is beyond my abilities to fix.. is it possible to fix this? How absurdly expensive do we think this will end up being?

My gut is telling me to let her go.. but my heart won't let me.

 

[DogWhistle]

So sorry to hear about the rust issue. Brake fluid didn’t cause the corrosion; road salt and time caused it. In the upper midwest, we recognize the signature.

Unfortunately, for any rust you can see on the outside, there is double the rust on the backside.

The good news is that it is repairable, but will be a project. There are enough 2G chassis around at places like Kannapolis @steviemiller for them to cut out sections for you to weld in place.

We’ve found locally that welders are willing to weld most anything we ask, but are not thrilled about fabricating. So if you already have the part to weld in, chances are much higher that you’ll find someone to do it.

Now is the time to put the car in the air and check all other places on the chassis and frame and see if there are other rust spots. Sadly, likely there are. If there are more advanced rust areas, skip the repair and swap your parts to a rust free chassis.

 

[jinscho]

@DogWhistle i appreciate the positive feedback. I'm extremely unfamiliar with body/chassis work, and unfortunately dont have a lift available to get the car in the air properly to inspect this. Are you suggesting that this is an area that can be cut out entirely and a new section welded in?

Any body experts in the forums that may have a roundabout idea on a cost to have a body shop do such a thing?

 

[delta448]

This is less bad than the one I'm getting ready to start repairing right now. I'm probably going to need to get some large chunks from a donor for this area on both sides of mine.

I've been looking for 420a shells with minimal rust because I really hate the thought of chopping up a rust free 4G chassis.

I'm not well versed in bodywork either and it's been so long since I used a welder last that I know I'll not remember much. I'll offer any insight I can along the way once I get the metalwork started.

 

[DogWhistle]

@DogWhistle i appreciate the positive feedback. I'm extremely unfamiliar with body/chassis work, and unfortunately dont have a lift available to get the car in the air properly to inspect this. Are you suggesting that this is an area that can be cut out entirely and a new section welded in?

Yes. There have been project cars here that have done major rocker panel repairs using grafted metal from donor chassis. Having a conversation with a welder will let you know how big an area is affected once they look at it. You may need to get a referral from some speed shops on who will handle custom welding for you.

 

[jinscho]

Oh, hey - yeah, I'm still alive.. car is still alive too, though I had a bit of a scare about a month back and was very close to sending it off to DSM heaven..

In typical fashion for the past few years, I finally took the car out of the garage and dropped it off for a PA state inspection. Everything seemed normal, and the drive up to the shop was uneventful. Left the car, told them to call me when it was done, and headed on about my day. Phone rang a few hours later... and when I got the news my heart dropped. Rust had taken over the passenger rear wheel well and the rear brake lines.

My knee jerk reaction was to say "eh, how bad could it be.." and to tell the shop I'd be up to pick it up and would take care of the work myself. When I got home and looked underneath, that's when reality hit.. lets just say that I was able to put my finger through the metal with little to no pressure.. it was BAD.

After a long talk with the Mrs.. I called up the owner of DSM Partout, explained the situation, and asked what he'd give me for the car. After a long conversation, and with his suggestion, we ended the conversation off without a price discussed but with him insisting that I take some time to think it over. I've bought a ton of parts from him, he knows how much I love the car.. I respect the hell out of him for that push.

Fortunately, I listened to him, and I waited. The car was sitting in the garage, I had no need for it to be up and running immediately.. I could wait.

As fate would have it, I didn't have to wait very long - the startup tech company I work for was being acquired, I was about to get a fat bonus check for my equity in the company.. the DSM gods had spoken.

Fast forward a few weeks, and we're mere days away from getting the car back.. it won't be "showroom floor" quality.. after all, it's a 99 Eclipse and it wasn't THAT big of a bonus.. but the rust will be fixed, the brake lines will be new, and I'm having ALL of the other body work taken care of that I've been pushing off for so long now. I'm super excited, and can't wait to post the "rebirth" pictures as soon as I get the car back from the shop.

 

[jinscho]

She's home.. it was already getting dark by the time we pulled in, so no high-end shots yet.. hopefully it's a bit less miserable here tomorrow (was in the mid-90's and HUMID today) so I can take it out for a cruise and see the new paint in some better light. You can't really tell from the lighting.. but I went with Northstar White with a pearlcoat tint

 

[jinscho]

Ugh.. two steps forward, one GIANT leap back.. something wasn't put back together right and long story short, I've got a giant hole in my gas tank. Waiting for the shop to send a tow truck out so they can fix whatever the hell broke.. and put a new tank in

 

[trustedmaniac79]

Man that's really shitty, sorry 2 hear about that. What do u think wasn't put back 2gether properly? It kinda looks like maybe u hit something

 

[jinscho]

The exhaust is pushed back a good 2-3" and isn't seated properly right now. Here's where it happened.. about 20 feet from my garage while pulling into my alleyway.. as you can see from the pic, there's nothing to bottom out on..

We turned into the alleyway, I heard a LOUD pop, then smelled gas and immediately killed the engine. Ran into the garage to grab some speedy dry to stop the gas from running into the sewer drain.

 

[jinscho]

I'm convinced at this point that I'm cursed by an unhappy DSM that was parked for too long.

So, the hole in the gas tank is now resolved. It was caused by an improperly secured exhaust hanger from the body work that allowed the flange before the tank AND the muffler to hang a bit too low and catch on the storm drain that can be seen in the picture posted above. Due to the "he said / she said" aspect of the issue, and understanding their perspective of "we don't know that you didn't bottom out - and there are very CLEAR indicators on the exhaust that you did".. I opted not to get into a useless back and forth argument with them and found a happy middle ground with them. I'd buy the parts and pay for the tow, they install the new tank and re-hang the exhaust properly.

Fortunately, I live very close to both DSM Partout and Performance Partout, and Norbert from DSM-P had a REALLY clean tank on hand that I picked up cheap (the shop was shocked when they found out how much I paid vs what they had expected). The exhaust warped a bit from the can catching on the storm grate, so after some heat and persuasion, they got it back into an "ok" spot (I'm going to find an exhaust shop to re-do everything between the megan downpipe and Greddy can with the goal of getting rid of the flange that killed the tank).

So.. I get a call today that the car is ready to go, they just want me to come by the shop and sign-off on the work to make sure that I was happy with the exhaust positioning and could see the hangers PROPERLY reinstalled this time. I get there, exhaust looks good, tank looks good.. but then I walked to the front of the car and my heart dropped..

The tow truck driver smashed the FMIC when dropping the car off..

I was watching the guy like a hawk when he was pulling the car up onto the flatbed, even gave him some 2x4's to help with the transition and get the car on smooth.. but I didn't watch him drop it off. I pointed it out to the shop owner and his face dropped as well (to be fair, the guy is SUPER honest and even with this debacle, I will absolutely still give him my business). He looked it over, noticed that it appeared to just be the bottom bracket, and was hopeful that it'd be fine - so he asked me to take it for a quick road test to see if it would build boost. It didn't.

So, now I'm in the market for a new FMIC. Fortunately, it's a CX racing variant and they're fairly inexpensive on eBay, so I've got an offer in on one currently trying to see if a higher rated seller will drop his price by $10 to match some of the lower rated sellers.. if not, I'll just pay the full price and be done with it.. I just want the damn car to be drivable again..

 

[m_0ney_pit]

The tow truck driver smashed the FMIC when dropping the car off..

Yo I feel that. When Wifeys rav4 shutoff on Tilghman Ave because the battery shorted and took out the alternator (2 months after KOCH 33 Toyota charged her a $120 battery post cleaning on a 3yr old battery which I went in there and yelled about them for taking advantage of folks, course she didn't tell me cause she was trying to do it by herself) the tow driver backed her rav4 into a street light dropping it at Krause Toyota. Ahhhhhh!!

 

[CanadianTalonTC]

When it rains it pours man, happy to see you keep another DSM on the road!

I have had several close calls to selling mine over the last ~12 years. One was so close the guy was coming to get it the next day and I backed out, I felt terrible but now I regret nothing. Just couldn't do it.

 

[techboy]

Hey jinscho ... glad to see your still fighting the good fight. I was thinking about you not too long long ago and wondering if you were still in the area and still had your car. I literally know no one locally with one other than me.

 

[jinscho]

Made some calls and paid John over at Performance Partout a visit.. he had a NIB front mount that matched the dimensions of the one that was smashed near perfectly. While there, i got a nice look over what he's been up to since taking over the business from Nate. It's exciting to see him partnered with some of the vendors on here and maintaining a stock of their custom parts. Now that I've seen the boosted fab front cross member in person, ill be picking one up sometime in the next few weeks. Those things are extremely impressive.

So, with the parts in hand, I'll be pulling the bumper and swapping the crushed FMIC out over the weekend.

@techboy once i finally get this damn thing back together we'll have to sync up at a cars and coffee. While my car is still nowhere near as clean as yours, now that it's got some fresh paint I can justify parking it and letting people get a closer look .. and it'll be a nice opportunity for you to see the motor I picked up from you all those years back in it's new home.

 

[jinscho]

Ive been bitter about the car ever since the gas tank debacle. Seems like every time I look at it, I find another flaw in the body work and remind myself I paid way too much for it to have been so half assed..

But, i put my big boy pants on today and decided it's time to start making it right. Pulled the bumper, swapped the intercooler, and started to repair some of the shortcuts the body guy took (seriously.. how hard is it to use the right f'ing body clips and 3M adhesive for the side skirts... )

And yes, for the astute viewers out there.. that IS electrical tape temporarily in place instead of a coupler on the driver's side - turns out, the replacement intercooler has 3" inlets and not 2.5" like i needed. I had one 3" to 2.5" reducer.. but, new couplers and T-Bolts will be here tomorrow. I just needed confirmation for my sanity that the intercooler was 100% of the issue and the electrical tape "coupler" gave me the confirmation I needed and will be gone for a proper fix tomorrow.

baby steps... I just have to remind myself that the main thing I paid for was the rust repair and fortunately THAT part of the body work was done right..