MY RED 89 MX6 GT -OTHER WORK-

 

 

September - November 2008 (The day after I got the intake installed and running).

After two years it was time to get this car ready for a safety check and plate it properly. Budget 0$.

I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me, but......

I started with the trunk and the interior, I pulled the rear bumper and pulled the interior and dash. This was meant to be a quick job and have the car back on the road as fast as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plan was to (ofcourse) cut out the rust, seem-weld the patches, clean the welds, seem seal the welds and cover in gravel gard. Only do whats visible and do it quicly, Ha! around every corner there was more to do.

 

 

But there where a few things I wanted to take care of while I was at it.

 

I welded the seem of the air inlet above the fire wall/ I powdercoated a shift rod (they rust away to nothing here.

The rear calipers on the car where custom fit 2nd gen mx6 calipers, they where no better, I took a set of used stock ones and sand blasted the cores and powder coated them. Then I took appart about six seized and broken callipers and picked all the best parts to use with the powdercoated cores. Put on new pads and changed the handbrake cables.

The driver door hinges where both worn out and loose.

I had a new upper hinge ( left over from safetying the 88mx6 gt) I had a lower 626 hinge but the bolt hole spacing was different.... so a but of hamering, drilling and welding.

The fender was hit last winter, the body work is half assed at best, so I wasnt affraid of making it worse.

I took a new fender I have and wrapped this part in powder coat tape (thick) then I used that as a stencil to cut out a piece of metal which I beat with a hammer a while then welded to the rest of the fender.

I am no good at body work but it get covered by the mud flap.

Both front strut towers needed work, with the driver fender off i decided to fix everything, the passenger side I fix the obvious, plugged the visible and skipped the rest.

 

 

There where dozens of other small patches and repairs I did here and there. Then I looked under the car. CRAP, THE FRAME RAILS WHERE RUSTED WHEN I GOT THE CAR, BUT NOW THEY ARE GONE. Had I looked at the frame rails before doing al this other work, I would have put the motor in another body.

 

Rear drivers side:

 

Rear passenger side:

Most of the patches on the inside got covered and seam welded from underneath as well.

Then came the ULTIMATE DISASTER AREA!:

The front frame rails or lack there of.

Passenger front:

After cutting away the rotten parts, I decided to weld in ancors made from thick steel to secure the old frame rails in place.

Then I cut out a piece of steel box to match the missing piece.

After welding it in place I cleaned the welds up and cut some thick gauge sheet metal to the right size, (the steel boxing came from a shop nextdoor, left over from a boat trailler he was building) I used the boat trailler to shape the sheet metal and covered the new frame rail with it (The size was perfect a perfect match) :

Finally I shapped a larger/longer patch to cover the floor and frame rail and drilled a whole through it:

 

Then came the drivers side mess:

Here I had welded in a piece of a 5door hatch lift to have something to weld the inside patch to before I cut the rust out of the rocker:

 

Then I cleaned all the welds, covered them all in seem sealer and coated the floor with several coats of gravel gard.

Passenger side:                                            Driver side:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Spring 2008

Winter was rough and it's time for the annual front end rebuild.
Mint spindels, powder coated, new barrings, ball joints, control arms, upgraded link kits and ball joint bolts.

Some new rims, NZW (New Zealand Wheel) 16", tires are no good:
They are a bit rough, I will have to polish and or powder-coat them, haven't decided yet.

So the long process begins, even though the lips where shiny they are corroded, the entire rims will need sand blasting:

Then I hand sanded the lips down and wet sanded them to a shine (decided not to polish them):

 

Decided on Black chrome powder coat for the center and Lapis illusion with glow in the dark for the lip:

Rim in the dark:

Powder coating gave me a hard time and they didn't come out perfect, I bought Falken FK451 225/50r16's (used/in good shape).

Rims on car, no spacers required:

Now to start the engine upgrades.
-Walbro 255lph fuel pump.
-Fuel pressure regulator.
-Modified fuel rail.
-Front and rear housing gaskets.
-some powder coating.
-A 5th spring on the waste gate and more boost.

 

Some more new winter rims, Sport Max Racing 008 15 x 6.5 42 offset. They came with nogood front tires and 195/65/15 Good-Year Assurance Triple Tred on the rears so I put a set of 185/65/15 Michelin X-Ice on the front.

The car in it's present state:

On September 29th I ran at the track and detonated in 4th gear,
had two cold start injectors, but I guess that 12.4 A/F ratio is to lean on this set up. After driving home (slowly) like this the head gasket went.
I swapped in some used pistons from a block that had rust on the cylinder walls. I had three sets of barring that came of an 88 gt with 190 000km on it and replaced the ugliest rod barrings with those.
I dropped the oil pan and pulled the head with the engine still in. I pulled out the test head that blew many stock turbo's and has sat since 2005 and slapped it all together.

Suspension upgrade:
I got a set of Eibach pro spring of Robs 91 GT, they were pretty rusty, I powder coated the fronts red and then tried some silver rim powder coat I just received on the rears.
I had a bent and twisted set of rear Tokico blue struts from the 88 626 GT (page 1), I beat and bent them as close to straight as I could get them, on the front still using the KYB's struts.

 

 

Powder coated brakes and present engine bay:

Second broken over sized CV-joint:

 

I quickly powder coated a valve cover, the red oil cap is temporary, just trying to powder coat plastic, it worked:

 

I picked up this car in dec 2006:

The Bad:

I knew the clutch was finished before I bought it:

But this was stupid fineshed?
And some other parts where crap:

And then more:

And still more:

And all of them:

 

The good:

The car came with a full sterio, clean interiror and this Muffler:

Luckilly I had 95% of the parts needed kicking around the shop:




The Things I purchased: Two front barrings and brake fluid.

The reinstall:

Here is the car runing and ready for its saffety:

MOD & PARTS LIST:

Stock replacements:
-Front discks, pads, callipers.
-Rear discks, pads, callipers.
-Complete hand-brake cables.
-Downpipe, O2 housing/sensor and holowed cat w/new gaskets.
-New front barrings, ball joints, outer tie rods.
-Manual rack and pinion.
-New oil pan.
-New rear main seal.
-Passenger side K-frame and control arm.
-Transmission.
-Resurfaced fly-wheel.
-Valve cover and gaskets.
-Heat shield (turbo).
-Complete AC and Power Steering removal.
-HID head lights, 100watt fog lights.
-Blue runing lights.
-Red interior bulbs.
-Front and rear struts.
-Front strut mounts and barrings.
-New PCV valve.
-Battery and tie down.
-New spark plugs.

Performance replacements...:
-Over sized CV-joints and hubbs, w/ 36mm nuts.
-ACT 6pock clutch with extreme pressure plate.
-Adcco sway bars front and rear with urathane bushings.
-Adcoo urathane link kits front and rear.
-Trailling axel bar.
-Vibrant front strut tower bar, stock rear strut tower bar.
-Turbo XS Blow Off Valve.
-(Hollowed cat) and weird dual chambered muffler.*
-Princes auto vaccum/boost gauge.
-Red leather/ chrome shift knob.
-Red clutch and brake pedal (gas pedal missing).*
-In dash manual boost controler.
-Zombie chip.
-AWR front and rear trany mounts.
-Hood lifts.
-Cone air filter and addapter.
-8mm taylor wires.
-2.6 l Isuzu rodeo fuel filter.
-Panasonic CD player, ? Front dash speakers and rear speakers with amp and Pheonix gold dual 10 inch bass box.*

Ready for car after safety:
-New Grant signature series Evolution, steering wheel (red on black) with hub addaptor.
-P&P exaust manifold (wrapped), turbo housing and O2 housing.
-T-Bird turbo.
-Double shaved, P&P head.
-Ported intake manifold.
-Dual large flap custom TB.
-120 000milles 626gt bottom end W/ new water pump, oil pump, rear main seal and oil pan.
-Innovate motorsports LM1 wideband/dataloger.

The car at present:

The Larken Grip

 

On the car transmission work:

 

Front 626 hood trim painted black:

Temporary repair, plow truck backed into my fender and sliced it opened:
Freinkenfender:

 

 

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Some winter Shots.

The snow was high:

 

The streets where narow:

 

The snow was deep:                                     The car is lowered:

 

 

 

And the Ice formed thick:                             But never melted:

 

 

 

The pulley cut some:                                    And I cut the rest:

 

Leaving me with a big cold mess:

 

 

The mazdas where somewhere here in the snow bank:

 

We had to dig them out and it sucked.