Charuto’s 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse

Okay so, A LOT has changed with my life.  I have a new address.  I'm married.  I'm a Dad.  And, Oh Yeeeeeah.... The car.  Well, last time we saw the Eclipse (AKA: Jett) she was needing som body work, and paint badly.  Well, some years later (LOL) She gets it!  There was a lot to go into this particular project.  I needed an air compressor, check.  I needed a paint gun, check.  I needed masking paper and tape, check and check.  I needed primer, thinner, yada, yada, yada.... check, check, chiddy check. So, I started with pulling panels.  Side skirts, front and rear bumper, and fenders all came off.  Masking tape and paper went on.  The body parts were in need of some serious repair.  So Bondo, epoxy and sand paper were employed to smooth out my situation.  This process took quite awhile with me changing tax brackets twice during the process.    Sanding complete.  Headlight change complete.   Primer complete. Assembly Complete.

What's happenin' Now!!!Okay Okay Okay... So.  I know I'm supposed to be doing my "5 Phase Body Project", BUT... I stumbled acrossed a helluva deal on Craig's List and couldn't pass it up.  Seem as though my good friend and mechanic Jack Brandenburg off of Versallies Rd in Lexington, Ky. was selling a NEW, in THE BOX, wet nitrous kit for... dig this... $350.  Now the kit really goes for @$600 so I couldn't pass it up.  Not to mention it was the same kit that my "Go to Info Guy" Sean out at Street Sports in Nicholasville, Ky.was offering to sell to me for $569, so F_ _ K That!!! I bought it!!! (picture coming soon)Now look, I know its a ZEX kit, and I know it's purple, but it was new and half price!!!  I don't plan on running a big shot so you can't clown me for owning a ZEX kit (other than the fact that it's purple anyway).  So yes, the Body Project is on hold... AGAIN, and I'm currently installing in the Nitrous kit.  Besides I already have a silver bottle. Remember this? (I think it's funny that EVEN THIS BOTTLE has purple spray paint on it.  I sanded that off though)

The Ongoing Struggles of a Tuner!!!Okay so, Last page I was trying to decide what to do with the car.  Seems really the only way to go now is with the body.  See, I don't know if you've noticed, but unlike most people on this site I haven't really posted any exterior pictures of Jett except for the first page when she was shiny and new.  Truth be told the winter months (especially these lasts ones) have really taken its toll on the old girl. Over the years Jett has taken a couple bumps due to snow.  Because of it I got rust in some crazy hard to get at places (UGH!!!  I don't know dude).  The good news is that I'm moving in with Chris who has a garage!!!  No more leaving the baby out in the cold!!!  Fuckin' Kalapana Black :-[  REAR:

16 bolts and some SERIOUSLY easy shoulder strap adjusting later I now ride too sweet!  Down side is it's summer time... :-(  I'm not used to hot seats.  Anyway, the morning ride in to work was fun.  I chose a hilly, curvy road to test the straps and Dammit I'm in the seats tightly.  Test passed!  So here are some close ups.  I have some more pictures from the actual work day coming, but for now just enjoy and comment.  Thanks!

5 Phase Body project cont'dOkay so, I decided that I will update THIS page as the body mods roll in and get installed.So far, I've decided to go with the Seibon Carbon Fiber XT hood , and on 4-28-10 my hood arrived at 7:45am.  Talk about mini Christmas!!!  it's beuatiful, but as it was time to go to work I could only open and inspect it.  Tonight I will be taking pictures and uploading.

FINALLY SOME ugh... more... PROGRESS!Okay so, First and foremost let me apologize for not uploading the pictures of my new neons and speakers and such.  They're coming I swear.  Anyways onto my next story.I purchased the A'Pexi AFC Neo along time ago, maybe the summer of 2007, because I caught one on a deal in a shop.  I had this vision that I could mount it in the location of where my trip computer was because 1- the trip computer went out and 2- trip computers are kinda lame; besides an AFC Neo mounted in that location would look stock at first glance (especially when the car was off) and be bad as hell!!!  So, I tried it and WA-BAAAMMMM it FIT!!! Since then I took it to a different shop and had it glued to the mounting brackets of the trip computer and put it in the car, but I've been driving around with it uninstalled... like this:

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!!! Okay so... after a LOOOOOOOOONG time away i'm back at it in the garage.  currently I own a 2005 Audi Quattro A4.  This means that I can work on the body more.  Currently I'm sanding the clear off, something I found out I really didn't need to do as severly as I am, but hey... it's a bit late.  I have one more panel to sand before I start on the rust restoring and such.  I have new side skirts, and I need to repair the front and rear bumpers.  I have some bolts to extract so I'll be working long and hard on this particular phase of the project.  GOOD NEWS:I caught up with a two friends of mine, shout out to my boy Mark who is gonna help me paint.  And shout out to my girl Erica who just so happens to have a garage I can use to paint it in!!!  Yeah I know I have a garage but it's a two car garage with two cars in it.  My Girl Chris would hate me if I got black paint all over her new WHITE 3.5 2dr Nissan Altima.  OH SNAP!!!  This is gonna be worth the effort.  I've got pictures coming soon so stay tuned and help me achieve five bloody stars!!! BAD NEWS:Pictures coming soon.  WHOMP WHOMP!

Why I hate my stupid lil car project:By: MeOkay so, I'm recently I proud that my car project has continued to move along.  I now have.... BASS!!!  HA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAAAAA!!!  BACK STORY OF MY BASS: Ya see, back in the day I had bass.  MTX, color coordinated, LOUD AS FUCK bass to be exact.  But, some one liked my bass so much that they figured it would be better in their car so in the middle of the night they stole my box and amp and 10" subs leaving me bass-less with a hole in my back window, and sad. I cried... not really but I didn't go into work when I saw the mess they made.I was so hurt and thrown off, especially when the cops told me they couldn't dust for finger prints despite the fact that finger prints were visable on the car, that I went out a purchased a Sony Xplod car stereo (don't laugh).Anywayzzzzz, that lil cheap stereo was recently stolen...  No damage thank goodness.  Here's the funny part though.  So  ???  The gauges, you know the D-PIC and Voltometer were left behind.  The piggyback ECU, the Apex'i Neo was left behind, hell the NO2 bottle and gauge were left behind... the only thing they took was a lil $80 Sony Xplod car stereo... and my shift knob?  Suckerz!  I LOVE a dumb thief!!!  So, for about five months I was driving around without music (good thing my engine sounds like baby making music to me).  Recently an opportunity arose and I fell into a bit of money SO... KA-CHOW!!!  NEW BASS!!!  I got 2 Eclipse 12" (two inches bigger than the old ones eh... eh... yeah!!!) subs.

What's happenin' Now!!!Okay Okay Okay... So.  I know I'm supposed to be doing my "5 Phase Body Project", BUT... I stumbled acrossed a helluva deal on Craig's List and couldn't pass it up.  Seem as though my good friend and mechanic Jack Brandenburg off of Versallies Rd in Lexington, Ky. was selling a NEW, in THE BOX, wet nitrous kit for... dig this... $350.  Now the kit really goes for @$600 so I couldn't pass it up.  Not to mention it was the same kit that my "Go to Info Guy" Sean out at Street Sports in Nicholasville, Ky.was offering to sell to me for $569, so F_ _ K That!!! I bought it!!! (picture coming soon)Now look, I know its a ZEX kit, and I know it's purple, but it was new and half price!!!  I don't plan on running a big shot so you can't clown me for owning a ZEX kit (other than the fact that it's purple anyway).  So yes, the Body Project is on hold... AGAIN, and I'm currently installing in the Nitrous kit.  Besides I already have a silver bottle. Remember this? (I think it's funny that EVEN THIS BOTTLE has purple spray paint on it.  I sanded that off though)

Okay so there they are. In order to go with the supercharger I mentioned on the first page I needed headers. Here they are. Sitting on my floor. You ask yourself, "Why the hell are they still in the box?" Well... in a word, TIME. I have no time. I have the tools and determination to put them in. Just no TIME. I know it sounds like I'm crying (I am), but you should feel me. So until I get them on you and I can both stare at the catless header set that is sitting on my living room floor. Okay so there they are. In order to go with the supercharger I mentioned on the first page I needed headers. Here they are. Sitting on my floor. You ask yourself, "Why the hell are they still in the box?" Well... in a word, TIME. I have no time.

WHAT DO I DO WHEN I HAVE NOTHING TO DO?Okay so, to properly tell you this story I need to start about a year and a half ago.  I went to a very reputable shop in Lexington, Ky which will reamain nameless... hmph... Anyway, I went to said shop and asked them how much it would be to have a carpet and headliner installed in my car by them.  They quoted me this astronomical figure of $300.  Upwards of $300 I said? that can't be right.  So, I was deceivde into thinking the job was very... complex.  So I left it alone, and drove a round with the stock beige headliner color that I loathed.  Boy was I wrong... and stupid!Fast forward to this past weekend (6-18-09):  So, as I told you I've been waiting for my seat brackets to arrive and this weekend I went to the "Midwest Mayhem" Auto Show.  WHAT A FUCKING MISTAKE (I'll tell you why in a minute)!  There were cars in that show that made me wonder why the drivers (not all, just some) were showing INCOMPLETE or SHOTTY work?  A lot of mini trucks... Anyways.  (here's why going to the show was a mistake) So Sunday I was sitting around antsy, non-stop talking about how cool the car is going to look with the new seats in, and Chris was telling me that I needed to change out my headliner and that she didn't think it would be that difficult, and that I should do it before the seat brackets arrive and the racing seats went in the car.  I told her that a $300 project is not something to be F'd around with, but she convinced me to do otherwise.  So after researching the topic of HOW TO: Headliners, off we went to none other than WAL-MART!!! LOL  because Holy shit, it's not that difficult!  We went and purchased 2 things: 1-fabric: felt, and some 2-spray glue, and came back to my place and got to work.  First we had to remove the headliner and moon roof cover, probably the hardest part of the job, but relatively easy compared to HEADERS!!! LOL

BACK STORY Okasy so, below is an older picture of my car, Jett. This is back when her paint was fresh and the body kit was new, and rims stock. Hell I even lived in Nashville at the time. The thing I'm most proud about is that everything that has been done to the car my hands have done or have been helped in doing. It all started with engine painting and changing caps, covers and switching out the hoses to a red, and covering the wires with a chrome to help the engine look like something I might want to show people; even if it was stock. Then I switched out the tail lights because let's face it, the combination of Fast and Furious and Need 4 Speed warpped all of our minds (or am I alone on that one?). Then came the Injen CAI that you see, and the HKS exhaust that sticks out of the back (I'll show you a picture in a second). Then came the trottle body spacer, front Freedom Design strut bar, and light weight pulleys. Giving you the picture of the engine you see. See, I had originally planned on building a "Sleeper", but then I was teaching my brother how to drive, and had just switched my pedals which are now larger and closer together, and his big ass foot pushed both the accelerator and brake simultaneously until we came to an abrupt rest against a very firm bush. No real damage, except his ego and my front bumper so... TA-DAH!!!! My boy Kevin and I installed the body kit. The body kit in it's self is a crazy story. Anyway, with the body kit I JUST HAD TO HAVE the new spoiler! So KA-BAM!!! Big ass ugly spoiler install done. Well shit all that racing look and stock rims didn't fly so KA-POWIE!!!! 18" rims purchased (you know the place where I bought them said it would cost me $50 to get them put on? Oh, The robbery). Big ass spoiler baby!!! After that it was on to ride height and such. A set of Skunk2 coilovers (which again, is such a story that I have another working set in my possession). After that I got back into the interior... you should've seen it ya'll I had an MTX Amp and some 10s that were just what I needed. I even built my own box with stainless steel under the speakers, yo the shit was fresh. I ran some neon lights through out the passenger compartment, and they flashed to the bass and everything when I say the shit was fresh I mean THE SHIT WAS FRESH!!! Yeah so fresh that when I moved to Ky someone thought they'd look and sound better in their car and removed them THROUGH my back glass. bastards! :-( So while in Ky my shocks died, LOL So I got some KYB AGX shocks. These things are kinda cool, and adjustable. Firm as shit though. I also have installed some Baer front vented and slotted rotors, which in wet conditions nearly throw me through the window, it's great! They went from this: to this: So now this is where I am! More decals on the side, way lower! I have these two gauges. A D-PIC (I think everyone should have this. Its a performance meter). A Voltometer. I used to have an Air/fuel, but my Apex'i piggyback monitors that for me now... I... just... need to... install it.... So it's back to the engine... finally! Going for the supercharger by Ripp Mods. Little at a time, so that one day when I lift my hood, it will look like this! Ya know, I think I need new pictures, maybe after I paint it BLACKER!!!   IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING READ THIS: PLEASE stop hating on my car and leaving negative comments.  If you don't like it that's cool, I'm not trying to please you per se.  I don't want to know what you think I should change UNLESS you have something constructive, knowledgeable, COST EFFECTIVE and improving to say.  Don't just come on my page, tell me my shit is wack then bounce, because: #1 it's not.  #2 I do my own work I don't take it to a shop.  #3 I have a personal: vision, mission, and goals that might not me YOUR criteria.  I'm not just out here doing this because "it's cool"... FUCK COOL!  I actually like the 6g72 because it is VERY user friendly.  I'm not trying to make a 500whp car.  If I wanted that I would've left Jett in the garage I found her in.  Thank you.  Peace and be peaceful, and enjoy my on going project.

From Failure to Triumph!!!Okay, so... earlier I was telling you about the headers sitting on my floor, chillin'.  Well, I found some time to put them on (apparently the time was under the box.  Mom always said I should move things around when I'm searching for stuff you never know what's under something).  So WA-BAMM!!!  The first attempt at install failed.  ONE BOLT had seized up and the damn thing wasn't coming off.  I went through six saw blades.  So, I took it up to the shop and had them replace my tail pipe all the way back to the muffler!  No resonators, no nothing, just cat, then pipe.   A Week or so later I tried a second time, and realized the lazy bastards at the shop cut the old pipe and welded the new resonator-less pipe to it, so the SAME F'IN BOLT was still there holding the process up.  So I took the car to a different shop and had him cut the blots off, and drove it 30 mins back to the garage with the damn thing rattling around. So, I'm under the car, for the third time, and everything is bolted up and... DAMMIT!!!  I'm about two and a half inches short, plus the flanges are different sizes.  So I had to bolt up the old exhaust system AGAIN and have a piece made to go between the two.  GRRRR!!!!! Finally, I get the piece made (I hate that shops are closed on Sunday), and heavenly noise is now coming from my CAT-LESS exhaust.  Thanks Megan for teaching me about exhaust systems!!! Here are some pictures for you all:

and... ANOTHER FUCKIN' Sony XPLOD stereo (DON'T LAUGH!!!).  I also have a car alarm installed now for any would-be thief!  The box is no longer portable as it takes up the entire back of the car as well.  The funny thing is I didn't even want that stuff yet... but hey... TRICK THE MONEY OFF!!! YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU ANYWAY!!!

Next, we lined up the black fabric on top of the headliner and pressed it into place, making sure we had enough coverage for the indentations and such.  Then we folded back half of the fabric, sprayed the glue and "HYPER-Rubbed" it into place; pressing especially at the edges.  Once we finished we let it dry and did the same thing to the sunroof covers (notice I said moon roof last time).

Okasy so, below is an older picture of my car, Jett. This is back when her paint was fresh and the body kit was new, and rims stock. Hell I even lived in Nashville at the time. The thing I'm most proud about is that everything that has been done to the car my hands have done or have been helped in doing. It all started with engine painting and changing caps, covers and switching out the hoses to a red, and covering the wires with a chrome to help the engine look like something I might want to show people; even if it was stock. Then I switched out the tail lights because let's face it, the combination of Fast and Furious and Need 4 Speed warpped all of our minds (or am I alone on that one?). Then came the Injen CAI that you see, and the HKS exhaust that sticks out of the back (I'll show you a picture in a second). Then came the trottle body spacer, front Freedom Design strut bar, and light weight pulleys. Giving you the picture of the engine you see.

WHAT DO I DO WHEN I HAVE NOTHING TO DO?Okay so, to properly tell you this story I need to start about a year and a half ago.  I went to a very reputable shop in Lexington, Ky which will reamain nameless... hmph... Anyway, I went to said shop and asked them how much it would be to have a carpet and headliner installed in my car by them.  They quoted me this astronomical figure of $300.  Upwards of $300 I said? that can't be right.  So, I was deceivde into thinking the job was very... complex.  So I left it alone, and drove a round with the stock beige headliner color that I loathed.  Boy was I wrong... and stupid!Fast forward to this past weekend (6-18-09):  So, as I told you I've been waiting for my seat brackets to arrive and this weekend I went to the "Midwest Mayhem" Auto Show.  WHAT A FUCKING MISTAKE (I'll tell you why in a minute)!  There were cars in that show that made me wonder why the drivers (not all, just some) were showing INCOMPLETE or SHOTTY work?  A lot of mini trucks... Anyways.  (here's why going to the show was a mistake) So Sunday I was sitting around antsy, non-stop talking about how cool the car is going to look with the new seats in, and Chris was telling me that I needed to change out my headliner and that she didn't think it would be that difficult, and that I should do it before the seat brackets arrive and the racing seats went in the car.  I told her that a $300 project is not something to be F'd around with, but she convinced me to do otherwise.  So after researching the topic of HOW TO: Headliners, off we went to none other than WAL-MART!!! LOL  because Holy shit, it's not that difficult!  We went and purchased 2 things: 1-fabric: felt, and some 2-spray glue, and came back to my place and got to work.  First we had to remove the headliner and moon roof cover, probably the hardest part of the job, but relatively easy compared to HEADERS!!! LOL

SO, on to the bottle.  I wanted to mount the bottle on the back seat hump and thought it would be a piece of cake, but alas the Eclipse has some electrical stuff right there.  After a stroke of genius, I built a "Bottle table" to go over the wiring and mount the bottle brakects to which I was able to hide using the seat cushion.  This allowed me to NOT drill into the car body (what a brain I have!!!).  After an hour or so of cutting out some of the cushion Jett's bottle was in place... SEE!!

See, I had originally planned on building a "Sleeper", but then I was teaching my brother how to drive, and had just switched my pedals which are now larger and closer together, and his big ass foot pushed both the accelerator and brake simultaneously until we came to an abrupt rest against a very firm bush. No real damage, except his ego and my front bumper so... TA-DAH!!!! My boy Kevin and I installed the body kit. The body kit in it's self is a crazy story.Anyway, with the body kit I JUST HAD TO HAVE the new spoiler! So KA-BAM!!! Big ass ugly spoiler install done. Well shit all that racing look and stock rims didn't fly so KA-POWIE!!!! 18" rims purchased (you know the place where I bought them said it would cost me $50 to get them put on? Oh, The robbery). Big ass spoiler baby!!!