Northstar 99 Spyder

[tylersevo]

This is the Build Thread for Unicorn 99 Spyder. Reply below.

 

[tylersevo]

From a 600whp awd swapped 97 Spyder, to a 920whp TT Gen 3 Mustang, now an exceptionally slow but beautiful 99 Spyder.

After the factory coyote blew up on the test drive (literally can't make this up...buyer had a deposit down and everything), I sold the car back in April 24 with a massive hole in the block to my friend/mechanic who had helped me keep it maintained (1,000hp problems are no joke). After a couple pretty steep tickets in the Mustang and a cool $15k loss on the whole motor ordeal, I was pretty sour to the idea of having another toy through the summer. As fate would have it, I caught the previous owner's (Scott) comment on FB about potentially selling his Spyder at the end of October. I have known Scott for several years and actually purchased some parts off him for the awd Spyder back in 2021 at the Shootout. He had recently moved from OH to AL and wanted some garage space cleared out for his C5 corvette. 48 hours later a deposit was sent and arrangements were made to meet in TN for the handoff. Because we decided to meet in a small town just south of the KY border, there was not a single rental car option available. U-Haul saved the day and I ended up driving a 15' box truck down. The Spyder felt like a Bentley on the way back after being in that truck! We couldn't have planned a better day as it was mid 70's and sunny. Cruised back home that afternoon with the top down, radio on, and cruise control set. Upon arriving home I started unpacking the car and found a few issues. The battery is bad, the turbo oil feed line is leaking and almost ran the car dry, there's a vibration at idle (I think due to the rear motor mount), 2 of the 3 downpipe bolts were missing, and the CD player doesn't work. I'll get to work fixing things in the coming days with plans to get the car inspected/registered in KY, get my 4G63 KY plate back in action as it's still available since I sold the awd Spyder, and begin the minor engine bay restoration before I pass it off to my detailer for ceramic. Hoping come spring it's looking better than when it rolled off the showroom floor 25 years ago. The main goals for this purchase are keeping it in like new condition, close to factory power with a few tasteful upgrades, and sharing the nostalgia and happiness the platform brings me with my wife and daughter as she grows up.

 

[Redrocketlaser]

God I love those wheels!!
Where are you at in KY? I'm in spottsville KY, on the border of Indiana.

 

[DogWhistle]

Congratulations on the purchase of this beautiful car. We’ll be watching the updates!

 

[scotthidley]

I'll add some background to the car's history (this is going to be in multiple parts in this thread).
I bought it in August 2020 near Canton, Ohio with 43k on it. It was also a great weather day and on my ~ 1 hour drive back, I got to watch a B-29 fly over head while enjoying the top down. The car was relatively stock at this point. Since a few parts were not OE and finding ones in similar or better condition was nearly impossible in my opinion, I decided to make it an early 2k parts OE appearing cruiser build.

Not stock was:
3 autometer gauges,
reverse indiglos
aftermarket pioneer radio/ speakers
muffler welded on to otherwise stock exhaust
turbo xs mbc and bov
also some other parts like gts headlight covers

Similar to Tyler, I addressed issues first.
The powered antenna sometimes got caught up going up and down, after taking it apart, cleaning / regreasing, it operated like new. Bought OEM new leather shift knob, trunk carpet. I removed amp / sub wiring, and fixed other small issues like poor gauge installs.
Other things took longer, such as finding mint center caps for the near mint chrome wheels, owners manual, floor mats, boot cover, trunk plastics, etc.
The stock suspension, while very clean was at it's end of life. Final replacement became Tokico Illuminas and Eibach Pro-kits. Trying to sort out a vibration issue, I replaced the side engine and trans mount with poly bushings and installed a fluiddampr (issue improved but not eliminated).

Here it is the day I headed to the 2020 "ShootOut" that Jewer held at Marion as the real one was cancelled.

I also installed the near mint clear tails that I found with original box / bulbs. I put them on for that day to try them out and quickly decided I didn't like them as it wasn't a good contrast on a white car.
As the event was very slow, I figured I'd make a few test runs with it. With poor tires and a worst driver, I managed a few 15.3 passes in the low 90's. Shortly after this event, I realized the previous owner had the mbc installed wrong, which effectively ran the car at stock boost.

Aside from the ridiculous amount of part searching / install effort, I started sourcing timing belt parts, while it was low miles, I didn't like driving on 20+ year old parts.

Shortly after, it was time to put the dsm's in storage and get back to house projects for the winter.

 

[Stapl3]

Here's a picture of your car that I saved a few years ago. I'm obsessed with the wheels on the car, it's the best I've ever seen and have been looking for a good set on a regular basis since.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Stealth wheels fit really nice, I must say. Like an evolution of the 1GB Talon wheels.

 

[scotthidley]

Among some of the past projects were installing the Hahn FMIC.
I mounted the power steering cooler behind the center bracket to allow the IC to sit just a little further back. After figuring out the best mounting bolts / spacers, I ordered several stainless bends and got busy with routing the piping. Luckily a guy down the street was a decent welder and liked doing it for a few extra bucks as his retirement. That allowed me to tweak the fit and get it just right. I had to trim a little of the pass side bumper beam off and this fmic allowed for the factory fogs to be retained. Not pictured, I used aluminum sheet to seal off the top and bottom of the IC to direct all air thru the rad (never had any cooling issues with this, including with the AC running). After final welding / cleaning of the welds, everything got a coat of black (again, I was going for OE appearing).

Another project was sound deadening.
This was a combination of kill mat and frost king.
I did as much as I could access and installed a 10 disc cd player at the same time as the factory system included the needed wiring. If memory serves correct, I had to limit how much I did behind the door panels as they were difficult to put back on. The rest of the interior was pretty easy to cover.

 

[tylersevo]

Just working on the little things while most of my time is occupied with the baby. I'll list them below. Once the touch up paint arrives I'll be scheduling a full detail and ceramic coating to get it as close to perfect as possible.

• First wash and interior cleaning since getting it home
• Installed a new battery
• Cleaned up/painted a few faded brackets in the engine bay, driver's seat frame, and wiper arms
• Fixed an oil leak at the OFH
• Installed oem tails (Keeping the mint smoked set tucked away until I'm ready to change it up)
• Installed paint matched bumper plugs
• Installed some black oem-style floor mats
• Got the car inspected/registered (Waiting another month for my black 4G63 plate to come in the mail. This is the same plate I had on the awd spyder 2 years ago)

 

[tylersevo]

Well it turns out the OFH leak I thought was fixed I ended up making worse... Big shoutout and thanks to @noreply for reaching out and offering another oem ofh plus install. It's awesome having good dsm guys local.

• My touch up paint finally arrived so I was able to hit the only two rock chips on the car (front bumper/drivers fender), and can now schedule the detail.
• Repainted the core support and pinch welds white as there was some chipped paint in places
• Sourced a NOS weighted shift knob
• Polished the Thermal R&D muffler
• Got completely under the car for the first time (it's so clean!) to wipe off the oil spray
• Took the car out for only the second time since owning it to pick up dinner (no leaks!)
• Ordered BoostedFab chromoly crossmember, rear lower tie bar, and stock intake compatible strut brace

 

[noreply]

Well it turns out the OFH leak I thought was fixed I ended up making worse... Big shoutout and thanks to @noreply for reaching out and offering another oem ofh plus install. It's awesome having good dsm guys local.

• My touch up paint finally arrived so I was able to hit the only two rock chips on the car (front bumper/drivers fender), and can now schedule the detail.
• Repainted the core support and drip rails white as there was some chipped paint in places
• Sourced a NOS weighted shift knob
• Polished the Thermal R&D muffler
• Got completely under the car for the first time (it's so clean!) to wipe off the oil spray
• Took the car out for only the second time since owning it to pick up dinner (no leaks!)
• Ordered BoostedFab chromoly crossmember, rear lower tie bar, and stock intake compatible strut brace

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This car is even cleaner in person! Glad I got to check it out!!

 

[tylersevo]

Update time!

Got the car out for what was likely the last nice day for a cruise in Central KY two weekends back. Was joined by a few local dsm guys and my neighbor with his super clean 50k mile bone stock mr2. Also received my BoostedFab order and got the strut bar, crossmember, and rear lower tie bar installed. While I had the car on stands I went ahead and got to everything I could underneath with some Cavity Wax in an effort to preserve how clean it is. As of right now, there's nothing else planned as far as winter upgrades go. I've considered some engine dress up stuff, but that will likely come down the road once I get the itch to tinker with it again.

 

[C-note89ky]

Update time!

Got the car out for what was likely the last nice day for a cruise in Central KY two weekends back. Was joined by a few local dsm guys and my neighbor with his super clean 50k mile bone stock mr2. Also received my BoostedFab order and got the strut bar, crossmember, and rear lower tie bar installed. While I had the car on stands I went ahead and got to everything I could underneath with some Cavity Wax in an effort to preserve how clean it is. As of right now, there's nothing else planned as far as winter upgrades go. I've considered some engine dress up stuff, but that will likely come down the road once I get the itch to tinker with it again.

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That's not even a hour from my shop. Mabe next time!! The cars look awesome man. And ur car is perfect. Keep it up.

 

[tylersevo]

My new (to this car) plate arrived finally! Had the same setup on the awd swapped 97 Spyder a few years back.

 

[tylersevo]

Finally got a warm enough day to schedule a mobile detail. The 25 yr old paint really cleaned up nicely for just a quick 1 step polish. Debating on an Evo 9 steering wheel swap like my last Spyder. Decisions...

 

[tylersevo]

Took the car out for a little cruise and ran across this super clean Z. Had to stop for some pictures

 

[tylersevo]

Got some engine bay dress up done courtesy of JMFab

 

[tylersevo]

I've put another 150 miles on it in the last 3 months. Ready for summer!

 

[DogWhistle]

Looking good. You started with such a clean example and have made it a jewel. We're all a little jealous.

The rear seat windscreen is something we've been looking for for years. Looks factory. Where did you get it?

 

[tylersevo]

Looking good. You started with such a clean example and have made it a jewel. We're all a little jealous.

The rear seat windscreen is something we've been looking for for years. Looks factory. Where did you get it?

It's a factory 4G part

 

[tylersevo]

Excellent. Thanks. Didn’t know it existed.

If you feel inclined, please take a close-up picture of the mounting. We will definitely be adding this to our Spyder which is set up for grand touring.

Will do. It's literally just a hole drilled into the side plastics to accept the mounting studs from the windscreen. Wouldn't hurt to have a spare set of plastics on hand before drilling if you ever wanted to revert back to 100% stock

 

[DSM B]

Hey man, car looks great and I love your additions to it also! I really love the wind deflector also, well done! You mentioned you had an AWD Spyder before this one, is that something in the cards for this car? Was it much better having the AWD set up in the Spyder? Just curious on your thoughts!

 

[tylersevo]

A few pictures from our local C&C last weekend. Felt good to get the car out for a bit

 

[tylersevo]

Hey man, car looks great and I love your additions to it also! I really love the wind deflector also, well done! You mentioned you had an AWD Spyder before this one, is that something in the cards for this car? Was it much better having the AWD set up in the Spyder? Just curious on your thoughts!

I'm way late to replying sorry... Yes you can see it in my vehicles. It made around 500whp on 93 and close to 600 on e85 through an FP black. Was a fun car for sure. I don't have any current plans to take this one above stock power levels or mess with an awd swap. Just enjoying it for the time capsule it is.

 

[tylersevo]

Just a few pictures I took the last time I had it out. Getting closer to turning over 49k miles