Swapping bodies

[GST-1997]

Alright I have a 99 eclipse gs spyder, and I found a 99 gst spyder for sale with less miles and a 5 speed trans. I'm going to go look at it to make sure the body and everything is solid which if it is, my plan is to swap the body parts from the n/t to the turbo. my question is, is this hard? Or do you just undo bolts, pull the piece off and put the other panel back on?

 

[Zufelt]

From my understanding there all just bolt on.

 

[GST-1997]

Thats what I figured it would be. The guy wants a pretty nice chunk of change for the car which I have no problem paying if the strut towers, frame and body have absolutly no sign of rust. Then I'll swap my black leather interior from my n/t into the turbo, hopefully my exhaust and my intake too. This guy needs to get back to me though so I can go look at it tonight and if it checks out I'll be calling the bank tomorrow , and start doing the swap over the weekend

 

[Zufelt]

Well hope it all works out! Hopefully someone can just confirm it for me as we'll. There a lot of rust where ya live?

 

[GST-1997]

For the most part yeah . I probably have the cleanest dsm where I live absolutly no rust anywhere on the car at all. The 97 in my pic had bad strut tower rust so I got rid of it, and I got bored and found this 99 gst that the guy says is in excellent shape but I'll find out if it really is when I go to look at it. If he ever texts me back that is...

 

[Zufelt]

Speaking if which, I think my strut towers have rust on them.. Just the top plate though.

 

[isantop]

What parts are you swapping from the GS to the GS-T? I thought they both had the same body parts, at least across identical years.

 

[GST-1997]

Im swapping everything but the engine and trans over. the only exterior part I found out I can't swap are the rear rocker panels. So ill have to get both cars rear panels painted to match the cars which is fine with me. It's cheaper than spending 4 grand having the engine and tranny swapped out of both cars.

Okay so my friend proposed a new plan. He told me we'll just take both cars to his moms garage, we'll unbolt the body from the frame and use his lift to lift the body off the frame and then switch the frames and rebolt them back up. He was pretty drunk when he told me this so I'm trying to confirm if this will truelly work

 

[Zufelt]

Not sure how well that would work.. Expecually the suspension.

 

[SPYDERGSTTUNER]

Your buddy must have been intoxicated no you can not do that these cars are unibody which means the shell is the frame of the car they arent 2 separate pieces. You can swap all body panels (except the rear obviously) including interior pieces. As for intake whether your talking manifold or cold air they wont work either the turbo and n/t motors have totally different intake systems that are opposite of each other in the bay and the bends are totally different in direction and length.

 

[GST-1997]

Yeah he was literally falling off his couch drunk . He told me today to just go the way I intended too; which is to take everything off minus the rear rockers and switch them to the other car, and I'll just have the rears painted to match the car. Will the cat back exhaust I have on my n/t fit on the turbo?

 

[synthetek]

Whats wrong with the body of the GST?

 

[GST-1997]

Nothing the body on both are absolutly perfect. My n/t has a custom red diamond flake paint job, and it was my first dsm/ car I ever had and I want to keep the body, but I want the turbo, and 5 speed in it

If I get the guy to take what i'm going to offer him, and I buy it, I'll post a thread with pics of both cars and make a list of everything I'm going to be doing to them, and I'll go into more detail as to why I'm doing what I'm doing.

 

[synthetek]

You should just swap a 4g63 and trans from a gst into your spyder.

 

[GST-1997]

I cant do that . And I dont have 4 grand to have some one to do that, I already thought about it and checked with my mechanic, he told me to go the route I was wanting to

 

[synthetek]

It would not cost 4K and would be much easier than doing what you are trying to do. If you swap body parts you can only swap bumpers, doors, front, fenders, trunk, & hood. Then the rear quarters, windshield pillars, door jambs aren't going to match and you will have to have them painted.

 

[91-GS]

+1 on drivetrain swap. Can be done in couple days, depending on how many friends are willing to help. It will be alot more cost effective than getting parts color matched, especially since the paint is so fancy.

 

[GST-1997]

I have a family friend who paints who would help me out. but it fell through the guy wanted 6 grand for the car and a lifter was going bad and he had zip ties all over the engine, and wires all over the place. I'm planning to just buy a 4g63t and rebuild it and just swap it in with my friends now.

the reason why it was going to cost so much to swap the drive train over is because he was swapping in a 5 speed into an automatic etc, so he was going to be swapping both engines and trannies into both cars, which would be taking up 2 lifts for a couple of days, so the price was double because hed be having to do both cars.

 

[honda_burner]

If its a 2.4 why not just throw a 4g63 head (as well as turbo and all associated parts) and drive it. Thats the equation for a stroker motor I believe.

 

[GST-1997]

^ because everywhere I look says to do something different and I have no idea which one is right, or what to follow