#418/2000 restore & mod thread.

[NateCrisman]

Picked this black 91 non-sunroof up in Miami,FL and carted it all the way back to New Jersey to be my next project & daily driver. Appears to be an absolutely corrosion free no rust example with 184k. I should have the title tomorrow, and then can finally get to making some progress on fixing it up.

Here's some pics of the car in the condition I got it:

Photo gallery link: https://nathancrisman.smugmug.com/Cars/GVR4-4182000

I haven't had much time to investigate on the car yet since getting it home (work/family), but It seems like a pretty solid starting point to building another GVR4 street car for the long term.

My plans as of today (they change daily it seems)....
[*] Install HEAT....prev owners deleted coolant to heater...need to swap Tstat housing and water pipe
[*] Fix misc street equip...windshield wipers, hood latch, ect, fix sloppy wornout shifter system.
[*] Install boost control solenoid & speed density sensors prior to retuning on 93 pump *(maybe 23psi boost)
[*] Run at dragstrip and see what the current setup has in it once tuned right.
[*] Suspension attention ...the car came with ORIGINAL SHOCKS....thing bounces like a lowrider w/ swishes
[*] 4bolt rear end..elim AWS cleanly
[*] move or replace or remove aftermarket gauges. might swap wideband for innovate & ditch boost gauge.
[/list]


Iv got a set of KYB AGX & GC coil over sleeves that can go on it. Pre owner gave me wheel bearings, tie rod ends, brake pads/rotors, and some ES poly suspension bushings. Im sure I have a set of SS brake lines kicking around the shop. Also have a white-line rear swaybar in the shop and ABS delete kits that can go in there. Probably make it a weekend project to put the car on the lift and do all the suspension/brake work in one shot..then get it aligned. Maybe end of april goal for that.


Then onto cosmetics:

[*] Im planning to wrap the entire car in vinyl.....going to be silver.
[*] Swap seats for nice versions in stock
[*] Dye carpet black & a complete cleaning of the interior with carpet out.
[*] lots of sanding and black rattle can work to be done on misc trim like the cowl cover, wiper arms, glass trim.
[*] ***keeping the damn JDM front bumper cause the FMIC kit was made to fit perfect..Im not disturbing that!
[/list]

Mod list as I bought the car:
- Manley Piston & Rods 2.0L, BC272/272 Cams
- FP Manifold, FP3065 Turbo, 3" 02 housing, external tial gate
- ACT clutch & flywheel
- ECM link V3, ??? Wideband, oil/boost gauge.
- Mangus V3 cast intake manifold
- Fuel lab -6an filter, AFPR,-6 lines, 750cc injectors
- Evo III aluminum radiator with custom Flex-a-lite fan and shroud
- Custom FMIC kit (ETS core I was told), 2.5" al pipes
- 2G maf w/ custom intake pipe


Progress pics and more info to follow! Goal on this car is to end up with a clean, straight, rust free example....that maybe runs 11.50 on pump gas and street tires......is reliable for daily driving.....and holds it's value.

 

[Yohler]

Link to photos is dead. Congrats on the pickup.

 

[NateCrisman]

Links/photos fixed.

Can anyone identify this wideband? an old zeitronix possibly? It looks like it has display for temp in *C that's stuck at 760...guessing it has an EGT input that isn't hooked up?

 

[ApexHunter]

Quoting NateCrisman:


[*] ***keeping the damn JDM front bumper cause the FMIC kit was made to fit perfect..Im not disturbing that!
[/list]

Progress pics and more info to follow! Goal on this car is to end up with a clean, straight, rust free example....that maybe runs 11.50 on pump gas and street tires......is reliable for daily driving.....and holds it's value.



Mmmmhmmm. Sure buddy, whatever. We know you secretly love that bumper.

Sounds like a fun project. I'm curious to see what that current setup has in it too. Did you try emailing Zeitronix? I've never seen one of those. Looks like a prop from Tron.

 

[iceman69510]

A little rough around the edges, but solid bones and a good parts list. Should turn out nice.

Have a good time with it. (These cars always suck you [me, everyone] back in, don't they?)

 

[NateCrisman]

hahaha secret love for JDM.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif yeah no. Reality is, this car needs my attention in 100 other areas more important that "which bumper cover" is on the car, and any time I spend on swapping bumper covers because of my ego...is time not spent refurbishing the suspension, installing the vinyl wrap, tuning, setup, ect. It just doesn't matter that much to me either way....the JDM FanBoys are just a sore thing for me....reminds me of back in the day when Import Racing went down the toilet when Fast & Furious came out and the Import parts industry went from focusing on performance to focusing on bullshit cosmetics.


EDIT: Im not going to sh*t up another thread with a prolonged JDM argument for the 9th time....would like to keep this thread on topic of this car. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif


Truce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[ApexHunter]

edit: I couldn't care less about which bumper you put on it. I just had to give you sh*t /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Fortunately performance seems to be the only constant and transcends markets, manufacturers etc. Aaaand we're back to another annoying and borderline painful cosmetic trend with this Flush/Stance crap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif Perhaps why i like it here. All business, for the most part.

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting iceman69510:
A little rough around the edges, but solid bones and a good parts list. Should turn out nice.

Have a good time with it. (These cars always suck you [me, everyone] back in, don't they?)



yeah, the cosmetics are definitely rough....25 years of Florida sun has completely baked the clear coat off the paint and faded the interior plastics. Thankfully, my brother-in-law runs VFXwraps....and has like 40 yards of silver wrap material left over from a commercial job....so this car is going to end up silver out of convenience. At worst, it's temporary until the car is otherwise perfected...and will allow the car to be presentable in the short term, then I can make the hard choices with doing body work and a full paint job down the line if the car seems like it's smart to do it (car value)


Parts list wise: my mentality here is to keep the car drivable and not let it become a JSB project that languishes. After I get it setup and make it to track once, Im likely going to put a stock intake manifold in and sell the $$$ magnus intake. Im going to keep the FP turbo setup on there for a while since I don't have anything to swap in it's place and that's kinda time consuming.

Drive the car....fix the suspension/brakes up. Then work on the body/wrap/interior little by little while driving it. Im super happy that this car is running and drivable as is so I can enjoy it and use the car while working on it...vs my typical MO of "build from bare shell" that takes months to get to the enjoyment part.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting ApexHunter:
edit: I couldn't care less about which bumper you put on it. I just had to give you sh*t /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
.



/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif

 

[ApexHunter]

Oh yeah, silver looks great on these cars. Hoping to do that at some point. I wouldn't be opposed to importing a JDM E38A if only for the factory silver paint (and JDM bumpers, of course lol). Actually no, but the silver color option and factory Non-4WS is cool. I still think about how good Josh's old GGSX looked. I'd rather get one of those to avoid the RHD if i can find one. Looking forward to seeing how the silver wrap turns out.

 

[NateCrisman]

Well...the title should be coming from Fedex today. Planning to hit the DMV today and get plates for it, then take it out for a spin tonight and see what Im dealing with. I gotta do those mechanical fixes to the heat, windshield wipers, ect first. But maybe next week I'll start working on the wrap on the big/flat panels that are easier, since Im a novice at the process. It's likely going to be a drawn out process of doing the vinyl wrap one panel at a time.

Plan is to do the hood/roof/trunk myself at home. Then take off all the ground effects, door caps, wing, mirrors, doglegs, fender moldings and give them to my brother-in-law (Mike@VFX) to wrap those PITA items at his leisure. Then when all that's done...I'll drive the car to his place and he will do the hard parts on the body (bumper covers) and help me out on the doors. Then Ill bring all the "bolt on" stuff home and install it myself.

Then photo session!!! #139 was in graveyard, so I gotta find an equally interesting location for #418 to do pics.


Any more pics of that silver GVR$? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[89Patches]

What happen to that other one you picked up saying you were going to fix? Grey one I think?

 

[NateCrisman]

It's sitting outside my shop as a pretty bare shell, and Im still just unsure what Im going to do with it. There is frame rot that I consider "borderline",....not bad enough that I think the car is unsafe to build/drive....but at the same time bad enough to where if the car was a running/driving car, people would balk at any selling price over $1500 or so I think. (the drivers's rear "box" inside of the dogleg area...you can put your fist INSIDE it from the hole in the bottom). Not to mention the rotted through hood, and the paint clear coat failing on roof/trunk/wing.

I was planning to build it and use it as a winter beater, but honestly...the rot killed my motivation, I just don't see it being worth the investment in time and part value to build it to run, then lose my shirt selling the car and being forced to re-part it out anyway..losing like 80 hours of labor.

I think when I got that car to part out, cause the previous owner deemed it too rotted to keep and it had motor issues.....I was so enamored with finding a "rare grey 92" that I convinced myself the rot wasn't that bad. But now that Iv put some time behind me and looked at it rationally....the rot is pretty bad and i was just fooling myself before...shoulda just finished the partout and gotten it out of my head.

Now that I have a rust free chassis to start with...the grey shell is just off my radar all together.

 

[ApexHunter]

There's a couple more of that GGSX here click

Here's some others:

 

[NateCrisman]

NICE....mine will be something of a clone to that other than the grill, wheels, and no wind deflectors. Iv got a nice set of 17" black wheels that were on the grey shell with fresh tires. Obviously lots of subtle differences...but yet...Im liking the silver on GVR4.


oh another note: the GC coil overs Iv got here are 6" long springs 450b/in rear and 550lb/in front..... I think those are going to be be STUPID low and STUPID stiff, as I'm seeing the "off the shelf" spring rates are more in the 350/300 range. Car will likely corner awesome and ride like a gocart with 550/450s (and blow up shocks)

 

[NateCrisman]

Got the title from FedEx, went right to DMV, got it registered and my plates. Trial by fire tomorrow....I'm going to drive it around with the kids as my wife blew up a tire and were down a vehicle, GVR4 to the rescue!!!

Kids are going to be chilly on the drive to school with no heat!

 

[NateCrisman]

Drove 418 around town today...runs good, shifts good, turbo spools, clutch good, brakes work.

BUT: it smokes like a bastard under engine braking. Might be stuck open pcv valve (no catch can..hose from pcv directly to intake manifold)
Might be valve stem seals.

Tomorrow I'll remove the hoses for intake and see if that cuts the smoke.

Holy crap...blown out front shocks is sketchy!!! Car bottoms out on the smallest little bump. Suspension mods must be a Priority.


But all together, I'm real happy I bought this car...feels like home already. I like it

 

[gtluke]

I've got a set of the market lights that go in those empty holes i the front bumpers. Not the nice fog lights that are more popular, but the marker lights like on the silver car above. I'll trade you for some bullshit that my car needs.

 

[NateCrisman]

COOL. I was wondering why my turn signals are turbo speed!

This car actually came with the fancy foglights in the boxes of parts in back/trunk, but I haven't even looked to see if they plug in, are missing something....haven't really looked yet to see why they aren't installed on the car since pre owner was driving it...been more concerned with fixing the smoke issue and mechanical stuff.

Speaking of mechanical....gotta swap shifter/cables tonight....original one is completely wasted and worn out and annoying as sh*t to drive like that. On good note...smoke issue was totally the PCV hooked up to intake manifold. smoke is pretty much all gone now after few days of driving it with valve cover routed to a "catch can" and intake manifold plugged.


going to see about hooking up the boost control solenoid and getting some data logs tonight and work on the tuning. Thinking I may skip trying to run it at Island friday since the front shocks are so blown and I haven't got much time to play with the car yet.

maybe next friday /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif

Got my appointment to start the silver wrap job next thursday.....prob take 2-3 days to do it. So much stuff has to come apart to do it...all lights out, roof rails, window trim off...door handles off. all that stuff needs to be sanded and rattle can'd black too while it's off.

 

[NateCrisman]

The color change vinyl wrap project is underway. I put some time in this week cleaning, removing all the exterior items like Wing, lights, door handles, grill, ground effects, door moldings, roof rails, F*R glass moldings, 1/4 glass, lock tumblers...ect..just like you have to for paint. Then had to wash again. Then had to sand all the panels that had failing clear coat as our test vinyl application showed; the adhesive on wrap vinyl is meant to be low-tack until heated so you can reposition it and get all the complex surfaces in one piece. But it's still got enough tack to lift the clear coat off in the areas that were sun damaged. so basically...I had to sand off the clear-coat on the hood, roof, wing, trunk, and upper pillar areas. It sucked. I think I can get away with a murder now cause my fingerprints are gone on the right hand! The car still has some door dings, a dent under a tail light, and some chipped paint on the bumpers and misc areas that will show through the vinyl. Goal is for the car to look AWESOME in photos, going down the track, and on the internet. It will look AWESOME from 5ft away. But I don't have the time or energy to make this into a perfect condition body restoration by sanding every panel to bare metal, doing body repair on every ding..ect.

Here's what the body condition was to start with:

Mike @ VFXCustom brought me the wrap material on tuesday night and gave me the instruction on the clear coat sanding. The car is going to be Metallic Gloss Silver, and the vinyl should start going on tonight....CANT WAIT!

Some pics of the progress as of today:

First wash with dish detergent prior to disassembly

Wet sanding the clear off with 220grit

In this pic you can still see the faint line of clear coat edge in the corner by the hinge area. The areas with the clear flaking off ended up sanded into the primer to get it smooth feeling.

Upper pillars/roof the clear was just GONE.

All removable-painted parts are sanded smooth to best of my ability, cleaned on both sides, and ready for wrap "off the car"

Naked & Clean...washed for third time with heavy mix of dish detergent...should be no grease/grime/oil on the body now.
BTW....when's the last time someone saw a GVR4 with a lower front fender attachment point that was still glossy and not rotted off!!!!

Last view of USDM rear bumper cover...Im going to put the JDM-YO rear on so it matches the front that's already there. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif
Also think I may put 92 taillights on it...I just like the shape of them better and I have a nice set here.

After taking off the door moldings...found drivers door has some dents under the molding area...which make the molding appear "wavey" ....going to swap the door with another one I have in stock with less dings and no dents. Also going to swap all the side glass from those doors cause they have nice tint already. The existing glass is all sticky from shoddy tint removal by a prior owner, and pass side glass has what looks like clear coat overspray or something....like a prev owner spray painted something in the garage next to this poor galant and hosed off the pass side!


More pics ASAP once there is something to show with the color change.