1722/2000 burn victim rescue

[GSXftw]

Hi everyone. Long time car guy, brand new to GVR4s. I have been a dsm guy for 10+ years, also dabble in the supra world. Here is my Holset MKII I've had for 10+ yrs

Ive had my 1G gsx for 10 years, but was wanting something bigger and more civilized. Of course a GVR4 was on my mind. My dad owns a shop where Im luckily able to take care of my babies, so Im never scared of big jobs. I just picked this up a week ago. If youre not familiar with the area of Weed, CA, there was a pretty serious fire in september that took way too many houses and devestated the town.


This car was parked in front of one of the houses. Im trying to stay hopeful and positive with this build, Im hearing a lot of negative things about how I shouldnt bother taking this on but I know I can do it and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Ive been into DSMs for over a decade but this is my first galant. The car was complete, with an oil siezed engine before the fire. So far Im just trying to finish up a customers 2g so I can get started on the engine build, goals are pretty modest, just an 8.5 cr stock 6 bolt, with an 18g turbo. I just wanna touch a 12 and be a quick sleeper that can do daily driver duty. Thanks for reading, hope to have some better news as we go

 

[Spyke169]

Looks to be in alright shape from what can be seen in the picture. Looking forward to a build thread. What do you have planned for the rebuild?

 

[GSXftw]

Oh youre definitely seeing it on its more flattering side.....sigh. Thanks for the good words. So loaded up for the ride home


....and the backside that makes you hurl...

So first was damage control, inspect the damage

You know its a mitsubishi since theres a ton of tools in back... lol
After sifting through everything

Pulled all the floor pan/trunk floor plugs, and let the standing water drain. Luckily it just started raining and the fire was so recent, I dont see any rust, super good thing someone got this car when they did.

So the plans for this are to just be a totally unassuming sleeper that I can comfortably drive anywhere. Real similar to Toms (turbo garage) VR4. At first I thought who cares how stock the engine looks, just the outside needs to be stock, but now Im really falling in love with the idea of popping your hood, looking stock as can be, then smoking someone haha. It'll be an 8.5 cr stock 6 bolt bottom, cyclone intake, 18g greddy turbo (got it in trade) Link, Possibly meth injection... I had my 1G running mid 12s with the same kind of setup, Im pretty much just wanting to duplicate that, just a little worried of the drivetrain strength so I gotta stay reasonable. Im looking at getting a shell that will supply all the body parts so crossin my fingers on that, thanks for reading everyone and wish me luck on this, I might need it lol

 

[Mr_Fielgood]

Damn thats just hard to look at. Well good luck man and I hope you bring this one back to life.

 

[coyotes]

brutal

 

[thomcasey]

Look around here on the forum, I believe somebody had a rear window for sale out west your way.

 

[GSX_TC]

Ouch, that's quite a bit of burn damage, looks like it'll need a new harness for the rear stuff, carpet, weather stripping, trunk, tail lights, and a bumper. Lots of people parting cars here will have most of those things, so keep your eyes peeled for part outs. Goodluck with the restoration.

 

[bobdole]

Good luck with the build. Hope you get here on the road again.

 

[G]

Toasty. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/uhh.gif

 

[Wookalar]

The ultimate unassuming sleeper huh? Leave all the fire damage visible on the outside but just replace the tail lights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif

 

[coyotes]

Reminds me of this

 

[004tsi]

Thats Hot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif

 

[GSXftw]

Yeah, I think Ill still not lose my ass on getting it going tho. The first purchase is on its way, lancer rear seats.
I love that Idea of keeping the fire damage haha, my buddy said just do shitty trailer lights stuck in there, as a big "screw you"

 

[the_underdog]

Good luck to you sir! Looking forward to updates and I'll keep an eye out for parts too.

 

[GSXftw]

Yeah I need all the help I can get... So after diving right in this weekend its really sinking in what I got myself into... I think I should call this the "WTF was I thinking build"...Its gonna be a long road for sure... So step 1, was literally spending HOURS on the shop vac. The car hadnt been touched since the fire, so there was tons of stuff turning to dust when youd touch it, not to mention a lot of glass from the back window, that had made it all the way to the front seats.





How many of you can say these words..."I vacuumed up my weather stripping" lol
click

So after spending at least an hour giving a rough vacuuming and getting most of the glass, I started working on getting the melted remains of the car out and away. A lot of the stuff was stuck or joined with other parts so this was really tough.




The rear seatbelts are bad, I had to cut one of them since it would even get slack to work around it


and these are a little more "typical" of what youd see from a before pic of a GVR4 project





Got the seats out...YUCK!!


After getting the carpet out, I was able to get the rest of the standing water out and off of the floor pans before they did any damage. Happy to see no rust here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Like I said good thing this was a recent accident and the car wasnt sitting long.


So...heres what Im working with...A bit of rust around the weather stripping area, a tiny bit of rust on the inside left quarter, and then a bit in the rear deck area.

Thanks for reading everyone

 

[PJGross]

Wow, good luck with this build!

I had to chuckle at the first trunk pic. You mentioned the tools, but I was laughing at the jackstand in the trunk... 'cause you never know when you'll be JSB. (I can laugh b/c my car has been on 4 jackstands in my garage for most of the last 10 yrs)

Looking forward to updated pics. I wonder what kind of temper the heat put on all the metal. Will you have to temper everything as you go to get things back in the correct temper or what? This should be an interesting thread for sure!


-PJ

 

[Wolfpuss]

RUFF! Goodluck with the build OP!

 

[GSXftw]

I bet you guys thought I gave up on this one huh.... Nope still going! Selling my 2G, and going balls deep on my 1G and this thing. So I got some 03 lancer backseats for it


Sent in the ecu for socket/caps for link


Then I got a phone call that a pick & pull about an hour and a half away had some parts for me. Off I went!!


It was a black 91, and from the looks of it even has a white bumper that was painted black! Easier prep for me!
Sooo heres how she looked when I got there...


and then when I left




I got just about EVERYTHING Im gonna need here... Rear wire harness


Tails, trunk lid w/spoiler, weather stripping, headliner, rear bumper, trunk carpet/panels, rear seatbelts, plastics, rear window ect. The damage was $250, not bad at all!

Today I pulled the headliner out, washed the whole inside and got all the black soot out of the metal, hoping the burnt smell starts to go away after all this. This is not a shadow in the foam btw, its burnt. This is how far forward the damage went.




Starting to get a plan together...Next step is gonna be going through my spare 6 bolt and get it ready for this thing, pull the engine, pop her in and get the car driving, then sandblast all rust in the rear area, by that time the weather will be nicer and more paint friendly, do some self etching primer, surfacer/sealer, and get all this stuff white. It still looks bad but this giant stack of parts got me leaps and bounds farther.

 

[coyotes]

can't wait to see you get it back together

 

[turbohf]

now thats a project!! keep her alive. good luck, ill be keeping an eye on this one. i like the idea of the total sleeper, but most people dont know what a Galant VR4 even is.