Greetings from Arizona!

[SiônRo88]

Hello everyone, I'm new here. I've become very interested in street tuners over the few months, I was actually looking into importing from Japan (lol crazy) after seeing all the trouble I'd have to go through and the cash I'd have to spend, that idea quickly went out the window. I had some interest in the Nissan 240SX and was planning on purchasing one off an ex but a friend of mine convinced me that I have a perfectly fine car to work with already! Just needs some TLC.

I have a stock 1996 Galant S with a 5 speed manual in it. It has 117k miles and I use it as my commute vehicle to work. I hope to have some pictures to post soon, possibly this weekend. It also has some body damage, the passenger side read fender cracked when I had a tire blow out and there is a crack in the front bumper from a trailer hitch when some jerk decided to pull into an intersection to make a left hand turn, the light turned yellow and they decided to try and back up into the turn lane, hit me and THEN finished their turn and took off.

Well that's a quick rundown of my Galant. Again, I'll try to get pictures up ASAP. I'll try to answer any questions about the car as best I can, I'm very new to tuning cars for performance.

[galantlvr34]

welcome to tgc!!

[showtime]

welcome from gilbert, az!

[SiônRo88]

Nice a fellow Arizonan! Maricopa, AZ here.

[PnoyGalant]

Welcome bruh'

[w/oarctic7g]

Welcome, body damage is alright as it makes it easier to deal with the next time around.

[Predat-R]

welcome always good to have another 7g, ftw

[SiônRo88]

Yea I figured the body damage was quite minor considering those parts will be replaced with a body kit. The interior has taken a beating from the Arizona sun (rots plastic SO fast out here), I believe the previous owner left it out in the sun without any shades in constantly. I took some pictures when I got home from work today, they're currently between 4 - 6 Mbs a peice so I'm working on reducing the file size before I post them but I'll have them up within the next couple hours so you guys can see what I'm working with!

[Rach3T8G]

Welcome 2 TGC!!

[SiônRo88]

Alright, got those pictures down to a proper size and here they are. Pardon my car being dirty, it's been a couple weeks since I washed it.
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb415/SionRo88/DSCF1037.jpg
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb415/SionRo88/DSCF1038.jpg

This is the damage from my rear tire blowing out, if you look closely you can see a gap between the bumper and trunk. I just performed a quick fix by bolting it back up to the body.
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb415/SionRo88/DSCF1039.jpg

This is what Arizona heat will do to your dash, this is the passenger side and you can see how the airbag cover is warped, also the crack in the dash and fading. It was like this when I bought it.
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb415/SionRo88/DSCF1042.jpg

And the first repair that needs to be done! Recently my car started leaking hydraulic fluid from the clutch. Most likely a faulty master cylinder?
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb415/SionRo88/DSCF1043.jpg

So yea, my Galant is a little rough and in need of some TLC but I've seen worse for sure. I believe it has plenty of potential and maybe with a lot of elbow grease and time, I'll have a nice 7G to be proud of.

[stvn_mj]

Welcome it's good to see another AZ member. The car doesn't look bad like you said a little tlc and it can be a good one and your already ahead of the game with a 5 speed.

[SiônRo88]

Nice, another AZ Galant owner! The 5 speed swap was one of the first things I noticed when I started looking at this site, I'm so glad I already have a 5 speed in mine! I notice that both of you have a good amount of miles on your cars, mine is at 117,668 right now. You must have experience with the toll heat takes on cars out here, any ideas on where to start w/ fixing the cracked dash and warped airbag cover?

I got this car after I wrecked my 1990 Civic Hatchback (my first car over 250,000 miles on it.) My dad helped out and we picked this car up for $3000 with 75,000 miles on it, I've since paid him back and now fully own this car. It seemed like quite a deal at the time but things have been breaking down on it lately. I had to replace the harmonic balancer at 95,000 miles, it was making a horrible sound and when the mechanic removed it he actually held onto it to show me because he said it was the worst he had ever seen and he had never seen one go bad that soon. It makes me wonder about the history of this car, my dad believes it suffered from some water damage at some point and it wasn't just the heat that warped my dash. Maybe he's onto something, since the radiator is rusted up... cars don't tend to rust in southern AZ!! That's another repair I need to do ASAP, the antifreeze turns a rusty orange color and I don't want that crap in my engine.

[stvn_mj]

Well I haven't had too much damage from this heat. I moved out here from California back in 07 and every opportunity I have my car goes into the garage. Only thing I have is a crack in my dash but only thing I would do about that is get a dash cover that they sell on ebay not sure if the make one for the 7g. Yours is very low mileage for it's age mine is at 186K right now but I haven't had many issues with it I have made sure I stayed on top of it since I moved out here. I usually flush the radiator before every summer so I have no problems and check my a/c as well since it's need all summer out here. If I was you I would just spend some money on just maintaince just to keep it problem free since it's your daily. So the guy you bought it from didn't give you any history on the car??

[azgalant]

Hey welcome.......nice seeing another AZ member

[SiônRo88]

It was from a used car dealership, I found it online and my dad went down and checked it out and bought it, I was in desperate need of a vehicle at the time. I didn't see it until it was back at the house and the keys were in my hand, so I don't know the history of it.

[showtime]

im at almost 150k and it runs like a champ, just keep it maintained and your good to go!

[mrjaydeeone]

Welcome to TGC|

[Sleepervr-4]

Welcome to the site.

[RayDub]

Welcome to TGC from the NW corner, Surprise AZ. I too have a crack in my dash that appeared three months ago. And just found a new hairline crack the other day. I have 198,260 miles and my 02 just keeps purring along no problems. You have a good car.

[The Moofia Mob]

Welcome to the community.

[oakrdrs187]

Welcome aboard!!! The body looks to be in good shape... should make for an excellent project.

[PnoyGalant]

Welcome to TGC. It'll be a good project indeed..