On the road again

Engine #2 going in.  CaseIH red block completely rebuilt.  The head is completely serviced as well.  The old one had rings that weren't seating due to not honing the cylinder walls enough.

Attempting glamour shot..

Attempt number 2.

Another.

Trying to get the yellow bean field..

All in all I'm falling in love with the car.  Plenty of room for the kids, the exhaust is quiet enough, plenty of power, and handles like a dream.  Best of all, cops don't seem to even notice me.  I'll probably tint the windows a little and the paint needs some more work but that's all part of it.



On the ground again

Here's the engine bay put back together.  I got the exhaust manifold, turbo hotside, and o2 sensor housing ceramic coated to cut down on the underhood temps.

Side pic of the car.  It's sitting a little higher but I think the springs just need to settle.

Ghetto rigged zip tie license plate.  I can't bring myself to drill into my freshly painted bumper just yet.

I tried to fire it up but there's very little spark.  I think I jacked up a sensor by not tightening it down so I'm waiting for a new one to come from the brown truck.  Hopefully, it won't take too long.  I want to take this thing for a spin!

Wetsanded and buffed

So I wetsanded it and I'm pretty happy with how the orange peel came off of the car for the most part.  I'm sure in the sun I'll find spots that I missed but I can fix it later.  I was disappointed in the buffing as I could not get all the swirls out no matter how I polished it.  I guess I'll just have a professional do it some time.

My turbo showed up this week finally so I took it straight to the performance shop for ceramic coating.  My exhaust manifold is also there getting coated.  I bought a high out put alternator and don't want the exhaust heat killing it.  Otherwise, I just need to get the turbo in, finish the exhaust, and finish some emissions/hose things and I should be first start time. 

Front of the car with '93 headlights and an '88 grill that I though looked decent.  The chome stripping is all new from mitsu - paid a pretty penny for it!

Here's a side shot with the new shoes on it.  The wheels are hanging pretty low but will suck up into the wheel wells nice once it's finally on the ground again.

Rear of the vehicle shot.

I haven't updated for a while but I've been busy..

Front bumper is back with '93 headlights installed.  I've got new chome molding that I'm going to put on after wetsanding/buffing.

HID lights installed.  They're wired directly to the battery for as much power as possible.  I'm still working on the fogs as they are a different power level then the factory harness.

Pioneer head unit is in with gauges.  New shifter knob as well.

I installed the wideband in the driver's cubby since I really didn't want to do an A pillar mount again.

Here is my new exhuast downpipe.  I threw an extra resonator on there since there was room.

Here's my homemade exhaust on the car.  Much to my surprise it fits the first time.  It's hanging a little sideways since I have't put the front hangers on yet. 

Hopfully in two weeks it will be back on the road.  MIG welding had a learning curve but I started to get the hang of it.  The welds aren't the prettiest but should do the job.

engine back in

Fidanza flywheel installed

Competition stage 4 cluch on as well.

Engine is back in.  Also got the new bigger front mount intercooler on there

Shocks and struts back on as well.

I was up until three in the morning on Friday night dropping the engine in.  Tess had a fever so I didn't start until 9 so not too bad I guess.  I'm painting the calipers and then I can put wheels on it and take it off jackstands for the first time in like 3 months.  I still need to fab the exhaust, but other than that I'm finally getting there.

engine work

I got the hks 264 cams and L19 headstuds in this week.  Also installed that pretty blue fuel rail with some 1200cc injectors and the intake.

The timing belt is on with all new components and a new water pump.  I opted for the Kevlar one for some added insurance this time around.  Hopefully this weekend I'll get the engine back into the car.  I'm starting to get excited as there is light and the end of the tunnel.

Painted

I took the day off and painted the car on Thursday.  12 hours straight was pretty exhausting but it went pretty well.

At first I thought it was way to shinny but I think it looks good.

I got the hang of clearcoating this time so minimal wetsanding should be necessary.  I did have some runs though that I'll have to sand out.

These pics don't do it justice.  Once I get it back together more, I'll snap some more photos.

Hopefully paint this week

I've been busy prepping the car to get new paint.  Here's the cleaned up engine bay.  Simply Green and a powerwashing sure improved it.

I've also completed the fuel pump rewire for the two pumps. 

The window corners had all worn down and the metal was showing through so I sanded them down and repainted them.

Here's a pic of the car as it sits in the garage.  I found some rust on the doors and two small holes in the sheet metal on the bottom.  So I sprayed all of it with por 15 and pached the holes with fiberglass cloth and resin.  Hopefully that stops it. The frame didn't look too bad so it should be alright.

It's supposed to reach almost 80 on Wednesday so I'm hoping to post pics of it painted next weekend.  I'd really like to get that done and start working on the fun stuff (engine).

Slow going

I managed to get the new stainless -6 an fuel lines in the week.  I'm getting used to working with them so it was pretty enjoyable.

Since the fuel feed line pretty much disintegrated when I took it apart I had to rig up a new bulk head fitting set up.  Thanks to  a write up on dsmtuners, it wasn't to bad.  I'll be rewiring it with an in line bosch 044 so fuel will not be an issue when it comes to horsepower.

The front subframe is back in where it belongs with new polyurethane bushings installed.

The shock assemblies are back together sporting SDSU Jackrabbit colors.

I replaced the frayed auto seatbelt in the front as well.

The underbelly of the car has been painted por15 and por15 chip resistant paint and I'm in the process of spraying rubberizing, sound resistant coating on it as well. I also saw a product on horsepower tv this morning that uses a negative electronic charge to combat rust so I'll be checking into that as well.

All in all it's going well, but slower than I hoped.  This week I plan to start sanding the exterior for paint.  Once I get that done, progress should improve.  I really can't wait to drive it someday!

Some progress

I had the driveshaft in pieces this week and I thought I was in serious trouble.  But was able to get it back together the correct, balanced way after two tries.

I torched out the old rusted, crumbling bushings and will be installing polyurenthane ones shortly.  I went through about $50 in oxygen but got it done.

Here's a picture of the shinny driveshaft with new carrier bearings and yoke joints.  I painted the whiteline springs and swaybars back to their original light blue color with rust prohibiting paint.

I also painted the shocks to hopefully hold the rust down as well.

This is the rear subframe painted up.  I also painted the entire under carriage of the car.  It was quite a job with a gravity feed hvlp gun.  It was hard to get the angle right just being on jack stands.  My back and legs are pretty much shot right now.

Grady is starting to become more of a handfull at almost 5 months and Tessa is Tessa.  So between them, my job, and trying to get 6 hours of sleep it's been slow going.  I have some time on the weekends but I don't want to force Jaime to take care of the kids the whole time either - I don't want to have to sleep in the car at night after I get done working on it.  Hopefully another month and she'll be back on the road.

I lost something

Looks like a car threw up in my garage..

More carnage!  These parts are all pretty rusty.  I'm using the 3 step por15 rust preventing paint system to save the car from rusting away.  The fuel lines broke off and I'm sure the rear steer lines are about to blow so I'm pulling all the brake, steering, and fuel lines and completely redoing them.  Stainless fuel lines and anodized hard brake lines all the way.

Old engine pulled out this weekend.

New engine arrived this week as well.  It looks pretty good.  I'm still going to put new timing belt components and a new water pump in just to be sure. 

First shipment!

My first shipment of sexy arived today!  New intake manifold with custom lettering.

New drilled/slotted rotors.  Supposedly zinc plated to not rust - we'll see.

I'm going to try out a new grill.  Some guys on vr4.org have them and they look pretty nice.  When it gets painted I'm debating painting it the same as the body, but we'll see.

I also bought a ton of por15 rust proofing paint since the undercariage is hurting a little.  No pics since not so exciting.  I will be posting pics of the restoration though.

Preoperation pics

Some pics of the galant before it goes under operation. I found an engine with 7 miles on it in Iowa with upgraded rod and main bearings, headgasket and lifters so it should be able to meet my horsepower goal of 400 whp.

The engine bay isn't so pretty right now, but that's going to change as well.

Up on jackstands - a familiar sight for any DSM owner!  I'm sure this will be a frequent sight for this car for a while.  Although even with completely blow head gasket and sitting for a year, she fired right up and drove in the garage billowing smoke the whole way.  Still, hopefully a good sign.