Cherry : Restomod project

819_ay

Member
A little backstory on the car, I bought this 92 Gt-Four RC back in 2012 when I was young and stupid and didn't realize the true value of these cars. I had another Gt-Four A at the time, that was always broken and taking up all my money. So I parked the RC in the garage and started taking it apart with the idea of building something with it, so now it's on jack stands fully striped ….fast forward to December 2019 I sold my Gt-four A and now I can finally start restoring my Gt-Four RC. The car has been on jack stands since 2012 in my garage, only some surface rust underneath and some dents here and there but otherwise the body is pretty mint. So as of now my goal is total resto-mod project.

So I started the work winter of 2020, in my free time at night and a couple hours when I can on my days off, I’ve been doing everything myself . So far I have por15’ed the underside and wheel wells. Refurbished the gas tank in and out with por15 products. Powder coated everything I can, front and rear control arms, steering knuckles, rear diff. the rear sub frame was painted with por15 as I it doesn’t fit in my powder coating oven. Almost all the bolts will be getting zinc plated with Army grade Green plating. New brake lines to the back, I'll also have new AN6 SS braided fuel/return lines
I have a lot of work ahead but I’m fully committed to getting this car finished. I’ll post updates here, but I also post everything on my Instagram ( @milo_gt4) .

Here is the parts list so far:
GT4racing poly bushings all around , Poly front end links and their steering rack poly bushings
Xiiimotorsport rear subframe bushings with the solid diff plate
Whiteline rear swaybar
Racing beat rear endlinks
New bearings all around
SS braided brake hoses
ST205 Rear Brakes with new OEM rotors
Porsche 986 front Calipers
312mm Front disk(haven’t purchased yet but will eventually)
Feal 441+ Coilovers with swift springs
J-Speed rear strut/floor bar
TWM short shifter
dodge neon front strut bar



My goal with this car is to have a fun/reliable street/track/autocross car. When I get to the motor, I’ll be aiming for the 500awhp. I already have a 3rd Gen 3sgte that I will build. If all goes to plan the car will be back on it’s wheels before the snow. Then paint in the spring then I’ll start building the motor. The car should be ready for summer 2023, again if all goes to plan lol.

Here are some pictures . find it easier to just share a drive folder then to post pictures here.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
 

Roreri

Active member
Dang! I tell you what. I am looking at underbody protection and it sounds like from your detailed and aggressive approach you have some knowledge to share in that regard.

Rock on!
 

grip-addict

Active member
Mine looks like that too but it's from all the oil leaks and not por15.
Yours looks great though ! That'll keep for a LOOOOONG time. Nice work !!
If there are any hard to reach spots, 3m makes an underbody rubberized spray that I find works well. That's and fluid film works excellent for cavities (like I'd you need to spray inside box steel, or in my case, from inside the fender and onto the frame rail itself).


Good luck with the resto ! You're going the hard, long way but it'll definitely pay off! Have a turbo/ cam profile picked out yet?
 

Roreri

Active member
819-ay and grip-addict if I were to apply Por15 and that 3M spray (exact name?) to the undercarriage of my ST185 could I expect similar or greatly increased resistance to rust? Or is it the kind of thing that really requires a down to the frame approach? I’m hoping to keep mine for 20 years or more if I can. I’ll be in Colorado eventually, so away from the salt.
 

819_ay

Member
Roreri":3ulbaef9 said:
Dang! I tell you what. I am looking at underbody protection and it sounds like from your detailed and aggressive approach you have some knowledge to share in that regard.

Rock on!

Thanks, what I did was, clean with a degreaser, wire wheeled as much rust off as possible, treated with por15 metal prep, Rince with water let dry then two coats of por15.


grip-addict":3ulbaef9 said:
Mine looks like that too but it's from all the oil leaks and not por15.
Yours looks great though ! That'll keep for a LOOOOONG time. Nice work !!
If there are any hard to reach spots, 3m makes an underbody rubberized spray that I find works well. That's and fluid film works excellent for cavities (like I'd you need to spray inside box steel, or in my case, from inside the fender and onto the frame rail itself).


Good luck with the resto ! You're going the hard, long way but it'll definitely pay off! Have a turbo/ cam profile picked out yet?

It's definitely the hard and long way, but should last another 30 years when I'm all done. Yeah I'll probably buy a couple cans of the rubberized spray for the hard to reach spots and the most rust prone spots as well. The car won't see any snow/salt for the rest of its lifetime, so that helps

I haven't picked out a turbo/cam setup yet, I'm just trying to go one thing at a time for now. Engine will most likely be next spring/summer, the car should be a rolling shell by then!
 

grip-addict

Active member
Roreri":2u278w3z said:
819-ay and grip-addict if I were to apply Por15 and that 3M spray (exact name?) to the undercarriage of my ST185 could I expect similar or greatly increased resistance to rust? Or is it the kind of thing that really requires a down to the frame approach? I’m hoping to keep mine for 20 years or more if I can. I’ll be in Colorado eventually, so away from the salt.


both work, and both methods are better than not doing anything :) Whichever one is better, I'm not quite sure.

POR (paint over rust)15 requires there to be actual rust that has already permeated the surface of the metal to work. You agitate the rust with a scrub brush and get all the flakes and loose bits off, then give it a wipe down and hand-paint the POR15 onto the surface. If there is no rust but you still want to apply POR15, you need to clean the metal then apply a same-brand primer first. POR15 is pretty thick and resilient stuff.

The 3m rubberized undercoating is easier to apply in that it is a spray-on application, but you'll still want to do the same process of removing any loose rust first. In my case (sorry if we are threadjacking 819_ay), I scrubbed what I could, hit the damaged areas with plenty of rust converter, then went over it with the rubberized spray. It's my go-to method if I don't have enough room to work a paintbrush.
 

819_ay

Member
From what I've read, por15 doesn't need to be applied on rust to work. When applied to existing rust it will stop it from spreading. And when applied to metal it will protect it from rusting. Either way the metal needs to be clean, free of loose metal/dirt, and dry.
Por15 has a product called metal prep which is basically a rust converter and applies a zinc coating before applying the por15. I didn't use a primer before applying, just the process mentioned.
 

Roreri

Active member
Sorry for the hijack but thank you for the details--I'll look to do this myself! Looking forward to seeing the progress of this project.
 

819_ay

Member
No problem! I'm all about helping others!

Picked up another batch of bolts from the Plating place
 

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819_ay

Member
so after not touching the car all winter, due to lack of motivation mostly. I started again at the beginning of summer. I decided to start working on the engine bay while I save up to get the motor built.
powder coated the steering rack, brake and clutch master cylinders. I ordered a rebuild kits from amayama , but the steering rack kit doesn't seem to be the right one, so I ordered one off rockauto to give it a try, hopefully it's the right one. Both master cylinders have been rebuilt, at least those went well lol. sanded down the engine bay, and hopefully will get painted next week by my buddy who's a body work guy!! progress is progress , and one day i'll finish the car and be able to drive it again!!
I added pictures to the google drive linked in the 1st post!!
 

Roreri

Active member
This project puts any complaints I might have about mine being off the road for this month into perspective...

Keep at it--love the detail you're putting into this. As the Australians say, "She'll be right mate!"
 

alltracman78

Active member
I've used POR15. Back in late 05 I was in North Carolina. I completely stripped my 92 and sandblasted/stripped and coated all the rear suspension and brakes with it.
Took the car up to Massachusetts where I daily drove it until I got T boned in late 08. I parked it on a gravel driveway and covered it with a tarp. Summer of 10 I uncovered it and parted it out. The pieces I had coated were covered in rust. So personally I'm not very impressed with it. Granted it got more of a torture test from me than a lot of you will give it. But be aware.
 

819_ay

Member
Roreri":2srefixa said:
This project puts any complaints I might have about mine being off the road for this month into perspective...

Keep at it--love the detail you're putting into this. As the Australians say, "She'll be right mate!"

Thanks , It's a lot of work and a lot of money which i don't have much of :bangshead: hahaha, but i'll get it done eventually

alltracman78":2srefixa said:
I've used POR15. Back in late 05 I was in North Carolina. I completely stripped my 92 and sandblasted/stripped and coated all the rear suspension and brakes with it.
Took the car up to Massachusetts where I daily drove it until I got T boned in late 08. I parked it on a gravel driveway and covered it with a tarp. Summer of 10 I uncovered it and parted it out. The pieces I had coated were covered in rust. So personally I'm not very impressed with it. Granted it got more of a torture test from me than a lot of you will give it. But be aware.

interesting, hopefully they changed their formula in the past decade and now it's better lol. My car will be in the garage when not being driven, if i ever get to that stage of the project lol!! so I think it should be ok. *fingers crossed*
 

819_ay

Member
well my rack and pinion rebuild is a bust. Since the car is a gt-four RC, the rack is different (i should have thought of that) and the rebuild kits are now discontinued,( spent about 250$ on two different kits just to find out they weren't the right ones) and well the teflon rings are done on the small shaft, so the rack is basically scrap. so I'm on the hunt for another one. I found on the forum that AE92 racks fit as well, but then again this is a rhd car so finding a RHD rack for st185 or AE92 won't be an easy task. But I'm sure I'll find one and it'll definitely won't be cheap :cry:

Anyway , The engine bay is painted( added pictures and video in the drive folder linked in the 1st post), and looks amazing. I painted the brake booster, so I'll be able to put that back in, with both master cylinders, then on to the brake lines in the bay , just cleaning them and maybe putting a fresh coat of flat black paint just to make them look nice. Slowly but surely I'll get parts back into the engine bay.

Next I'll work on the headlight mounts, sandblast and powder coat will most likely be my plan for them. Then I can get those mounted back on to the car.

I'm saving up money to build the motor , as that will be the most expensive

I'm looking sooooo forward to driving this car again but I'm aware it won't be for a good while
 

819_ay

Member
got some parts added back to the engine bay, reinstalled brake booster, both master cylinders which have been powder coated and rebuilt with new internals. Now i'm waiting for some parts from overseas, including a steering rack!!!! Kind of looking forward to receive it and getting it cleaned up.

Added some pictures/video to the drive!
 

Domspun

Member
819_ay":1qeye81p said:
Now i'm waiting for some parts from overseas, including a steering rack!!!! Kind of looking forward to receive it and getting it cleaned up.
lol I also ordered a steering rack from Japan last year. Looked almost new. I still have my old one, was thinking of getting it rebuilt.
 

819_ay

Member
I bought my rack from a guy in the UK. I have been advised against rebuilding them, due to the tight tolerance between the gear, the housing and the seals. The gear might have some slight wear and the seals wont seal properly. So I just cleaned, sanded and painted the used rack I bought. I do have the rebuild kit for it, so if I need it in the future I can rebuild it . I'm just going to hope for the best right now lol!

I got the front brakes finished up. Finally. Porsche 986 calipers matched with 312mm Audi rotors, Techna-Fit SS brake lines all around. I think the hardest part was finding a set of Audi rotors without 10 holes. For some weird reason , these rotors have 10 holes (5x112) drilled, I think I bought 4 sets of rotors before finding these Centric rotors with only 5 holes. I needed only 5 holes so i can drill the 5x100 bolt pattern. I could have switched to 5x114.3 bolt pattern but I want to use my OZ cronos wheels. Now that everything is bolted up , I can get some fluid into the brake lines and make sure nothing is leaking. Next step , I start working on the interior while I save money/ start buying parts for the motor( that might take me a while lol)

I also got the steering rack and inner/outer tie rods. so that's another step done.

Don't forget to check out the drive link in the first post for pictures!
 

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819_ay

Member
Some small progress...painted the carpet black , removed the stock sound deadning , painted the floors with DOM16 and installed new sound deadning. It's not much but at least it's progess...
my goal by the end of the winter is to have most of the interior back in. I'm planning on trying to paint the plastic panels black as well, unsure how that will go , but we'll see.
 

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