sparco seat

it will cradle the driver and hopefully i can get it re-upholstered before the december ends. i'm still contemplating, though, whether i keep the color scheme or have it all black leather with ralliart embroidery in place of the sparco. maybe i'll decide after trying it out first.

setback

its been a while since the last post - why? bored, i guess. got tired with blogs and enjoyed being with my cars. when one of the flames (blog and cars) die, something is bound to happen - and one of them is a boredom .

it would be great to always want to be with your machine and write about it at the same time. but, that was not always the case with me. i got bored with blog while keeping the "love for machines" alive. so, i concentrated with my cars - the '81 colt mirage(coda) and '86 lancer gt(b.m. for beast machine) - i'll be posting about it too.

got a sparco seat and 1st gen lancer steering wheel for coda while i just continued with the maintenance for bm which is now a daily driver. i don't want headaches or worries while i drive the expressway so, further maintenance is a must. the radiator leak was fixed. head overhaul was done. water pump replaced (with surplus-for now). trunk and interior cleaning under the carpet just finished. side moldings were aligned. rear axle assembly was replaced. and some others i can't recall at the moment.

i'm planning to stick the oem rear spoiler and overhauling the starter of bm. also, putting together a connector for my i780 samsung phone to my proline head unit. well, it just need some soldering.

i guess i'm back to blog. well, enough about that and let's move along.

major stripping of parts

yesterday, we were able to strip most of the parts. engine (without the carb), tranny, suspension and wheels are all that remains.

vitaloni baby turbo and stone guard

just finished transacting with some parts for coda(name of my mirage): the vitaloni baby turbo - some call it turbo side mirrors and a pair of stone guards.

view from the back, front of the side mirrors.




here's the stone guard's actual pics


notice the stone guard located near the rear wheels of the mirage


made possible, thanks to retrokid, sleek, kalboniks and chamboroti

car parts guide

i was asked if there is replacement for the mirage wiper motor. so, i did some little researchand found out this site: carspartsguide.com. i found out that a certain "arc" brand with produces aftermarket wiper motor for the mirage. googleing gave me this site: leftlanenews.com wherein it actually says that the wiper motor fits the mirage counterparts like the 1979-1982 plymouth champ, 1983-1984 plymouth colt and 1979-1984 dodge colt.

tank,riser, compressor

i got some of the tools needed for the project: the oxygen and acetylene tanks with guages, hoses, tips and oxygen tank knob. i bought the whole set for a cheap price. the steel pipe supports are borrowed from phil. the 0.5hp compressor was bought around two years or so for a particular project. lend it to henry for his project. now, i got them back for my mirage.





made possible, thanks to jonex, patrick, daniel and dog283

bought mirage owners manual

few minutes ago, i bought the owners manual for my colt mirage. in the u.s. it was sold as dodge colt and plymouth champ. it's interesting to know two car companies release the same car and just change its badge. try googling it for research. in japan it was released as mitsubishi colt mirage. here's the cover of the manual


Haynes Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ Fwd Owners Workshop Manual, 1978-1987 Haynes Manuals

i bought it from alibris.com for $18.00 (shipping included). it will arrive on august 17. here's a copy of the confirmation.


this will definitely help a lot in this project.

cleaning the wheels

been stripping the steel rims to be powder coated. still contemplating if it's going to be white or gold/bronze.

removing bumper

so this is how it looks like without the rear bumper.

polishing metal and aluminum

i was browsing the restoration page of phil (dog283) - a friend of mine. it's housed in http://www.1stgenlancer.co.nr/ and let me tell you that they have a lot of info's there. after studying his restoration process i decided to browse other sections of the forum and came across this site - http://www.poleringsguide.se/english/. it's an english page of a swedish site about polishing. and if you see the picture above you will know that it works. it also has info about maintaining the shine. i haven't read the whole 3 pages due to lack of time. but, this sure will be very useful in the near future.

credits to http://www.poleringsguide.se/

tip#1: know what you remove

removing parts is easy. putting them back is the hard part. well, i haven't done this so i don't really know. but if you think about it, it will take more time to put things together when you don't have any clue at all. that's unless you have a hayne's manual of your car. then you don't have to worry and make a mental note of every screw, nuts and bolts location.

if you cant employ creating a mental picture of every parts, then another way is labeling. label every screw, parts, accessories, etc., insert them on a ziploc and vacuum it before sealing tight (that's to prevent the continues rusting of metal parts)

hood striping

you can see the "before and after" stripping of the bonnet. it has a small dent in the middle which was easily remedied by body filler. the last picture shows how fresh the hood is.

remove parts

i've been removing parts for some days. that includes the plastics from the trunk and some lights.

foreword

im beginning to restore my '81 mitsubishi colt mirage glx. im hoping to create a diary of sort for it- a daily updated blog while i restore it, from start to finish and beyond. pics and process will be included. if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send me one.