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the rebirth of the 98 awd spyder after 10 years of storage

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tkrPerformance

20+ Year Contributor
1,392
18
Dec 2, 2002
plymouth, Minnesota
First off a little history.
I bought the car brand new in 1999 (it was a 98 model). It was my 19th b-day present to my self. I paid 22k in cash for it. The car was a auto 2.4 sohc. The auto lasted 18k before it let go. We rebuilt the tranny with better parts and upgraded pump,shift kit and clutch's. That tranny lasted to 45k be for it started to slip. From then on out it became a full on project. I found a awd parts car in 2000 and we swapped the car to 5 speed,4g63 and awd.

the really old pics of the car
back in 99/00 when colored wire loom was in. also had a wings west front bumper and blitz sides and rear bumper on it then
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Then frenched in a 3g eclipse alum gas door on the car
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also found the rare edm tails,edm mirrors for the car (have sold them now :()
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this is how it sat for almost 10 years now all apart no engine in it and every thing stripped out and parts where sold from it
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now it has been sitting in the drive was for a year since I was trying to sell it off. that is when I sold the mirrors,tails,jamex front seats. It looks like this for the most part right now
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the awd sub frame
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I will be getting the engine set up out of the evo 1 swap.
got a free 95 awd tranny just need to rebuild it
getting a free 95 transfer case

will be putting the back top from this car on it
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the tails, rear bumper,side skirts, power steering,a/c from this car
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On monday I picked up the super rare 2bg talon front bumper after work. was well worth the 2 hours in the car when I got off at 1030 pm. I got the bumper for 60.00 all the ones that I have seen sold go for 250-300.00

will also be putting the stock evo 3 front recaro in the car. (that way I can buy bride seats for the evo ). I will be getting the rest of the black and grey panels for the car. I cant stand the tan that it came with to start with.
 
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the 95 talon parts car ready to go to scrap. It was a rusty pile of crap.
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drivers side rocker panel front to back ^

what I did to my car today. waiting for 2 no shows on picking up the talon, I would scrap it myself but I just have a car dolly and it does not roll any more.
stock eclipse rear bumper bracket
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after drilling off the spot welds
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It new spot on the car to fit the talon rear bumper
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also had to move the side rear bumper brackets down
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new rear bumper and tails
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also gutted the car for a few hours
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installed the black top from the other spyder
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the 97-98 rare talon front bumper. I will be modding the bumper to fit the 97-99 eclipse head lights
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the radiator that was in my 1g talon and then was in the evo 1 swap now going into the spyder
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some parts I picked up on wed night. huge sbr fmic, s.s. piping with tial flange,act flywheel,tial 38mm o2 housing,stock 2g amp,black mirrors,hawk front pads, forced performance 2 cams
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What I did on a boring sat. At work. Blasted,coated and backed the o2 housing
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been working on it the last 2 days. It is getting there.

got the fmic put on and started to put the a/c system back in the car
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also took out all the abs wiring out of the engine bay harness and put it back in the car. Also did a mini tuck with it. I used the 3 holes that were in the frame rail and make 3 brackets to bolt the fuse box in the wheel wheel.
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fuse box bolted into its new home
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I drilled out the spot welds on the stock lower radiator brackets and made some new ones and welded them in so I could use my 1g fludine radiator in the car
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worked on fixing the new top since arms were broken and bushing were missing. the install on the frame was messed up. took a few hours to get it to work like it should now it folds down and up just great now.
replaced the floating arms with the ones that were in my top frame. also had to redo the elstac straps so it would pull the arm back when the top folds down.
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the arms that were in the car they were broken. the floating bow arms were gone
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got the side skirts all on the car now
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also got the front bumper cut and put on for the first fitment. I have part of a 2gb eclipse front bumper so I can fill the gaps so I can run the 2gb eclipse head lights
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Worked on it a bit yesterday.
Got the top all done had to put the push clips in and changed the top motors out with mine. Also got the black rear panels in and the back seat back in it. Just have to find black leather rear seat and black seat belts still.
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Also got the short shifter in the car
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took the dash back out today and put more of the a/c back in. also swapped the dash harness out. got it all back in and the lower grey dash parts are in now.
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got the gauges from the other spyder in the car with my speedo. and the apc real carbon fiber gauge over lay
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also got the holes drilled in the apiller and the new gauge pod in. Just have to paint it grey. Also put in the auto meter boost,oil gauges and aem wide band
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Just got back home from picking up a turbo back. The down pipe back has 1000 miles on it. The o2 Dump had 10k on it will be selling it I have no use for it. He bought th down pipe back and new rims and tires and blew his engine after putting them on.
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Have had some time sine I cut a huge hunk of meat out of my thumb at work and have been off since sat. Felt ok today after I got home from a check up on the thumb, I got the brackets done and the evo 3 seats put in the car. Also put in the megan exhaust and drive shaft.
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the rest of the grey parts showed up yesterday.

the home link visors will recover them in a darker grey
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top panel and a-pillers
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also got the carpet just needs a real good cleaning
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Got 1/2 a yard of headliner fabric so I could redo the visors.
1st took the old fabric off the visors
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Used a body saw to cut the visors so they could be opened all the way up
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Using 3m 74 spray glue for headliners and fabric. Glued 1/2 at a time since I don't have any more clipse to do it all at one time.
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The drivers side it done. Used 5min epoxi to glue the visor back together as one piece

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the carpet was all dry today so took the seats back out to put it in and put the rest of the panels in also.
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pass side visor all done and painted the mirror darker to match the new color of the visors
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started to rain so pushed it back in to the garage. the thin sits low :)
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pic of the front bumper with Brads old fmic in it
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The black door panels showed up this morring. Now its down to a black rear seat and seat belts
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been working on it the last 2 days. Pulled the engine out of the corner. Pulled the valve cover to swap in the FP2 cams and one of the cam cap bolts pulled all the threads with it :( was not happy since it was the cnc ported head that is now junk and is all taken apart for scrap now. Luck I had one good 2g head that will be going on the engine now since that is what I had laying around.

so today I got the short block,tranny,t.c,and axles,and down pipe in the car
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also took the turbo apart to cut out the flapper since I will be running a tial 38 gate
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cut the flapper arm off flush and put it back in and welded it back on
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all back together
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back in the garage for the night
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picked up a head gasket from spaz yesterday and got the head on. Also clocked the evo 3 turbo and had to cut the bolt out of the o2 housing since I could not get both nuts on the bolts with the down pipe on. Just used a new bolt since the flange was slotted to start with and was able to use the stock nuts to bolt it all up with the help of spaz.
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It is the first time in 10 years the car has had a full engine and tranny in it :) It is getting closer
 
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LOOKIN GOOD man! I also hated the tan interior so i found a guy selling all the black interior i could carry for 200.bucks! LOL I didnt need the seats and door panels but i took it anyway bucuase it's black=) Your build looks just like mine but i'm using sparcos insted of recaros=) GOOD build man! The black seat belts make the interior just look some much better! GOOD LUCK MAN KEEP POSTING
 
I understnd, I use that same excuse to the wife so i can buy other parts=) I tried convincing her that i need evo 8,9 seats instead of my sparcos but she didn't budge on that one(I've had those seat for almost 8 years AND HAVE YET TO TAKE THEM OUT OF THE BOX!!!! LOL My build theme consits of me using all the stock evo parts i can you i.e evo 3 turbo, mainfold, o2 housing,evo x pistons,evo FMIC(Im running no bigger than a 16g so i think ill be fine) etc etc etc you know=) BUT man i have been keeping my spyder in storage for about 9 years so i know the feeling you have with your build man=) GOOD LUCK man. OH hey did you find the seat belts or rear seat?
 
I have not found the rear belts or seat in black yet.

I have been doing the same I used the engine from my old talon, the evo 3 turbo,manifold,and seats from my evo 3. bought 2 cheap parts cars and been using all the other parts I have laying around to get it back on the road. The wife really does not care what I spend on all the cars as long as it is money from selling other parts or working on cars for people.
 
hey theres a guy selling black rear seats in the classifieds, there for a hardtop tho. Can you make those fit in your spyder?
 
Nice build man, wish I had the skills to do what your doing. However interesting location for the fuse box, aren't you worried about weather damage (i.e. snow and rain) and condensation build up with the fuses that much closer to the ground?
 
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Really nice build good to see it coming together. Why not heli-coil the head with the stripped thread?
 
The fuse box will be fully inclosed with a alum box so it will be out of the weather
did not want to deal with it. I had to heli-coil the fuel rail when I got it. the kid stripped them out.

Interesting will you post pictures of this box when you complete it ? I'd be interested in seeing how that turns out.
 
It is getting cold out now. I worked on it a little bit today. got the a/c pump on,alt on, put power steering back in the car. also rebuilt the tial waste gate and made a j pipe.
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Dad came by today and we put the timing belt on the car. Also put the cas and rail/injectors on to seal the rest of the engine up till I get a intake manifold. and got the lower piping all hooked up
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also put the winter tires and rims on the hatch so it is ready to go now
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Been working out in the cold the last 2 days. I got a new rear bumper on the car now I found at the junk yard. it has no holes in it like the old one. It was cheaper to buy this one over me fixing the old one on the car. also picked up a heat shield for 5.00 local. The evo 3 intake manifold and coil bracket showed up picked it up for 75.00 shipped since I sold the 2 that I had years ago.
What I got done. timing cover is on all pullys and belts are on the car. got the oil cooler mounted and -an lines on the ofh to the oil cooler. Got the evo 3 intake on, all the wiring is on. Just have to make the harness for the 94 cas.
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I did have a warranty on when I bought it. But mitsu canceled it along with alot of other guys when they showed up to the track one weekend and took down plates and vins. I had 20k on it when they canceled it then it became a project car

I hated the tan in the car. But for the color I wanted it was the way it came so I started to get panels to swap it to black and grey. I will be repainting the full car it has small dents and alot of scratchs from sitting so long. the front bumper is green,side skirts and rear bumper are red and I still have a bit of work to do on the 3g alum gas door to get everything straight and smooth on the QT. panel

made the 2g to 1g harness today
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just got done baking the head lights took out the amber turn lights. heated in the over @ 350 for 15min. With them that warm I was able to pull them apart and put them back together with the glue still hot to get them to seal back up.
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I got the head light's in. the wire is broken some were for the pass side low beam. Other wise all the other lights work.
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Also when to radio shack and picked up 2 8ohm 20watt resistors to go in line to get the rear turn signals to work right and rewired the brake lights,reverse lights to work with the talon tails just like they do on the talon from the factory. I got out all the trunk panels out and back in the car. I just have to cut the top off the sub box that is fiber glassed in and make a new floor so I will have a box to store stuff in also.
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ouch that sucks, what a bunch of dicks. Isn't that what sports cars are made for the track? Hey if I have the chance to pick up a rare 2gb bumper (one in the scrapyard where i got my car) should I? I'll have to make sure its not totally wrecked but it might have a little damage.
but anyways looking great, very jealous! I'll be keeping tabs on your build for sure.
 
Helpful hint when it comes to seat belts. I used the grey ones out of my donor AWD coupe. I just had to swap over the Spyder mounting tabs from my stock seat belts, and they all bolted right in. I wish I still had pictures of it to show you, but it might be something you may want to look into, if you have trouble finding black Spyder belts.

BTW, your build looks great. It makes me want to go outside and work on my Spyder.
 
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