Another restoration thread.

So in January I bought a Pulsar GTI-R. From the moment I test drove it I knew i had to have one. I thought I found a rare good car in that it only had rusty arches and just rebuilt engine with new clutch and all. I got the arches fixed and had started to tidy it up etc... while buying parts for it I came across another pulsar, it had not run in a few years and was parked up in a garage. I checked it out and there was no rusty arches and it seemed in good nick overall. So I went to buy a few plastic bits and bought a whole new car, a "project" car. So the car itself is a 1994 with 80,000km on the clock and was always garaged.

I plan to do a very extensive rebuild of this car, including zinc plating the nuts and bolts, underdsealing everything, waxoiling everything, replacing any scratched or broken parts, fitting a few nice OEM extras and changing all the phase 2 parts back to phase 1. This rebuild will end in a full respray, properly done including inside the engine bay etc... no part of the car will be left unsprayed. The colour I intend on using is AMG matt Grey Metallic. Expensive paint but worth it.

Anyway, the first problem I came across was finding a place to store the car while I worked on it, lucky I found a garage less than a 10 min drive away willing to have my car there while I work on it. For a fee of course. Got it delivered down last week and started to work on it this week.

My plan of action is not hugely defined but I have a general idea. Bearing in mind I have never undertaken any task like this ever before. So be prepared for me posting a lot of questions on the forum in the near future!!! (inevitably when I forget what parts are what, or how they go back on)
I am going to work from back to front. I have already started to strip the car down.

Here is the car before i started. Just had the side skirts taken off





Hub Removed



Coilovers removed. Was happy to see the level of rust was not too bad here even before i have done any work on it. You can see the arches are in good shape. The petrol filler hose on the other hand needs to be replaced.


Next inline was to remove the subframe but took a few other bits off too.

Rear Diff and propshaft off. You can see I bent a part on the top of the diff so need to find a replacement for that. Also I saw recently someone replaced the seal on the diff, is the seal a weak point that I should replace? I also want to replace all the knuckles, bearings and rubbers on the propshaft. So if anybody knows part numbers, or where all these bits can be found it would be much appreciated.





Petrol tank off. Again I am going to replace everything on this, new rubber hoses, pump and filters. Before and after a power hose.



There is a rattle inside it, i never opened it but i reckon it could the level sensor broken so may need to buy a whole new mechanism!

Will get the heat shields galvanised, also have the turbo heat shield and cat heat shield.



Subframe down:



A picture where you can see a bit more of the underside of the car.


Everything removed. I am surprised at the condition of everything really. I mean apart from flaking paint and just looking grubby in general everything is in very good condition. The coil overs are in very good condition if a bit grubby. I am thinking i will just clean them up as i was considering a set of meister R.


I stripped the boot of all its plastics and the rear seats. Which is very easy. Bolts and clips and everything comes apart. I did it carefully to not scratch, damage or lose any of the interior plastic bits.
I have to say i was very happy with what i saw. This is what i came across when I removed the interior side panels. Very clean and dry with virtually zero rust. very rare indeed.

Drivers side





Passenger side





You can see a tiny line of rust starting to form along the seam of the rear arch. Luckily though it is only starting and I got it in time. I plan to get a soda blaster in and blast that away then hover out all the debris. I will degrease everywhere inside the arches and absolutely cover everywhere inside there in Bilt Hamber Dynax waxoil. You can see I have not removed the bottom bolt of the rear seat belts. Looks like they are actually bolted through the bottom of the car?? so need to get a wrench underneath too. That is for another day though.

So far so good with regard the overall condition. I am going to try take more detailed pictures from here on in.

One thing to be sure of though is to lable all the bolts


Finally
Storing a few extra parts here. Seems to be a trait of GTI-R owners by the looks of it


I know what everything in all the boxes are apart from these, can anybody name these parts for me? or where they go.



This is going to take some time and will be a slow process but I will try keep this up to date as I go along.
I think this is going to turn into a very expensive project!
Will keep ye all updated." />

Great post mate, looking forward to watching the progress. Its a great starting point finding one in good condition and makes a solid foundation for what you are looking to do. Keep at it and it will be well worth it.

Hi great to hear another Pulsar is getting some tlc. It looks like you've got a better starting point than mine, I see your thinking of Zinc plating every nut and bolt like me......if you've not done it before I can give you a few tips as is a bit hit and miss till you get the hang of it.

Nice work, hopefully you can get it together and finished before the 30th Anniversary 2020...

This will be a great thread to watch, if love to do something like this! With regards to the picture with the random parts, from what I can see you have, 1. Carbon canister (top left of picture) 2. Top right of the picture is the spark plug or injector (resistor I think) 3. Oil/water separator (black rusty square box) 4.window wiper motor 5. The 2 large rusty lumps of metal are for the gearbox and transfer box, one bolts to the engine and to transfer box. 6, engine stabiliser 7.theres a bracket there that the engine stabiliser attaches to and believe to the transfer box.8. There’s a bracket that attaches to the underside of the car and to the shifter mechanism. 9. There’s a few other parts I recognise and know where they go, if you’re unsure post a picture up of each individual part and myself and I’m sure others will be happy to tell you what they are hope that’s of help pal

Where abouts are you based mate? Will this include engine, gearbox rebuild too?
Looking forward to watching how you get on.

Handbrake cable splitter is the part with the rubber there is a fuel pressure Reg in pile as pete says less items per photo will narrow them down.

Look forward to this thread. I guess you probably plan to keep the car years but never say never and colour sounds nice but should you ever need to sell And your leaving nothing unpainted would probably fetch top dollar standard colour. I know it means paying twice but it would protect the paint you could wrap it grey leaving bay and interior nice new black

Thanks for the comments lads. I realised after I posted the picture of all the parts that I should have numbered them or something!! Another thing I noticed was filtering for used pulsar parts on ebay is very helpful for identifying what they are as there are quite a few of the bits I pictured for sale.

I might take you up on that offer PulsarTim. I wont be starting to do the bolts for abput 3 weeks as i am on holidays for a while but once i get the kit i may drop you a pm.

I am in Ireland Cosmic. It does include a full forged engine rebuild, but I would not have the skills to remove and rebuild the engine myself, I am only chancing my arm doing as much as I plan on doing as it is.  so again that will happen early in the new year when I get more cash together. When the gearbox blows then that will be rebuilt.

I appreciate what you are saying about the colour, I do appreciate originality too, however I am not making it to resell. If i was going for originality I would not be putting the phase 1 pats on either. I plan on keeping it so just want my favourite car colour on it. I have had my Honda Integra for 10 years already with no plan to sell that, this pulsar will be the same.

Good work mate. I can imagine this is the bad bit, putting it back together again will give you real satisfaction

Nice to hear your in it for the long term. It's your car I seen them in Mat grey they look nice was just putting it out ther incase you spent all that money and time and it did not cross your mind . Any pictures of the teg ?

Here are pictures of my Integra




I reckon putting it back together will be a lot harder than taking it apart!

So I did a bit more stripping the interior before i go away for 2 weeks. Reason being the dash was split so going to replace it.



Also took the seats out and found this.






I really should be shocked to believe that somebody is willing to drive with a seat like this. But I have come to realise there are a lot of stupid people out there, with absolutely zero regard for their own safety or the safety of their passengers, I would be embarrassed to leave this seat in my car.

I have taken over 2 rooms in the house now at this stage.
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Good to see another R being restored. I'm currently doing mine, thought it would be done by now but she will be worth it once completed. Good luck with everything.

Those wheels really suit the Integra, looks good.

What did they try and do to the rails?

Yeah there seems to be a few of these car mid restoration at the moment, good looking through all the threads about them too though. How long have you been doing yours? I am hoping to have my car done by march, as i have every evening free until march so literately Monday to Thursday I will be working on the car every night after work. The engine rebuild will be last to be done, funded by selling my other GTI-R, so until that one is sold this one will keep a standard engine in it.

Thanks, they were expensive wheels but worth it!!
The mounting points of the seats look as though they were cut off and just tack welded back on badly, the previous owner must have thought that would do the job in a crash.

Looks like they've possibly tried to lower the rails so the seat sits lower in the car ..

I may however be very wrong

How does one remove the rear seat belt mounts? The bolt keeps spinning for me and not coming out.

Started mine two years ago but had to move units early on. I might have it done for next summer but I'm in no rush. I try and get to it after work every now and then but normally only get a Saturday or Sunday to work on it.

They should be into a captive nut .
I suspect you'll need to get the grinder out

I can't imagine any other reason they would need to be mucked with rob. Unless changing how far back/forward the seat moves.

I am way jealous mate, I wish my inside panels where they meet the inner arches looked like that. Mine are horribly rusted and I had to cut out nearly have of my inner turrets and fabricate new panels.

Yeah i think i got lucky with this Pulsar rust wise. Not just the inner turrets, the long hub bolt came out very easily too which could be down to lack of corrosion.

I was on holidays the last 2 weeks so didnt have a chance to work on the car, didnt stop me buying things though!!!
So since the sub frame was off, I had a spare subframe powder coated and pollybushed along with all the suspension links. Got a whiteline antiroll bar and some superpro drop links



A few bits needed for the phase 1 conversion.



Couple of Extras





HKS boost controller there. The Brembos are from a Peugeot 406, I thought they were going to be an easy fit, but apparently the guy who made the brackets said they were a bit tricky, I have clio discs for them and H&R 15mm spacers

The boot of the car was empty so got these together.


Got a rear caliper rebuild kit from Big Red


So in order to actually restore the car I needed a sand blaster. Queue Aldi with their great timing. Air compressor ans spray guns!! Everything needed to blast the rust away and spray the underseal.



Finally my Zinc Plating Kit!!

Looks like something out of braking bad!

On order is the soda blasting media and a brembo rebuild kit. Once they arrive time to get to work again!

Once I get working on the car again I will take some progress pictures of the work, not just pictures of parts and equipment!

You have a nice collection of parts now

gtir_woody wrote:You have a nice collection of parts now

Yeah have quite a few bits now.

I went about stripping the rear brakes today and cleaning the bolts. Monday I'm going to clean the calipers up and fit new seals and pistions.

I used vinegar to try dissolve the rust. It seemed to do the trick quite well. It didn't get everything off. Once i took them out of the vinegar i dropped them into some Baking soda and water to neutralise the acid.  Not sure I can zinc plate them unless they are spotless? anybody know? If that is the case, I will sand blast them on Monday while I am doing the rear calipers.










The Subframe cups didn't really get better at all. Also I spun the camber bolts on the rear subframe, the washer with the notch, looks like i destroyed the thread on the bolt so think i will need to source one of them.

On a side note, if anybody wants OEM alloys, tein coilovers or a set of wind deflectors let me know. The Brembos wont fit under the OEM alloys

One of my customers swears by this stuff for cleaning up rusty bits. Wanna try it myself but my company will only buy it in bulk.

http://debskincare.co.uk/janitol-altrans-5-litre.html

Hiya great work mate it looks like were carrying out our rebuilds at the same rate.

if your plating I've found removing the rust from the smaller items i.e. nuts and bolts in vinegar does the trick,  when it comes to plating it depends what finish your after. if you want a bright finish, once you've neutralised the vinegar polish on a bench grinder wire wheel, the brighter you get the part to be plated the brighter the finished item once is passivated.  if your plating for rust protection an painting after then blasting will come up with a good enough result for the item to be plated.    You have to remember when plating at first its all down to trial and error.....you'll get a lot of failiures to start with till you get the nack and then the failure rate will drop off.