jay-red
10+ Year Contributor
- 92
- 4
- Dec 11, 2009
-
sacramento,
California
Figured I would put together a complete build log for my Galant project, seeing as I am getting close to it being road worthy again...
The story of this Galant begins about 5 years ago with my friend needing a new car and asking me for help in finding him something. Searching Craigslist endlessly, I stumbled across this Galant for the steal of a price $1800! I told my friend we had to check it out, and were on our way for a test drive. One catch to getting this car for my friend...he couldn't drive stick shift at the time. I drove the car, it all seemed to be ok and we paid him the $1800, didn't even try to talk him down.
My friend drove the car for years as his daily, him not being a "car guy" meant the car stayed stock and was never really beat on. I always reminded him that if he ever needed to sell it, I was first in line to take it off his hands. I got the word that he was getting a new car after the Galant lost compression in one of the cylinders, and I knew it was my chance to pick it up. After we agreed on a very good "friend" price, we limped it to my garage, the last time it would move under its own power for a long time...
The goal of this car is a mild street build that retains mostly stock looks, since I am from California, I would like to make smog checks as headache free as possible, and making sure I pass the visual is a big part of that. It means no emissions delete, all vacuum lines in place, stock intake etc...
Here are the pics I took of it before it would go under the knife, the body is very rough with dings on basically every panel.
The engine in the car at the time, looked stock, and we had been told by the PO that it was a "JDM" motor that had been swapped in (little did I know this was NOT the case, I would later find the real origins of this engine). This thing was leaking oil from every possible place it seemed and the entire engine bay was covered in grime.
The infamous timing belt groove from the wrong oil pan bolts:
A pleasant surprise when I found a small 16g!
Tearing it apart, this engine bay was the worst!
The old engine removed
Did I mention there was oil EVERYWHERE!!!
A lot of cleaning ahead of me:
Some progress in cleaning, trying to shine up this turd:
Judging by my pics on my photobucket account, I think a lof of the next series of pictures are on my digital camera, I will get those later and keep this post going.
The story of this Galant begins about 5 years ago with my friend needing a new car and asking me for help in finding him something. Searching Craigslist endlessly, I stumbled across this Galant for the steal of a price $1800! I told my friend we had to check it out, and were on our way for a test drive. One catch to getting this car for my friend...he couldn't drive stick shift at the time. I drove the car, it all seemed to be ok and we paid him the $1800, didn't even try to talk him down.
My friend drove the car for years as his daily, him not being a "car guy" meant the car stayed stock and was never really beat on. I always reminded him that if he ever needed to sell it, I was first in line to take it off his hands. I got the word that he was getting a new car after the Galant lost compression in one of the cylinders, and I knew it was my chance to pick it up. After we agreed on a very good "friend" price, we limped it to my garage, the last time it would move under its own power for a long time...
The goal of this car is a mild street build that retains mostly stock looks, since I am from California, I would like to make smog checks as headache free as possible, and making sure I pass the visual is a big part of that. It means no emissions delete, all vacuum lines in place, stock intake etc...
Here are the pics I took of it before it would go under the knife, the body is very rough with dings on basically every panel.
The engine in the car at the time, looked stock, and we had been told by the PO that it was a "JDM" motor that had been swapped in (little did I know this was NOT the case, I would later find the real origins of this engine). This thing was leaking oil from every possible place it seemed and the entire engine bay was covered in grime.
The infamous timing belt groove from the wrong oil pan bolts:
A pleasant surprise when I found a small 16g!
Tearing it apart, this engine bay was the worst!
The old engine removed
Did I mention there was oil EVERYWHERE!!!
A lot of cleaning ahead of me:
Some progress in cleaning, trying to shine up this turd:
Judging by my pics on my photobucket account, I think a lof of the next series of pictures are on my digital camera, I will get those later and keep this post going.