Devistatix's 7G Restoration/Build

[DJ_Devistatix]

alllllright!...so about a month ago i purchased a 98 Galant ES from a family that had just moved here to Hawaii from Ohio...about 3 weeks after they moved here, their daughter rear ended a lifted 4runner in a parking lot in kailua kona...the car was not yet insured, so they had to pay for the damages to the other vehicle out of pocket...leaving them with a busted car and no money to fix it...so they put it for sale, and i came along and bought it for $500....and so we begin!

the damage seemed to be quite extensive for a parking lot accident...the hood "was" shaped like an upside down "V"...the grill in the bumper was completely shattered...the radiator, support, and A/C condenser were shifted back about 1/2 a foot...the overflow tank was completely smashed into the side of the battery, causing the battery to pop the seal on one side...although the battery is still functional...both headlight housings were completely shattered, but somehow the lights were able to still work....the A/C condenser is pretty bent, and the radiator is cracked/busted all along the top tank....the passenger fender is quite bent (right were the fender meets the headlight)...i somehow was able to drive the car about 50 miles to get it home...about a 1/4 mile from my house, the nylon straps i had holding the hod gave out...the hood flipped up and almost shattered the windshield (woops!)...BUT...it unfolded the hood, so its a lot straighter than it was before hand..hahah...aside from that..the car is in perfect condition

the good stuff......the interior is immaculate!!!...120k miles...A/T...power everything (my first car with these conveniences)...its a metallic bluish-green which is close to turquoise (ive always wanted a car this color!)...brand new tires (they only had the tires on there for 3 days!!!)...2 month old oil change...new brakes...and it even came with a cd player...cheeeehoo

i will add more to this in a little bit...im actually in process of wiring up my JDM headlights!!!

i will have pictures very soon...although i was not able to get pics of when i first got the car....but i still have the busted parts to give u an idea!

[DJ_Devistatix]

k...so...sorry i haven't updated this project log thingy..hehe...and ill get pics once it stops raining......not like anyone is really interested anyway...but i feel like typing...

well so far i've just been doing a lot of dismantling...pulled out radiator support back to just about where it was originally (i just kinda eyeballed it...gonna replace it anyway) with a palm tree and a come-along (winch and chain)...this gave me enough room to see what was going on behind the radiator...luckily, nothing else was damaged besides a small crack in the fan housing on the passenger side, and the battery tray is a little bent (along with the left side of the battery, which caused the seal to pop open a bit)...and now i can at least use the hood arm thingy to hold it open...

pulled out the coolant overflow tank...it looked like a warped pancake...when i pulled off the line from the water pump it snapped the outlet off and i got a bit of coolant in my eye...that shit burns like hell! pulled off the nose bar (header panel)...this thing looks like a freaken twizzler!...half of the grill was still attached to the panel...various bits and pieces of the grill inserts were scattered throughout..along with lots of shards from the headlight lenses and housings...

next was the headlights...these things were a bit of a bitch to pull out because they were so bent i had trouble getting to the screws...what was left of the lights did not help much either...i cut myself a few times trying to maneuver around them...i disassembled the lights and scavenged whatever wasn't broken (wasn't much)... pulled out the corner lights, which were in perfect condition...and the bumper came off pretty darn easy considering it was only being held on with wire ties (im surprised it was even staying on!)...the screws in the crash bar were still in place and that was about it..next was the crashbar, which also had zero damage...standard unscrew and remove...

so now the entire front has been pulled off...i left the bent hood on to keep the rain out since i don't exactly have a garage space to park in...

AND NOW IT BEGINS!!!

first thing i ordered were some black housing JDM diamond headlights...got those in the mail, and thanks to you guys i got them wired up pretty quick...i think i may redo the wiring later cuz it came out a little ugly and sloppy for my taste...and i need to clean them out and get a bit over primer over spray that was on the lense when i received them...gonna pull out the amber lenses in the turn signal as well...but at least i got them to light up properly...thanks guys!

radiator...which i am now waiting for a replacement...bleh...took 2 weeks to get here...and the overflow outlet popped out the side of the box and broke in the exact place the old one broke...luckily i payed 3$ for insurance, so tomorrow UPS will e sending it back for free and a new one will be on its way...kinda sucks though...this is setting me back a few weeks due to shipping...at least they were really nice on the phone!

went to checkers...picked up a Chiltons manual and a mafs 4in adapter...gonna run with a basic short ram intake...CAI is bad for hawaii as we get A LOT of rain...just waiting for the K&N filter to come in...yay!

yesterday i was looking around my engine a bit just to see what was going on...pulled out my spark plug wires to find a bunch of oil in there, and the 3rd cylinder wire plug is melted to the inside wall (or stuck..i didn't bother with it too much)...dun dun dunnnn...valve cover gasket...or the spark plug seals...maybe both...i just hope its not something other than that!!!...or i might as well shoot myself....the gaskets will be pretty simple...i was planning on painting my valve cover blue anyway, so what better time then now!

waiting for.... diamond bumper, fogs, JDM grills, and 1st run 7g nosebar (header panel)...thanks triggermauve!!!

so tomorrow's plan! catch the bus into hilo (its about a hour ride)..pray that its not raining (i'll be on foot)...go to wal-mart and checkers....


shopping list for tomorrow:
valve cover gasket with park plug seals
distributor cap
distributor rotor
thermostat
spark plugs (iridium NGKs)
NGK wires
engine cleaner
blue high temp paint
bondo
primer
sand paper
headlight cleaning supplies
black silicone sealer
blue wire loom wrap shit (whatever its called)
paper towels
...beer and cigarettes...


i REALLY hope this car is worth the effort!

[beam514]

nice pickup
post some pics of the damage! (and the rest of your car of course :) )

[DJ_Devistatix]

k so today i got the valve cover gaskets and the plug seals...some headlight cleaner...engine spray paint...i decided to go with white for the valve cover instead of blue...it pops out, but its neutral enough that i wont have too many colors going on with the green...i want to keep my color scheme contrasting but not too "filipino dat one"...generally going green,black,white (you'll see as it comes together)...engine cleaner spray...black silicone...and some sand paper

a lot of the parts that i needed had to be special ordered, so i held off on it for now...damn hawaii and its non-mitsubishi ways!!!

got the radiator sent out today as well...

still raining out here...ill try to get some pics by tomorrow afternoon when i get home from work....

[DJ_Devistatix]

finally took some pics today!...dont mind the toyota hubcaps...they came with the car...ive just been to lazy to pull them off...haha

















and 2 more pics...the lines show where the damage was originally...





today my bumper, grills, fogs, and nose bar came in...here is a pic with them along with my diamond headlights...whoohoo

[kolio]

coming along

[4-G-rim]

Pretty sweet. Other than the front end damage and windshield..looks like a nice clean solid 7g.

Pretty sweet you are doing the DE JDM front conversion..the car is going to look like Seth's twin

[DJ_Devistatix]

yeah the rest of the car is in reeeally good shape...although im having some ignition problems that started up just a day or two ago when i was moving the vehicle...pretty sure its just oil leaking up and messing with my spark tho...ill be changing out the gasket and seals shortly....once i get around to mounting the front face and lights...im gonna pull out the trunk key assembly and bondo it shut (the hole, not the trunk)...along with a few small dents throughout the side doors...mainly on the passenger side...they are only about the size of quarters though...nothing major

and i had this other idea...stop me if you think its a bad one....i was thinking about cutting out the vertical lines in the grill of the bumper and inserting black grill mesh in behind the horizontal lines...along with the grill inserts...then i was gonna use that same grill mesh to redo my speaker covers...yay or nei?

[4g63lover]

Those are Corolla hubaps. I used to have to watch them flyoff in autocross. lol

[DJ_Devistatix]

Went to go change the valve cover gasket and the spark plug wall seals, test fitted the bumper, and painted to belt cover and valve head white the day before yesterday...turned out to be a veeeery time consuming job...whoever worked on this car previously torqued the shit out of the bolts AND used gasket maker seal...took about 2 hours just to get the gasket out of the cover....the plugs were completely shot and the wires are starting to deteriorate (next on the to buy list)...unfortunately.....we forgot to take the gasket until AFTER i finished painting the valve cover...so by the time we got all the bits of rubber out and gunk...the whole top of the cover had chipped paint and it looks like shit now (didnt get a chance to fully dry)...so im probably gonna repaint it later in a week or so when i feel like dealing with it...i woulda repainted it right then, but it was already midnight, so we just threw everything back together and called it a night (we started around 3pm)




test fitted the bumper...i cant wait till everything is on...






and me...calling my friend to come help me...my girlfriend caught me off guard..hah




my mom is coming to visit for 3 weeks from west virginia...so im pretty sure there will be a bit of a gap in my workflow with the car seeing that ill be about 90 miles away on the north side of the island in waimea..i was really hoping to finish the car before she got here so i could show her what ive been working on...i can always send her pictures later

[mko]

I see you have a 7g w/o emission components....thats nice. I have the harness and the only reason i havent installed it is that it came with factory immobilizer.

[DJ_Devistatix]

what emission components?

im still learning about this car...hehe

[Way Fast Galant]

Looks like your G is off to a great start man. keep up the good work and keep posting pics.

[HondaKillerGTZ]

nice front end

[DJ_Devistatix]

my prayers have been answered and the search for the final body pieces that i need have been found!!!!!!!!!

i found a 95 galant for sale on craigslist today..its been sitting in someone's garage for 2 years with a blown head and tranny..the body and interior are in perfect condition...im gonna pick it up in a week or so...i sent the lady pictures of my car and she deleted her listing so that nobody else will buy it...will have more pics and updates soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im so stoked righ tnow ive been pacing around the house in excitement for the past 3 hours...

ill probably have a big part out soon (i dont wan to waste the rest of the car), so if you are looking for 7g parts...keep a look out on this site!

[DJ_Devistatix]

k..so instead of parting out the parts car to rebuild my current galant...my friend and i found that the more efficient option would be to just swap the tranny out of my green 98 into the silver 95..i really liked the green, but whatever...i can paint it later...kinda sucks though because its kinda changing my entire color scheme that i wanted to do with the interior...monarch green is sexy!...guess its silver and black now...id rather have a working car then a pretty one at this point...haha

will keep you guys updated...probably in a week or 2...in process of getting ready to move

[DJ_Devistatix]

ugh...game over..i tried......life is chaotic

*see my thank you thread in off topic.....

i hope the next owner can take a better shot then i am able to right now

[warren]

so it's a 98 galant what light and bumper did you buy

[Galanttuner10]

so it's a 98 galant what light and bumper did you buy

welcome take a look around.. thats a diamond edition galant vr4 bumpper and it wasnt offered in the US only jap and others very rare.. search and you wuill find