1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

[jmakado]

Hard to believe this is the first time I have taken pictures of my car after a detail. I bought it in 1999 and spent the next 4 years driving it daily. Around 2003-2004 I quit driving it in the winters. It's got just over 100k miles and all original paint. Anyway, on to the detail and the pics.

Here was my process:
-Wash with GC and a microfiber mitt
-Wheels got Meguiar's Wheel Brightner and Cleaner Wax
-Exhaust tip got Wheel Brightner followed by Meguiar's Mag and Aluminum
Polish
-Mild Clay with Last Touch for lube.
-Tough to reach areas done with #105 by hand
-#80 via PC @ speed 5 on yellow pad
-#7 via PC @ speed 4 on tan pad
-#21 X 2 via PC @ speed 3
-Interior got Quick Interior Detailer followed by #40 on the upper dash and
Detailer Line leather conditioner on all leather
-Glass was done with NXT

Pics and lots of em!

Some working shots.









A direct sun shot. The sun kinda washes the white out a little on film.



Some more reflection.



















This is the area that I rubbed out with #105 by hand:

[jmakado]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Some full car shots:







Interior with QID and #40



Headlights where treated with PlastiX



Wheels had Cleaner Wax, tires with #40. You can see the pattern of gravel thrown up by the tires on the front of the side skirt facing the tire!



And finally, one of my favorite shots:



Any questions or comments?

[TimG]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Sweet!


Tim

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Great work! You really made the White pop. Great reflection. Way to go.

[Raymond]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Wilwood brakes and Enkei wheels? Someone's got some money in that thing, any other mods?

Looks sick though! And nice work on the detailing.

[yalerd]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Very nice job!
White is a color that you can't really admire but you really did a great job

Wilwood brakes and Enkei wheels? Someone's got some money in that thing, any other mods?

I thinks it's the AWD version, so it has a turbo (I see intercooler)

[Mr Mustang]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

nice job, white's a color I hate working on, because to me, it looks nearly the same from any distance if you just washed it, as if you've spent hours on it

[jmakado]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Thanks everybody! White is a tough color to work on for sure. However, I like the subtleties that you get with white paint. You really have to get to a flawless finish to get any gloss or depth out of it. As far as the car itself goes, the only parts left untouched are the transmission and the shortblock. The car has been dead reliable since I bought it which is impressive to me considering it has probably 30-40 days at the track and litterally hundreds of passes down the drag strip. The trans is due for a freshening this next winter though.

[breakep3]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

I may have to pick that up from you as a project car soon, =). By project I mean rebuilding the engine with a bigger turbo and tearing out the backseats.

Stunning man, I've never seen a 2g eclipse look that clean visually. Most eclipse owners tear those 2g's to pieces. Props on a beautiful 2g, Keep it in that shape and I highly doubt the price will depreciate much more than it has.

[jmakado]

Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Tons 'o' pics!

Thanks for the comments guys!
breakep3:
Sorry it's not for sale and probably never will be. I added up how much I have into the car about a year ago and almost had a heart attack....and that's doing every last bit of labor myself. I'm currently running 25-26psi at the track and 20psi daily. I just did a compression test yesterday and amazingly enough it's still 120-123 (10,000ft above sea level) across the board. Believe me, I have been itching to build the bottom end for a few years now but just can't pull out a perfectly good engine! The tranny on the other hand is a different story.....

It also has sentimental value to me. When I think back it has seen multiple girlfriends, lived in 2 states (Colorado and California), 4 houses, 1 failed and 2 sucessful business ventures, 3 other daily driver cars, and 70,000 memory filled miles in my hands. It's been driven by a wanna be rally racer (me) on snow and dirt roads, drag raced, driven over mountain passes hard enough to warp rotors and sieze calipers, experienced 10,800RPMs on a missed shift (hence the built head now!), and polished more times than I can remember. This car will be with me forever is what I'm getting at.