tperkins mitsubishi descent into madness (evo 3, 6, 7 starion and pajero)

[Many hours later]

Finished paint correction... I didn't go as crazy as I would have if it wasn't a daily. I didn't go hard and try and remove every single scratch, the deeper ones are still there but it looks way better. Pretty proud of how this one turned out, black is just so satisfying to detail. 

Probably have 16 hours into it, in that time I painted that cowl, the wiper arms, license plate frame, went around the whole car (other than hood and front bumper.. which will get painted eventually) with touch up paint... I guess I did some of the bigger chips on hood and bumper. 

Water wash
Chemical guys snow foam undercarriage and wheel wells
Rinse
Chemical guys snow foam paint w/ wash mitt
Rinse
Autoglym Magma, let it sit, rub it in with a seperate wash mitt 
Rinse
Chemical guys ceramic foam 
Dry 
Clay bar
3000 grit wet sand on some of the worse scratches
Cut (for this car, I tried a few compounds and Meguiars ultimate compound and a mixture of hexlogic yellow (heavy) and orange (medium-heavy) cutting pads. Used heavy on the hood, roof and trunk that were the worst spots then an orange pad for the rest of the car and the sanded spots.
Polish (hexlogic white medium-light polish pads w/ meguiars ultimate polish)
Ceramic coated it with Sonax Profiline  

Some before / afters

Did brakes yesterday, actually pulled them off the car to replace a brake line. Clip bounced off, line was bouncing around and blah blah. Seemed a little sketch

Stoptech slotted rotors, DBA street performance pads, Stoptech braided brake lines. 

Changed the fan controller while things were curing

Flickr is cucking me with uploads capped to 1000, and I am getting close, so not as many pictures as I would like. I also refurbed the rear drum parking brake mechanism, scrubbed the heck out of the hubs, blah blah. 

Yesterday, fresh fluids for all the things


Bled the brakes and clutch. Was a bit of a production, brakes went great actually, I have a little vac bleeder went over everything, finalized it with the pedal. Then I also bled the clutch, this was where it got a little annoying, tip, if you are bleeding clutch on 7-8-9 have the reservoir way over full. It will pull air in even with the fluid level at the max line and cause headaches. 

Also changed the oil, since I had to change the oil cooler lines that were leaking... since all that went along smooth I also changed the fluid in the diffs. 



Front fill plug for the transfer case took a 2' breaker bar to get off (torque spec is like 26 ft-lbs) and the drain was no better. Rear diff drain for the gear oil had no washer and only rtv.. great work all.

'fin (ish / for now.. might wet vac the evo 7 interior) 

Paint turned out nice

A picture of the evo 7's reflection in the evo 6 which is in the reflection of the evo 7. 

Wheels and brakes turned out nice

Next, paint that front bumper lol 

Hood looking awesome, the right decision
[

New wheels finally mounted on the 6, loving them. I think I will have to live with them for a bit, because I liked how the old ones were more period correct, but these ones definitely look nicer, I like the colour better and the contrast. 

Got an extra day at home yesterday and decided to clean the interior. I can say finally the car is where I am pretty much happy, this summer I will get that front bumper painted. 

Flickr, sorted. Back to your regularly scheduled programming (which will be interrupted because I am back to work)

Ceramic coated the evo 3 hood

White wheel gang. 

I have lots of wheels now

Here are the old flaps. Pro tip, PVC not a good material for winter (this was after 6 months). 

Fresh (kaylan material)

Cruised to Edmonton to go for a rip with the boys, and get some food. 

Car works great, no leaks, gots lots of thumbs up and biz, people asking questions. 

Gang

More photos now that I have more flickr room. 

So... do you guys like stuff?

I really like the format in which you post this stuff.

I'm just in awe of how many evos you own. Along with the wheel choices 

What wheels are on the black Evo 7?  I really like the fat 5 spokes, think they would look good on my NSX!

In reply to SpeedAddict502 :

They are an old wheel, Work RS-Z, which after a few years of production were replaced by the RSZ-R. 

The car came with these and I had them re-finished.. and dropping them off found they are staggered width set up (which isn't really a great thing for evo's). Two are 17x9 35 and two are 17x8 35. I have been scouring Yahoo Japan and have been able to find two more 17x8 35 which I have on the way... but haven't been able to find the 17x9 35 which would have been a pretty aggressive fitment between like 98-02 ish when the wheel was made. So, you can still find them out there, I have no idea what offset an NSX needs and whether or not they made something suitable for your needs, but if you were keen enough you may be able to make it happen. 

Interesting, thanks for the info!

NSX are staggered diamter and width usually.  Mine are 16x8 +38 front and 17x10 +38 right now.  So the 17x8 +35 would work in the front, but the rear they might not have made them that wide back then.

In reply to SpeedAddict502 :

Could get a cooler version in the Spoon Sport SW388.. if they make them in that size. Or go right to the source with some Desmond Regamasters! 

Something on accessories side of the odyssey started making a noise. When I was home a couple trips ago I pulled the belt off to have a look and an idler felt pretty gritty, didn't spin well, I spun everything else and it all seemed smooth, I was suspicious that idler pulley would be the culprit but it was the cheapest option. Ordered that, replaced it the next time I got home and it didn't change anything. 

Had bought a spare alternator, using a screw driver as stethoscope that didn't really feel like the issue but I already had it coming since the water pump is specific to the odyssey, TSX alternator brackets are different off the water pump, saw one in a part out etc. Next trip home, changed that alternator, no change.. kind of expected that. While changing the alternator, I checked the water pump again it had developed a wobble. Sigh... 

Ordered a water pump, told gf pay attention to the noise if it gets worse we will get Chuck to do it, if it stays the same it can wait until I get home. Anyways, of course got worse lol. So, we got that changed today and installed the block heater, now that I had that k-tuned oil cooler plug we didn't have on the first attempt. 

Anyways, smooth as butter. 

I do love me some Rega's!

I guess you could run a 17x9 with a 12mm spacer for same fitment.. but what width tires are on there? 265 or a 285 with a meaty enough sidewall looks right at home on a 9 wide. 

OEM looks like it was a 16x7 55? 

Just read the whole thread, awesome job on a bunch of awesome cars.

Thanks!

Here are a few photos from a recent cruise in the 7 up north. This is at 60.8 degrees north, so pretty far up there and as north as the car has ever been. I am pretty happy with the white wheels. 
 

Got caught on the Firehawk Indy500's in this snow storm, didn't quite make it out of my parking stall. "I have AWD, shoveling is for the weak"

Drove frontwards, got hung up, drove backwards, got hung up. BLASTED FRONTWARDS THROUGH ALL THE SNOW, almost at the crest of the road.... and got sucked back over into this snow drift. Stuck, quick tug and off.

Let er' eat all over the rest of the town.  Bumper getting painted May 22. 

Lol full beak O snow

Welp, town flooded pretty bad but I am alright. 

Our house didn't take on water, but it was sketchy close. The ice would break up and flow, then plug up and there would be a surge of water that would rise on the banks. I think if it came up another foot I would have had to evacuate because it would have backed up the storm drains from the road were backing up. There was about 4" of water above them and another foot would have lost the road (at least for a lowered evo 7). 

Close to the highest (for some scale, that river is 200m across)

The next morning, river down 10-12 feet. 

Bug out car packed and ready, note to self get better bug out car

A scale of some of the ice

Got home, 

Washed evo 7

New sticker, to be a nerd. I actually was shipping it off some other parts to a friend so wanted to see what stickers I had, then found this one. 

Bumper that was supposed to be painted, didn't get painted. I will just get it done up north next time I am there. 

Replaced the stickers on the bottom of the hood on the evo 3. 

(before paint)

New stickers 

Also did a quick detail on the 6. CarPro Reload, this paint is so good still. 



I also wrapped these headlights with xpel by my own self, I think I will dabble in installing my own clear film. 

New OEM Mitsubishi headlights, 

I don't know if they went back into production, but at the time I ordered a LH and RH, they only had the LH, RH was out of production. LUCKILY my friend ordered two RH ones on accident and had one sitting in the garage lol, so I bought one off him. Had this set sitting around for a while and finally got around to installing them. 

Since the car was booked in for timing belt, water pump, blah blah I felt the need to drain the coolant and change this stupid blue radiator hose and a turbo coolant pipe that was rusty and always pissed me off. 

Just tidied up the bay a bunch, back to stock heat shield, spark plug cover, black radiator hoses, red air filter. 


I also pulled the intake off, did a boost leak test.. held 25 psi.. win. I might have a tiny tiny leak in throttle body, but it was hard to even tell. 

Installed this Cusco underbody brace, the stock brace is a bit of flat bar basically, which wouldn't fit with the exhaust. 

It looked like it would clear until it actually got tight, then it is too tight to the exhaust. I am going to pull it off again and elongate the holes a bit. 

I also am going to order some ralliart engine bushes for this car, I have a poly roll stop for the transmission and it just sucks haha. I am over it now. 

Then, drove the car to Edmonton. I had the car booked in for alignment, decided to get the timing belt done at the same time.. I don't know hard to be home and work on cars the entire time, I have done a few timing belts but for this car I wanted my mechanic, who has done probably 500 of them, to do it. Honestly it was just nice to drop it off and pick it up lol. 

On the way to Edmonton, probably 100 km into my drive I blew a charge pipe off. That was a little scary lol. I guess I missed tightening that clamp. 

Passing on the highway, huge pop, car started bucking, lost power lol. Limped it to an approach and fixed it, but dang, I thought the worst had happened initially haha. 

New timing bits:

Alignment went well, back to factory spec. It was a fair bit out beforehand. 

Met up with my bud

He blew his charge pipe off

Roller

Ripping, honestly I love this car. 

Nephews are finally big enough for booster seats, so we went for a rip. That was pretty special.

Jake (older one) said, "I can't even hold my head straight!"

Evo 3 is finally a hood prop boy. No more hood pipe. 

This hood prop, real pain to find. No one in Canada could get it, no dealership I talked to in the USA could get it.. had to come from Japan. Every time I put it in the cart I just couldn't stomach the shipping price, so I waited to have more big parts to send with it, which I finally sent on the old tax return. 

Came in this box with a set of fender liners for the 7, two sets for the 6 (one for a friend), the hood prop, underbody tray bits for the 7 which were missing when I got it, and A pillar interior trims for the 7, which have some ugly holes where gauges used to be. 


Amayama wanted 1000$ to ship that stuff, Jesse Streeter did it for like half.. which still hurt haha. 

On a roll with maintenance for the 6, I replaced the valve cover gasket. 

I have this torque screw driver that I just picked up for gunsmithing, and I have to say it is quickly becoming a favorite tool. No more guessing lol. People over torque these valve covers all the time and crack them. 

I also changed the fuel filter. 

Thennnn I did a whole bunch of stuff to the evo 7. 

Woke up one day to moisture in evo 7 headlight, so that was nice. 

First time baking a headlight, it went pretty well

After doing it once, I was told you should put it on a block of wood which makes sense. Then the grate wont melt into the plastics... Luckily I didn't have that problem. I baked for 160F which was as low as my oven could go, got it up to tent, set it in for a minute, then turned the temp up to 220F and set a timer for 7 minutes. When it came out it wasn't so hot that I needed thick gloves even, and it just came apart well. I re-sealed with some morimoto retrorubber re-sealing glue. 

I then polished it while it was out and the bumper was off, and re-ceramic coated. Someone decided they didnt want the cool samco ralliart blue couplers to be blue and had spray painted them black, so I restored them to blue. 

Then I changed the front lower roll stop for the trans. I also ordered the rear but it looked like a real pain to get to and I didn't have time.. I will do it eventually.  I just went with OEM rubber to replace it, I have a poly mount in the evo 6 I am going to change soon.. it is just too much vibration in the cab.. since I drive the 7 daily, I wanted something comfortable, and just the fresh rubber made a notable difference for shifts and throttle response. 

Changed the plugs

Also changed the oil and found out the oil pan is now leaking lol. 

And while the bumper was off I changed every fastener that holds in the grills. I had already ordered them being that this trip the front bumper was supposed to be painted, but my painter was not able to get around to it. I changed them while it was off so that I can hopefully get it painted up north this trip (and if I were to have broken a bolt or something I have the tools here to fix it). 

Full undertray now! Fancy stuff (this is just a test, you need to remove the middle section for the lift point)

I had a wedding in edmonton, drove it down and on the way stopped to get my AC recharged, since it wasn't working. Turns out that although it was low (300g whatever instead of the 550 +/- 30 it needed).. but I also had a broken wire. 

Being that I was actually on the way to a wedding, we didn't get to fix it but just diagnosed it. 

Luckily, I keep stock of molex mitsubishi sized crimps. 

Repaired that wire and it is blowing cold as heck now. 

Cleaned it because it was being a good car

And I dropped the stock wing off for paint. 

Fun cars to work on!  More of a joy than pain...even the simple stuff.