jaden61 1978 Mitsubishi Colt

[jaden61]

Hey, I've got a 1978 Mitsubishi Colt which were doing up. Its pretty much a driveable project car. I've had it for 2 and a half years and i'm finally starting to work on it, so i thought i'll join oldschool for any tips or ideas.

 

I think its also known as a Sapporo but its registered as a Colt. The pillar-less ones are pretty rare.

 

[jaden61]

We took the engine out a few weeks ago.

 

all the pistons were screwed, compression rings broken, bottom end wasn't good so its in at engine rebuilders Palmerston North getting fully rebuilt. Lighten flywheel, lower head, bored out, lumpy cams, new bottom end.

 

[jaden61]

The engine bay was pretty messy, so good chance to tidy it up.

 

Stoked that the paint came off easy, only took a couple of hours.

[jaden61]

painted the engine bay, got a metallic silver which the whole car will be eventually.

 

 

Cleaned the carb and manifold, The carb had heaps of shit in it and we were told to throw the old foam air filter away so got this one from Kruzin Kustoms.

 

 

So now were just waiting to get the engine back on monday and start putting it in.

[jaden61]

Got the engine back on tuesday.

 

Then me and my dad spent most of boxing day putting it in.

 

hooked everything up and after fixing a few wires and a new starter motor it started up.

 

Went for a drive and it runs so much better, more power and sounds a lot sharper.

 

Here's the discussion link. 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/41580-jaden61s-scorpion-colt/

[jaden61]

Started working on the car again while i have a break from karting. 

The motor has been running sweet as, the only thing i've done was replace the electronic fuel pump with the mechanical one as it wasn't getting enough fuel. So changed it and it made a huge difference especially in the top end as it's not starving for fuel anymore. I'll still have to get a new carb or twin carbs for it one day.

 

We went for a wof and it failed because of rust. So i've decided we might as well get all the rust fixed and prepare it for paint. 

Started stripping it down and most of the rust is on the guards so its actually not to bad.  

I was going to get it painted eventually anyway so now is a good chance to do it.

 

 

The back seats do have seat belts, they were just hidden!

 

Found out the original color was silver, so it'll be good going back to a similar color.

 

 

[jaden61]

Here's what we've done recently on the car, mostly rust repairs.

Got the inside of the guards cleaned up and under sealed.

 

Chipped out a bit of the sounding stuff on the inside and found a bit of rust. So just to be on the safe side I chipped all of it out. Luckily it was all good, only a little bit of surface rust. The panel beater recommended painting it with Por15 so I did that and it came up sweet.

 

Started doing a bit of sanding as well, got a few bits of rust to fix. These are the worst ones

 

The guards are at the panel beaters, they need quite a bit of work done on them. So slowly getting there and there's not as much rust as I thought so that is a good thing.

[jaden61]

A lot of work has been done on the car now. All the rust has been fixed and we should have it back fully painted next week!

The car is in pretty good condition for its age, it was only those major rust patches to fix and the clamps for the door windows.

 

rusted window clamp and new one

 

welded up and rust proofed

 

while the windows were out i cleaned up all the parts for them

 

cleaned the seats

 

lights as well

 

We sanded under the bonnet, boot, door wells, behind the doors and all those bits have been painted

 

the cars all primed, getting put back together and then the final sand before paint.

[jaden61]

So got the car back from the painters and its looking sweet, the color came out exactly how i pictured it.

 

 

The color shows off the lines much better than bogan black

 

 

I cleaned up the bumpers and painted the back of them

before

 

 

after

 

 

cleaned and painted the grill as well

 

I tidied up some wires in the engine bay, it looks a lot cleaner now 

before

 

after

 

before we put the front end back on

 

with the bumper and grill on

 

its starting to take shape now with every piece we put back on. Carpets going in today, then its pretty much the interior to go back in and get a wof.

[jaden61]

So the cars been coming along good, all the interior is back in and it passed a wof for the first time in a year and a half. I got all the lights fixed and working before it went in so it only failed for a front wheel bearing and the horn wasn't working. Just had to plug the horn in and grease up the wheel bearing. Easiest wof it's had and it's awesome being able to drive it fully legit.

 

This was the light that caused the most problems

 

 

I painted all the interior parts with this texture paint

 

before

 

after

 

Carpet going in

 

All the seats, original condition 

 

All of the windows are in now as well. They needed quite a bit of adjusting since its pillar less. There really good now as they close up nice and there's hardly no wind noise.

 

 

 

Really happy with how it came up. Big thanks to our good mate Ben from Reel Flooring for installing the carpet and my dad for all the work he has put into it.

Now that its back on the road i'll have to take some good pictures for the next update.

[jaden61]

Haven't updated in a while, there has been a lot of work going into the colt recently.

I brought some bigger jets because it was running lean and the spark plugs weren't looking good. Having the right main and secondary jets made a big difference in performance.

Then a couple of months later i noticed a whining noise from the engine, it was getting louder and then when i went to start it up the engine did a massive buck and the noise turned into a rattle. We thought it was in the gearbox to start with but when we took the sump off there was a collar that holds the balance shaft sitting in there. So that explained the whining noise and the rattle was the balance shaft bouncing around in there. Just lucky it didn't do more damage!

The engine builder took the balance shafts out and put sports valve springs in. 

It did give me a good chance to tidy up the engine bay and engine.

I also brought some ssr mk1 wheels for a good price, they weren't in the best condition when i got them so i gave them a good sand and polish and now there sweet as.

 

The repainted engine

 

tidied up the radiator

 

 

here is the wheels,

before

 

I used pumas to get all the rough stuff off, it worked perfect as it shaped to the wheel

 

then used a range of sand paper finishing with 2000 grit and then started polishing

 

and the final result

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I also set up some led lights in the interior haha

 

 

After i got the engine back we took it for a run to Taupo and everything ran smoothly.