My broke ass cars*! - Eclipse, Bel Air, '80s Death Traps!

[spede3]

Hello! My name is spede3, I’m a regular poster on the discord server and after being inactive on the site for give or take 3 years I decided what the hell, why not give it another shot?

These are my two cars. My daily which is a 2008 Mitsubshi Eclipse and the project which is a 1967 Chevrolet Bel Air. Lets start with the Eclipse.

This is my 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS. It has a 2.4L 4G69 pushing 162 horsepower as well as 162 lb-ft of torque. It is mated to a 5 speed F5M422V5P transmission. I bought this car as my first car in September of 2020 and its served me well since. When I got it the car had a hair under 107,000 kilometers and it currently sits at 146,000.

It features a cloth interior, leather steering wheel, heated seats, AC (It is broken), AM/FM radio, 6 disc CD changer, Rockford Fosgate sound system including a 10 inch subwoofer in the back, a sunroof and 17 inch alloy wheels with disc brakes on all 4 corners. It is painted in Optimist Green Metallic.

This car is entirely stock aside from the fuel filler door being painted black by previous owner. Aside from routine maintenance I’ve replaced the timing belt.

Overall I enjoy this car, it’s got plenty of get up and go for an at the time of writing this 15 year old car. Sure, it’s overweight and might not have the same bounce in its step as its GSX ancestors but it’s more than enough for me to have fun with and take to the occasional autocross.

This is my 1967 Chevrolet Bel Air Station Wagon. From the factory it had a 283 V8 mated to a 3 speed manual with the shifter on the column.

Rather than that it now has a breathes in 2 bolt main 350 (5.7L) small block bored 30 over (355) with a slightly more aggressive camshaft, Edelbrock 4 barrel carburetor and intake manifold, higher flow Corvette exhaust manifolds and a true dual exhaust. This engine is mounted to an oh so fragile T5 5 speed manual transmission with the shifter mounted on the floor.

When it was new this car had NO power steering, NO power brakes, NO AC and NO radio. It came with a light blue vinyl interior, 3 row seating with the rear seat facing the back, plenty of ash trays, 14 inch wheels with drums on all 4 corners and safety features like lap belts! It continues to have these exact same specs except with over 50 years of wear except we’ve upgraded to 15 inch wheels.

You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “more like belongs in the trash” but I actually have all the bits and pieces to bring this car back to life, trim and all. Currently a lot of the bits and pieces are not installed because its in the bodywork/paint stage. At some point in history this car had its rear passenger fender and drivers front fender pushed in, the front fender has been replaced but im trying to do some fancy fiberglass work to fix the rear.

This car is almost entirely rust free. The only place on this car with true rust is the spare tire compartment and the corner of the drivers side rear fender. Everything else is solid on this car. The only part that this car is missing is the roof rack which I dont really like anyway.

My next post will be about my other projects. Maybe in 3 years time, maybe in a few more hours. See you then!

[spede3]

Back again, this time to post about my not-a-cars, at least some of them. Behold!

Besides cars I’m an avid fan of 70s and 80s Yamaha, specifically their three wheelers and motorcycles/dirtbikes. I’ve had quite a few over the years (Perhaps a future post about my vehicle history?) but currently I have 4 Yamaha machines total and two of those will be spoken about in this post.

This is my true pride and joy, this is what I consider to be my first true project, it is a 1985 Yamaha YTM 200ER. The 200 means 196cc (2V, OHC, Timing chain) the E means electric start and the R means reverse.

This was the utility offering from Yamaha at the time, replacing the previous 125 and 175 2 stroke offerings. It has 5 speeds with a foot shifter however it does not have a clutch lever, that was only on the performance models. It pushes a scorching 16 horsepower and 13 lb-ft of torque, sharing most of its internals with the TW200 motorcycle, the difference being on the transmission side as this is shaft driven rather than chain and sprocket. Internals are also shared with various models ranging from 200cc-250cc but the TW200 and Moto-4 200 are the closest fit. These models have front suspension forks but no rear suspension, that came on the 225DR/DX models and up. It has a drum brake in the front and a disc brake in the rear.

I got this particular one in October of 2019 for a whopping $300, it was running, driving and was in visually “okay” shape; no cracks in the fenders, very good condition rust wise. The engine… was not so good. It had a bit of a knock and a horrible tick, compression was just about -2 psi and it burnt oil like it was gas. But the bastard still ran.

It ran like this for the remainder of the fall and all winter, it wasn’t until the spring when I decided to crack open the engine did the problems really introduced themselves. Upon inspection of the cylinder head the cam had been wore so bad that there were deep grooves in it and a piece of lifter arm had been smashed off and was bouncing around the valvetrain. How the hell that lifter didn’t get itself caught and bend a valve is beyond me. The piston was worse for wear too, showing signs of scouring. The cylinder sleeve seemed fine at the time.

I got a brand new cylinder head (they are extremely easy to source as the TW200 and TT-R 230 are still in production with the same head design) a fresh piston including wrist pin and rings but kept the cylinder jug. I figured since I’m doing this much I may as well service the rear axle and installed new bearings at the same time as well as reupholstering the seat.

Besides that I haven’t done a whole lot of work, I stripped it down over the summer to give the frame a fresh coat of high build paint just to fancy it up a bit and recently acquired new stickers and a new taillight cover.

Overall it’s been a reliable machine, I take it on adventures all the time and it has never left me stranded. I really love this machine and don’t see myself selling it ever, it means too much to me. Sure, its dangerous if you don’t watch yourself and there’s a lot better performing stuff out there but I find it charming in its own way.

As for the future for this machine? Well, I have a few things in mind. I’d like to get a Yamaha Timberwolf 250cc engine as they are drop in as long as you swap the engine side casings. Along with the larger 250 engine I’d like to get a performance camshaft for a TT-R 230 and perhaps a larger carburetor, I’ve calculated that this engine build can be done for give or take $500-ish. I would also like to improve the braking system by getting a hydraulic brake kit to install on the rear, bring it into the 21st century a bit.

Yup!! I’ve got two of these things! Just before 2023 I traded an 1986 Honda Fourtrax 350 I had laying around (That’s a story for another day.) for this guy and some cash. From what I can tell this guy is a bit older than the original one based on the rear fender design, possibly 1983 I’m thinking.

This guy is a 200E, not a 200ER though. No reverse. It does indeed run, although poorly. It burns oil much, much worse than the other one did at its worst. I haven’t checked the compression but judging by how easy it is to spin the engine with the pull cord its not looking hopeful. The carburetor loves to dump fuel through the overflow hole and if you’re not careful it’ll decided to rev to shit out of nowhere.

However, I am confident that I could resurrect this one a lot quicker than the first one with the knowledge I’ve gained over the years with the other. Currently though its become more of a donor for the other one, it had a few pieces that I was missing including the correct throttle cable, a better pull cord assembly and a neat little homemade gun rack. I’ve also swapped the rear fenders around as they’re in better condition, I would like to put the '85 mud flaps back on though, just to keep it more correct and because the '83 flaps are cut shorter from the factory, less useful. This one also has an interesting wheel hub that I haven’t seen before, it’s a more light weight looking design. If I could get my hands on another one I’d swap those around too.

I have to note that for some reason this one feels more snappy, perhaps its the simpler transmission design and it weighs a bit less without the cargo racks and other things.

I don’t currently plan to do much with this one, I want to finish the original one before I pick at this one too much. Who knows, maybe some day I’ll have the two fully restored. It’s definitely possible as I have amassed a large parts hoard over the years.

[spede3]

Not quite an update but it feels like something worth sharing anyway. I recently scanned a sales brochures for the 1967 wagon offerings from Chevrolet. Better versions of this exist on the net and my scanner wasn’t big enough but whatever, it’s still cool to have it digitized.

[Maxxx17]

They look cool and remind me of my last car… I have always been a careful driver and have never allowed myself to drive while intoxicated. However, that day I didn’t consider the weather conditions and lost control of my car. I crashed my car and got into an accident, but even worse, I was charged with drunk driving. Fortunately, I had a good attorney with agp law that I had worked with previously and he helped me prove my innocence. He did his own investigation and proved that I had not consumed alcohol when I was behind the wheel. Thanks to his help, I did not go to jail, and I avoided many of the problems that would have arisen if I had had to answer for my actions in court.

[spede3]

Thanks!

[abg7]

I never expected anyone to show that they own a final-generation Eclipse (especially in base trim), so it’s nice to know that someone is preserving a good example for the future.

[spede3]

It certainly isn’t the most amazing Eclipse they made but at least the name isn’t followed by the word cross.

[SkylineFTW97]

From what I heard, those 4G Eclipses really move with the 3.8. Still a shame they didn’t give it one last GST or GSX variant with the Evo still around at the time.

[spede3]

The GT trim of the Eclipse has the 3.8L 6G75 V6, it’s a bit more stout pushing 263 horsepower and 260 lb-ft. It’s definitely the trim you want because it is a very heavy car, that extra 101 horsepower brings it to life a bit more. People have squeezed out 464 whp from the V6 cars with turbo tuning (It’s worth noting this number is from 2007 and has probably been beaten by now, even by the 4G69.)

It’s funny, there exists a way to create an awd 4G Eclipse somewhat easily. Essentially, since the 4G Eclipse shares its platform with the Mitsubishi Endeavor, an awd crossover.

What you do is you get the drivetrain of an Endeavor on the cheap, one that’s been in an collision or something and with a little amount of fab work you can make it mate up to the Eclipse and voila, awd 4G Eclipse. (Very much so skipping over the fine details here).

Of course, that’s only half of the story. If you want to get as close to a modern GSX as possible you sell your kidney and start buying a shopping list of Lancer Evolution 8 and 9 parts. (This has all been done and documented).

In my eyes I don’t really see the worth of all this work. Especially if you go the full 9 yards. For that money and time you could get a true GSX or Lancer Evolution and be better off with more aftermarket support. I guess I can see doing just the Endeavor parts if you happen to have one kicking around or can get one for cheap.

[spede3]

It has been a while. Big news! I recently acquired the Timberwolf 250 engine I spoke about in my previous post! I do want to take the time to correct an error that I made previously though. I said that this engine is 250cc. That is not true, while the model maybe be called the Timberwolf 250 it is actually a 229cc engine.

So, what now? Well, this swap should be almost drop in. I will have to swap the side cases with the ones that are currently installed on the other engine as well as the driveshaft yoke, really easy jobs. Other than that I’ll have to find a way to route the crank vent as it appears do to this being a later year engine they relocated that to the timing gear cover rather than on top of the block where it is currently.

This swap won’t happen super quickly though, I’m currently going through college so I don’t have all the time in the world to wrench on stuff like I used to.

Overall this simple swap will gain me 33cc and a bit more get up and go.

Photos