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1992 Sandstone VR4 Resto-Mod build.

14K views 116 replies 25 participants last post by  Warzone 
#1 · (Edited)
*Additional Updates, Edits, Pictures, and Commentary.*


6/15/2016: Updates, and rehosted missing pictures.

Hey guys,

As many of you know I wrecked my blue car (sadly) into a Tree and the damage was beyond a sane level of repair.

Few months prior this car had shown up on my local 3/S facebook page, and while I had ATON of interest in it, it just wasn't practical for me to pick up a 4th car.

Well, now was the perfect time - I set up a time to go look at the car and check it over to get and idea of what it needed, The car was exactly what I have been looking for...

1G
Sandstone Gray paint
Removeable Glass sunroof
Charcole/Gray/Black interior
VR4 (I would have gladly been fine with an SL assuming the rest was good)

OK, it wasn't perfect - the paint is shot - need some body love, and its not exactly rust free...but it is pretty much so on the parts that mater (Structural, frame, stuff not easily replaced, etc.) and it wasn't the 100% Stock, one or two owner car either...it had its share of abuse, and had been modified in the past, no Engine or trans - I've already found a few surprises and see more in my future I'm sure.

Two weeks later I showed up with a trailer, loaded it up, and brought it home.

It had been sitting for a fair amount of time, driven briefly again, and then pulled apart where it sat and collected dust. Thank fully the owner who is an awesome dude was resisting parting the car out because he didn't want to kill it off and send it to the junkyard...

We also drove through a Tornado on the way back...that was fun lol

"...Why is everyone parking under the underpasses/bridges?" haha

Also shout out to my man Kyle, Best friend, fellow hoon, and 3/S partner in crime for helpin me out like always to lend a hand loading and unloading car, as well as just hanging out - and keeping me motivated.

Anyways to the Fun Stuff. (I apologize in advanced if some of the pictures are blurry - often they look fine on my phone until I look at them on the computer)

PRE-Tornado...just stopped at gas station for celebratory Cigars.



Home



Lets check it out....

Here you see my 5 Speed AWD Trans + Tcase + parts hiding in the corner; that another local member/friend gave me a steal on.


Very Excited to have the glass roof again, I missed it so much. * I have glass - its just removed in this picture to help air out the car - it kinda smelled from sitting...


Interior needs MAJOR love. *Dont we all?* #foreveralone haha.



High miles don't scare me...I like to think of them as points :)



DIY Rear mount battery box - started process of removing it..I don't want that in there...

 
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#2 · (Edited)
Car DOES have some fender cancer...I'm guessing it was scraped on the side and took the paint down to bare metal and it was never fixed...so then it just got salt and water on it constantly then was never washed so it just rotted away rather quickly...because I have seen cars with much less rust on the underbody - subframe - suspension area, and never have anything like this on fenders...I'm not worried about that though, you'll enjoy what I have instore for that :)



Front fender, I just so happen to have a spare driverside fender in perfect shape.



Thy challenged laid before me.




LETS GET STARTED!

First things first, that interior needs to come out - it stunk and was nasty!





Began stripping engine bay too. A/C, ABS, Emissions, Brake lines, Fuel lines, Wiring harness, AWS, etc. all coming out.

 
#3 · (Edited)
Interior done, after removing everything that needed to be I vacuumed out the floor/car, took a stiff bristle brush and hot soapy water, and scrubbed the whole floor/hatch/sheetmetal.... and then sucked it all dry with the shop vac...this was all before I took the following picture.



As you can see I went ahead and used some Satin black primer to clean up where the paint/existing primer was worn down badly and or too bare metal..



UGh JB Weld again??? WTF! - Once I cut the hose, and removed the fuel hat assembly I was pleased to find the gas did not smell to terribly old - and the inside of the tank along with the other side of the fuel hat you can't see was nice and clean and rust free (THANK LAWD)



Heres a pile of SH^$ for ya, everything removed from the car that is Trash or Salvage. Including the TT harness...I'll use it for parts (unless someone wants it)



ONTO The donor car...

Poor car, I love you, I miss you, thank you for 3 (almost) very enjoyable automotive years, I will never forget youuu.



Dis-assembly begins.. I don't have any pictures...but for the most part I stripped the car clean of EVERYTHING I possibly can, still a little left to doo....very hard for me...



 
#4 · (Edited)
Re-Assembly and Resto work begins!

Starting with interior....because everything is in the mail LOL

I gave the carpet a good cleaning with a pressure washer and hot soap, then allowed it to dry for a few days in the sun...it smells *and looks* much better.



My beautiful shifter setup from Stealth.... True Seattle Short throw, awesome shift knob that I've had for 3 years now and its just awesome...solid base bushings (also solid linkage bushings on trans side)



Can't say I've ever had an interior in the 5 3/S I have had fit so well ESPECIALLY after I just tore it ALL apart, I'll take that as a Good omen...



Passenger seat, and door panel from Stealth...interior cleaning up nicely...



Also one of the first things I did was strip that Ugly (in my opinion) Night shade off the car - its just not for me or my build... Acetone and some paper towels works great for this and will not harm the finish of the lights..

More to come tomorrow...




So about the build...

Right now I'm just trying to get the car up and going before summers over so I can enjoy it - I will do whatever work needs to be done before then though - then this winter comes the big stuff.

I'm mainly trying to focus on a restoration for this car....I want to keep the interior looking mostly stock and comfortable with added safety - and some nice touches...no gauges though....I don't really like aftermarket gauges in theses cars for some reason haha...

Outside is kinda up in the air - but I plan to retain the Active Aero and the 1G body.... I will consider things like a vented hood for good heat evac as well as shave some weight, but I don't want to get too crazy...however I have some exciting plans for the body...

Power wise right now nothing special will remain 10:1 on 9Bs, I had it pretty well dialed in/running conservatively at 14 psi in the stealth.

I plan lots of Suspension, Tire, and brakes with out getting to out of control, I want to be able to slap stock 17s on the car if I ever need to/feel like it.

Just well thought out, and quality upgrades. Really I just want to clean the car up, and drive it all over the place.

Questions and Constructive Criticism welcome.... stay tuned for more.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Thursday was a paid holiday for me being it my birthday, so I took the day to drink beer, and eat delicious food...also i worked on the vr4 for 12 hours...

Interior in the car is done except for 1 or 2 small trim pieces I'm misisng/were broken and i couldn't salvage from the stealth. I started on the fuel system next...I'll post more up later..

Here's a taste...

LCDBC and Innovate LC2 wideband mounted in glove box...this is before I actually put the glove box back in all the way so it looks a little messy, I ran some nylon braided loom over the cables and tied down the LCDBC. (and straightened it)



I had this mounted in my coin tray up by the radio on the stealth, but now I have an Active Aero switch there, so I thought this would be a nice out of the way place to mount it, and you won't see it. I mounted it the perfect height down so I can operate it comfortably with my thumb while driving.



Not too crazy about having a bunch of aftermarket gauges and stuff in my car - so this does the job beautifully and ALMOST can pass as factory...




Pimpin' Purple (do people still use that word?)



I've got alot more to post, and alot more to do tomorrow and over the weekend...I was kinda hung over from last night.....

Stay tuned for more updates, the fun stuff is coming.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I really did not get near as much done this weekend as I planned, I had some family visiting so that took up alot of my time this weekend (not a bad thing)

I also thought my paint would be here for the engine bay by Friday, but it did not show up - so that limited me to what I can get done since the bay isn't painted.

Interior is complete except for some misc Trim pieces I'll have to source, but that can wait till the car is running and driving



Transferred fuel system out of the Stealth and ran the -6 Fuel line



I went back to focusing on the engine bay after that - removed front bumper and was pleasantly surprised to find the SMIC air ducts, and 100% intact too. I am very happy about that - first time I've ever seen them intact on a 3/S that wasn't in a picture.

*Anyone interested in using these to model some aluminum ones after?*





Removed SMICS, factory Oil cooler, air dam. etc. The continued cleaning, stripping, sanding, grinding, etc.




Bay is 99% ready for Tape and primer....(It now sits fully primered, and ready for a little touch up sanding in a few spots, then the paint)
 
#8 · (Edited)
Time for a big update.

Don't think I've been slacking off and this build is just idling.

I've been Eating, Sleeping, Pooping, Working, Chasing a really cute Redhead at one of the Flying J's i service, and busting ass on the car.



Oil cooler came in



Began engine bay reassembly - Using radiator from Stealth, turns out its still good. I pressure tested it at 25 psi and couldn't find any leaks other then the o ring for the drain which i replaced...

Made a small aluminum bracket by hand out of some thin aluminum bar to help support the oil cooler, and bolted it to the bottom of the radiator support.. I used my oil lines with adapters from my stock oil cooler



I installed my clutch, and brake master cylinder - prop valves - and 3SX ABS delete kit all with the stainless lines.

The heat insulation wasn't worth saving - really the only hot spot i had problems with was right at the rear turbo (someday when I'm bored I'll make a nice heat shield. I bought this stuff that is suppose to be good for up to 1200*F to line that portion of the fire wall - i added a few extra layers around the brake lines - You could tell these were getting hot on the stealth because because the clear plastic/rubber around the braided stainless had turned a brown color.... They also are lower and further away from the turbine portion of the turbo so shouldn't have anymore problems there...

I like working with this stuff - its pretty nice, may find an excuse to put it somewhere else.

Commentary: This stuff has actually held up extremely well, to the heat, while keeping everything protected after these 3-4 months.



began mounting other things...






Fuel system I made myself (was the first AN line project I had ever done, did all the fittings and hose, its held up for a couple years now, very proud of it)



finished running brake lines into wheel wells and put the original rubber grommets back



reminder of the mess...

 
#9 ·
Next in line





went in flawlessly



I pulled the plenum and to do Spark plugs and intake manifold and plenum and TB gasket, I ordered these awhile ago because I was moving to a 1 step colder heat range...



was greeted with this...Surprisingly it didn't look like it had been leaking - maybe it was fresh - possible chain did it... Luckily I had a spare laying around!



she looks awfully clean...almost too clean...



Took a break from that, painted my wheels (again) they were satin black originally because, but I didn't feel like that color worked good with the sandstone. I wanted more contrast, and that clean and bright look almost



Also swapped breaks over from Stealth

 
#10 · (Edited)


I also took the time to bleed brakes, and while I don't have a picture, I also installed Stainless brake lines on all 4 corners.

Poke for days, Don't worry I have something for that.



Now the Driverside fender on the VR4 was pretty messed up...I just so happened to have a cherry one from the Stealth...only problem was it was blue....So I took the left over paint I had and gave it a good solid quick paintjob.. Its not the best - but it will do for few months.



Front end assembly almost complete...fenders, intercoolers, guards, bumpers, lights, etc. some intercooler piping even... Also took this time to drain the old gas out of the gas tank







Commentary: Note the broken stud, I fixed this a few weeks later, don't worry.

 
#11 ·
still waiting on clutch - looks like its not going to be here for another week at least - the clutch I opt'd for none of our loveable vendors had - so I had to find someone who did and it seemed like a repetuablle place but now not so sure..

They printed a shipping label for it Monday morning - Tuesday rolls around - no updates....Tuesday night still nothing so I email them - and they tell me that it shipped out but fedex must be having problems....well now its Thursday - shipping label was printed is all tracking shows still so I call fed-ex and they said they haven't received or picked up squat for it.

So i wrote them a kind but aggressive email and called them out for lying to me and am waiting for a response.. Going to try and Next day Air it....see if they will cover the cost but I don't really care about the cost at this point I just want to put my trans in...


So all I have is I installed the new faceplate on my LW flywheel, bolted it on, and torqued it to the car...

Not a bad deal there though $100 for the used flywheel - $50 for the new face plate - and about 10 mins switching them out.



Here's my new shiney Mitsubishi Pressure Plate and Throw out Bearing
I went with the stock Pressure Plate and ACT "Stage 1" Disc which is like the disc from the ACT 2100 kit...the setup is probably good for like 450whp or little less, but its a very good combo for a BPU car, its easy to drive, not overly aggressive but does the job extremely well.


I got my tires in, on the plus side of things. So mounted, balanced, and put the car on the ground.

The tires are 315/35-17 Sumitomo HTZRs or something like that - cheapo tire, but i didn't want to drop a whole lot of money on tires just yet till I was sure I wanted to keep this setup.







 
#12 ·
So, I had to re order my clutch like 3 times.....Still was super delayed, I ended up saying fuck it, and bought a clutch off a friend who had it sitting in its box, brand new (Factory Mitsubishi Clutch) so I threw everything together as fast as I could, and topped off all my fluids. I was so excited I didn't take any pictures or anything to document better...sorry guys...Anyways, I took a quick run down to the gas station to get some Fresh 93 octane to put into my empty, and dry gas tank. I had been using the battery to power the radio and test electrical this whole time so as you can imagine it was pretty drained...I hooked up my truck to it to give it a nice jump...

After some light drama of building fuel pressure, and getting the air out of the lines, she fired right up! No problems, after a few mins of idling and smiling and laughing, I unhooked the jumper cables, moved my truck and drove it out of the garage into the driveway under her own power! its GREAT to hear her run, and the Stealth lives on through this heart transplant into the VR4! I gave the car a quick rinse to wash some of the grime, dust, and dirt away. I gave the car a quick rundown to listen for odd noises, and look for anything odd...abnormal smoke, leaks, drips, etc... then I hopped in, and drove it around the block...several times!!!! :D :D :D :D :D



Unfortunately, the ECS struts are blown - it floats like a 80's caddy going down the highway - ECS doesn't seem to be working AT ALL despite my freshly rebuilt computer that was working when I pulled it from my blue car when it still had ECS...

I'm loving the wheels - I just can't wait to lower it now and get some good suspension on it even with the cheap sumitomo's i decided to go with there is ungodly amounts of grip - its almost hilarious if you turn in really quick and sharp its like the body literally can not keep up like EMERGURDD GUYS WERE GOING THIS WAY! - even tho the suspension feels really boaty it feels surprisingly flat in the corners still... I can go LOCK to LOCK and not rub the wheels on anything about 3mm of strut clearence up front - no problems in rears.

First REAL WASH AND PICTURES!





 
#13 ·
Just been enjoying the car - but I've done a few things

---Was running the two stock upper and trans motor mounts with solids on the bottoms - I purchased some Seattle Solids off here that were almost brand new and installed them



---I got a set of still fairly new KYB struts and Tein S-Tech springs for free from a friend, so I installed those.... They are no new ECS struts but way better then my blown ones on stock springs - dropped the car a little and gave it a nice height to really make it look less 4X4 and more exotic.







I'm very pleased - between those 2 extra motor mounts and the not blown suspension it feels like the boost even for 14lbs on 10:1 hits so much harder and the car responds better because you don't have all that energy being wasted in the squatting of the ass end and the engine torquing - it gets delivered to the ground much quicker.

The car really feels alive...

I also weighed it - I forgot i had a back pack with about 75 lbs of tools in it because I'm helping a friend with his car but I filled the gas tank up as much as i possibly could and went straight to the scale. I got 3700lbs flat WITH driver. I'm about 175lbs or so, so Not bad at all.





 
#14 ·
little bump











Car has been doing good, I've put a crap load of miles on it already.

I did have a incident with my transmission, I somehow managed to break my driveshaft u joint, and crack my transmission from the inside out in two different places... which also caused my transfercase to start leaking.

so I picked up another 18 spline with tcase for $300 in Greenbay WI, and the front section of a stock driveshaft for $75... also got a T-case brace nice and cheap. which I rebuilt the "new" transfercase before I installed it.



also got my custom spacers finally..really i only have these in front to clear the strut so i can run more camber, and to help center the wheel since the hub sizes are different.



also added a 13G Turbo that i bought as a 9B, so i slapped that guy on which really helped the car out in upper rpms it feels like, I also combined the new turbo with a new set of plugs, I went 2 steps colder this time instead of 1, which I think also helped the car out alot.

So i put the new drivetrain in the car, and I also had finally received that clutch I ordered, so I put that into, along with the recommend Redline Gear Oils, like always.



Took the car out that weekend to have some fun with the ol' girls long lost friend Ol' Blue.
 
#15 ·
Got my coilovers today, (Megan Racing) so I went ahead and put them on - did the alignment, and played with the dampeners a little bit but rain started hitting hard and that kinda limits me on testing the car out in corners.

I only paid $300 for them, when they arrived they looked brand spankin new other then some dirt that was a good sign they had not been cleaned and they were used very little.
found on ebay, seller only had them for 4 months, and traded them out for Teins.



I'll take more pictures on a nicer day, I only lowered it a little bit, I'm not picky about wheel gap, and I really don't like scraping all the time and being limited to where i can go so I wanted the coilovers more for the performance then the actuall rideheight...



Also took care of a big annoyance of mine to clean the car up some more.









Sittin' Pretty,



Also replaced the headlights with some new ones, and some quality bulbs (hence why snake eyes are missing)
 
#17 ·
So Winter is here, and Here is another update.

I wanted to continue driving my car through the winter, but my wide tires were pretty well abused and not safe anymore for weather that wasn't completely dry.

I put the stock wheels from the stealth on, after some quick paint to clean them up, I also replaced one of the tires for the wheel that impacted the tree I found a used tire, exact same as others with about 80% tread on ebay for dirt cheap... . Believe it or not the Rim is still straight and true.







I did a little cleaning in the mean time.





Head liner was awful! here's the before pictures, I had already cleaned the sunroof cover, so you can really see how dirty it is.





Cleaned.

 
#18 ·
More Cleaned



Also while I had the roof apart, I took a trip to autozone to replace the bulbs in the overhead light, They were kind dim and poor, and one of them was out....I could not believe how HUGE of a difference the new bulbs made, the light itself is much whiter, and over all brighter.
Also did visors too. Cleaned (Bottom) VS Uncleaned (Top)


I also ordered a new Factory Harmonic Balancer, along with 3SX Crank Pulley Tool, and hardwear for the sunroom....
I didn't take a picture of this, but you might be able to see it in a older picture of my car, the sunroof stuck up about 3/8 Inch from the roof due to out of shape/worn out bushings/hinges. This caused light water to leak in during car washes with pressure washers if I wasn't careful, and more annoyingly it multiplied the wind noise by 10. A quick trip to 3SX's website and I ordered replacements, then installed. Sunroof now sits nice and flush with roof.

You may have seen or it been mentioned I have been running a Lightweight 3SX full size pulley for awhile now.... It's rumored that these can intensify bearing wear due to eliminating the harmonic balancer which takes vibrations out of the lower rotating assembly - while in 60,000 miles I've had this pulley, I never had any bearing porblems, but since the addition of full solid motor mounts, I got alot of uncomfortable vibrations at certian RPMS (Harmonics) in the pedals, and it was very unsettling because it felt like something was wrong - I theoriezed the culprit to be the crank pulley, So I ordered a replacement, and purchased a new roll pin from my local Ace Hardware..... Sure enough it made a MASSIVE difference, and even the idle itself feels smoother.

Due to the abnormally warm, and snow/ice free winter we have had so far, my Winter "stock" wheels and tires only lasted about 2 months before I ordered new tires, but first, I wanted a little different look for my wide wheels and tires....So I stripped, and painted them.



 
#19 ·
Cont...









....And that's all I got...
I am going on a mini Vacation this weekend, so Friday morning before I go I'm getting the car aligned again, and then I will head out. I will get some better pictures for everyone. It will be a very scenic drive, and vacation at the cabin I am renting so Hopefully I can get some great stuff........

I should charge the go pro, lots of curvy roads too!!!
 
#22 ·
Great work!

I liked the wheels better silver and car is just beggin' for 240 bolt on flares front and rear.
 
#26 ·
Thanks, I liked the clean and simple look of the silver wheels, but it just did something to the contrast of the car if it wasn't 100% clean that I didn't like.

My stealth wheels looked awful, so I painted them all black...I thought it looked crappy so I took a wire brush to the heat rings, and gave it a polished lip look....and I decided I liked how that made the car look alot.

I took the car to a local body shop I had been talking a few guys about widening the fenders, but was waiting on a few things first before I pulled the trigger, one of them was to get the alignment set where i wanted and new tires.


Doing some good things to that car. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the rust in the back. If you don't still have your blue car I could cut out some patch panels off my donor car if you wanted.

I agree, That thing would look killer with some bolt on flares.
A body shop will be repairing it for me.

wow, it seems you work fast! lol

I wish, I could spend more time in the garage.

Those wheels stick out a bit far, are you worried about rock chips or other harm being done to your paint?
Thanks. I have an addiction to wrenching on special cars.

I don't have much extra free time, so I trade sleep for working on the car, I'll come home after a 12 or 14 hour day, and work on the car till 2am sometimes, and then spend my entire weekend working on it as well.

Yes but paint is crap as is. It doesn't throw as many rocks as you think especially because I run a decent amount of negative camber. Car is getting a custom widebody.


Did you roll your rear fenders due to the amount of wheel poke you have?

Mine poke a little, about a 1/2-3/4", I think I'm also lower than you (finger and a half) and I'm worried about the inner rear fender gashing my tires if I hit a bump.
No, I haven't touched them, I'm getting a wide body made from the existing fenders.
 
#23 ·
Doing some good things to that car. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the rust in the back. If you don't still have your blue car I could cut out some patch panels off my donor car if you wanted.

I agree, That thing would look killer with some bolt on flares.
 
#24 · (Edited)
wow, it seems you work fast! lol

I wish, I could spend more time in the garage.

Those wheels stick out a bit far, are you worried about rock chips or other harm being done to your paint?
 
#27 ·
I took the car to get aligned this morning...kinda....

I told them to only mess with the front Toe for now...because that's what really fucks with the steering the most and kills my tires quickly...since I just changed my tie rods, I figured it was necessary.

As you can see its a mess. I planned on redoing the whole rear end, that's why I didn't want them to mess with it.



This is for the rear end.



I'll have to work on the front some more, and figure out why its off so much. Tie rods are new, coilovers are in good shape...I know my driverside inner tierod has some play, I'll probably replace both of those....

Have to figure out why the camber is off even though they are set evenly on the coils and i made sure to take up any slack in the knuckle....control arm may be bent or just a shot bushing.
 
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