My Eclipse

[SilverSpyder98]

This is the Build Thread for My Eclipse. Reply below.

 

[SilverSpyder98]

I got this car 3 years ago as a one owner garage kept car that was in good shape mechanically and cosmetically. Initially I just fixed a lot of aging things and dealing with small issues that came up. As a safety precaution I changed the timing and accessory belts, put in new spark plugs and wires and changed all the fluids. Small things like the power antenna that didn't work, weak trunk struts, the familiar broken bezels around the mirror controls at the window delta area. Small things came up that are probably familiar to more experienced DSM owners like a door handle that just broke off one day. Regulator on alternator started going bad causing lights to flicker. That was an easy fix. Twice the car failed to start and while that seemed serious, it finally turned out to be a short in the negative battery cable that would randomly happen when road vibration would shift it to a certain position where the short would occur. Second year the convertible top developed a hole and the seal at the rear window failed so being the DIY guy I am, I dived into installing a new one despite never having done anything like it before mainly guided by a video from tops online.com where I got the new top from. It wasn't that hard thanks to the video, though once you do something like that, you learn a lot and could do it better, faster, and easier the next time. So I wrote down a list of the steps that I would do next time which are an improvement from the directions on the video though without it, I couldn't have done it successfully the first time. If anyone is interested, I can post that. All this comes with owning an older car, but the car is so enjoyable to drive, the cockpit is so simple and user friendly that I decided this car is a keeper and that has led to investing more time and work in ensuring this car will last into the future and not succumb to rust and decay like is the fate of most cars. I'll share what I've done so far and plan to do in the future in my next posts along with some pics. Unfortunately I had some technology issues awhile back and lost my convertible top install pics so I can't share them, but I do have some pics of the work I'll describe in the next posts.

 

[SilverSpyder98]

I knew if I was going to keep this car for the long-term I needed to address surface rust starting on the underbody and suspension members before it got out of control like some cars I've seen in the junk yard. By the way visiting the junk yard was very helpful in pinpointing some of the weak spots when it comes to rusting out. I knew about the strut towers in the front but I didn't know about rust out that occurs at the rear rocker panel and in the rear wheel well around the trailing arm attachment. I'm wondering if water isn't being trapped on the inside because the cars I saw with this issue it looked like the rust was coming from inside the panel and finally breaking through to the surface of the thin sheet metal.

I was going to address the rear first because that is where the rust is the worst, but the second year I had the car the steering rack began leaking and the inner tie rod needed replaced on the one side so since I had to replace the rack, I decided to tackle the front end first. It was one of those projects that grows. Once I had the whole front end removed it was a no brainer to address a noise in the transmission area that I suspected (correctly it turned out) was a failing throwout bearing. It also turned out to be timely because the clutch was down to the rivets. Then since I had to remove the cv axles it seemed to be a good time to replace them! Also when I removed the front quarter panels, they were rusting on the back side where they butted against the reinforced Spyder rocker panel which I caught in time before it got really bad. (I think the reinforced rocker panel on the Spyder might save them from the rust out I've seen on the coupes. There appeared to be at least 2 layers of heavy structural steel there.) I removed all the old undercoating, treated the rust and sprayed the front undercarriage area around the suspension with RustBullet silver and the reapplied 3M undercoating and gave it an overpaint of Black RustBullet paint.

Another thing I discovered is a poor design of the body in the back side of the wheel well where three layers of lapped sheet metal are spot welded together overlapped to the top instead of the bottom so if water would ever seep behind the paint and undercoating, it would run right into the seam. The seam should have been done the other way around like roof shingles. And they hid the thick seam with copious amounts of undercoating. The individual suspension parts and front frame member I dipped in Evapo-Rust (Amazing stuff. Removed heavy rust from the cast shock forks overnight.) to remove all the rust in hidden areas you can't reach. I treated all re-used parts using Rust Bullet paint.

I replaced all the bushings and ball joints (as most know, replacing ball joints in most cases means replacing the entire arm. Where they were available I replaced all bushings with Energy Suspension poly ones. The worn out factory shocks which were KYB I replaced with adjustable Koni Sport ones which are a huge upgrade and it's nice to change the ride for the kind of driving you want to do for a ride just by the twist of a knob.

Another good thing of doing all this was I found around the hub area, the knuckles had hairline cracks in them. The casting around that area looked a little thin so I wasn't surprised. Got new ones from Japan and was glad to see they improved the beefiness of the casting in that area so hopefully these won't crack in the long term. Next up is the rear and hopefully nothing scary is uncovered around the rear rocker panel/trailing arm attachment area. Doesn't look bad and I hope I'm catching things in time, but who knows because what I've seen with these cars so far is that are sure seems like it rusts from the inside out. Hopefully I can find out what causes that and if there is anything that can be done to prevent it. If anyone knows, I'd love to hear about it. Like I said earlier, I think the Spyder's saving grace in that area might be the reinforced rocker panel to give the convertible body stiffening. The coupes just seem to disintegrate in that area eventually if not caught in time.

Difficulties I encountered were mainly pulling the axle shafts. Mitsubishi doesn't leave room between the inner joint and the transmission to put a tool in too pull. I found a you tube post where a guy recommended wrapping a chain around the back of it and attaching that to a slide hammer and that did the trick. The replacement axle seal area was slightly off and tranny fluid leaked until I figured out that was the issue. The solution was not seating the seal totally and leaving it out by a millimeter or two. The original design doesn't leave much room for error and typically aftermarket people never get their numbers right. I kept the old ones and will rebuild them. But so far a year later and no issues with the seals or axles. The other was getting the clutch adjusted right. The clutch has been a pain since I owned it and I finally ran into a post that informed me if the master cylinder shaft wasn't adjusted just right to allow the relief valve (which Mitsubishi does not mention in the factory manual) you get the clutch pump up issue. Before this no matter what I did to adjust the clutch it would never stay adjusted right and would get harder to push after adjusting it fixed it. I then added a step by step procedure to do it right to my factory manual. If that would help anyone, I can pass that on as well.