Hey Everyone,
I just purchased my first Eclipse. It's a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. I was wondering what would be best to start turning it into a sweet aftermarket ride. I plan on starting out with a paint job, right now it's just sprayed with rustoleum. I plan on giving it a light silver paint job. Let me know what you guys think!
It's in kinda rough shape right now but hopefully by this summer it'll be where I want it to be! First purchases are going to be a new driver's side strut and a new battery.
Welcome.
Replace both front struts at the same time or you will be in for some interesting driving, especially at highway speeds. Was the car originally silver?
It has about 111,000 miles on it right now. Not sure about the original color. The guy just told me he sprayed it down with rustoleum. As far as price ranges go, I'm looking at dumping a couple grand into it. My friend does body work so he's giving me a decent deal on a paint job.
Like a few others said, maintenance before mods! Definitely do both struts at the same time. Also normally recommended would be general maintenance like the timing belt. At that mileage your car is coming up on what should be its second timing belt, and if it was never done you should take it to the top of your list.
As far as tips for aftermarket bits, it depends on whether you're talking performance or appearance or both. Appearance you could always go the route of a new set of wheels, a lip kit (e.g. Wings West), changing the lighting in the interior to a certain color LED, get smoked exterior lights like Depo headlights, etc. Performance-wise you could go for a CAI/SRI, swap a Diamante manifold and throttle body on, upgrade stuff like the plugs and wires, etc. You could go through the Eclipse Garage section of the forum for any how-to's or just to get ides; best place for inspiration is the Members' Rides section of the forum. Best of luck
Thanks for the advice! I'm going to stay away from body kits due to the fact that I live in Maine, and between the potholes and everything, extremely low cars are a definite no-go haha. I checked eBay for some new headlights and I couldn't find anything besides Projectors, which I heard I should stay away from due to the fact that they aren't very bright.
Welcome, glad to hear you're doing the struts first; be safe, then make it cool. Check out rockauto.com (they have a discount code in club3g's Vendor forum) for parts like struts and brakes and etc. This is about the time of year when strut companies start offering rebates too. If you're worried about potholes just keep stock struts (like I said, be safe first). And new stock struts will make that car feel brand new anyway.
Yeah the interior is mint. All leather. I found some sick "seat covers" on eBay I was thinking about getting. They're heated, they have a cooling fan, and the massage.
If you have side air bags you can't use seat covers (unless they're meant for side air bags), Rockauto sells the Dorman universal seat heaters. You remove the leather and put the heating grid onto the foam, then put the leather back.
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