Sigma-galant.com

Hi Guys,

I just found this site a week or so ago and was stoked. There are buggar all of my model on this side of the Tasman so it has been great to see all your pics and advice on here.
The brief story is this;
My first car was a 1976 1850 Coupe (GD). The year was 1993 and I got it off a panelbeater down the road who had purchased it as an insurance write off and fixed it up for $800. One day I'll scan some pics of it but I thought it was the bee's knees. I had always liked coupes. A 1974 Mark1 GT V6 Capri had been my dream car for many years so I thought a two door Mitsi of similar age was a good start. It was stock as a rock except for some cheap mags, sunroof and driving lights. It didn't even have a stereo but I didn't care because I had freedom!
9 months down the track someone wanted to buy it, it wasn't for sale but if the right money was. The right money was offered so I was without a car. This profit making started me off in the buying and selling of cars. It's now what I do for a living as an auctioneer.
2 years later I was working out of town for a three month stint earning good money. On a stray day off I found another 1 for sale sitting in a carpark at KFC. Needless to say the car was mine the next day when the banks opened. This one had had a 2 litre and 5 speed fitted. I hung onto this one for probably a year or so before having a minor ding after drinking and I mean minor, and then selling it to a mate. Fast forward 13 years and I found one in the North Island, same deal, early carby 4G63 and 5 speed. Was on Trademe for quite a while before I snapped it up for $2000 with a heap of spares.
I have had it sitting there doing sod all for a couple of years now but the plans have always been to go injected turbo.
I'm a bit skeptical about buying motors without seeing them run and EVO's are expensive as it is, so in my job at work I see alot of cars come and go so I have kept an eye out for a damaged RVR as these have an EVO motor with a smaller turbo.
Over time we have had a few rough ones come in but I got lucky one day with an undamaged 1996 model came in. It still had Reg and WOF but needed a few small things to make it run sweet. I snapped it up for $1400 and spent a bit of time getting it to run right. Not much money, just time. Now it's fun to drive and I have nearly everything I need to make it run in the conversion and a heap of parts to sell later to pay for it all. I thought it would be a good back up car for the Missus in winter as it is 4WD.
Well, winter is over and I am getting fizzed up to get started on it. I better chuck some pictures in now to keep you guys interested.








This is the current power plant



This is whats going in





I have also managed to get a parts car that I raped of all that was good before scrapping the rest so I have a heap of spares. I have already mounted some of these as you can see.





The plan is to pull the motor and box out of the car, strip the rest thats needed for the panelbeater and send it off to him.
While it is there I will pull the motor from the RVR and do the conversion to RWD. This is where I will be asking a few questions on here so be ready for it.
After panel it will probably be painted red before having the new motor put in. Plan to put an EVO 1 intercooler on and keep it fairly well hidden. I will lose the 17"Momo's, they just aren't right.



I was thinking of A 15" Superlite copy 7"at front and 8"rear.



Thats about it at the moment. Keen to hear your thoughts.

Welcome to the forum mate!

A great looking example, and some epic plans ahead, keen to see how ya go!!

Keep up the great work

I'm interested, car should look sweet, painted Red with those Superlites fitted. Good luck.

Been busy of late but still collecting parts. Have now got a TD05 turbo instead of the 04 and tonight I picked up a modified EVO 7 inlet manifold that isn't a cut and shut. Hope to start stripping the car for the Panelbeater next week.

I don't mind the 17's, they would be my choice of rim if I was buying some, but with the right body colour could be made to look just fine.

Somehow I have missed this up till now.
Looks like a great base to be starting with and the fact it has a 63 in there already is a bonus, clutch, engine mounts, radiator and stuff, lol.
I never really liked the Watanabe, Superlite, Banana wheels but I am thinking about a set for my hardtop. I am pretty sure these would be a perfect fit http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 910256.htm
Good luck with the build, I will be watching

Finally had a chance to take the car to work to get the lads at Novus to take the front and rear screens out without f@#%ing anything. Have taken plenty out in the past without any worries but for $200 to take out and put back in again it just wasn't worth the risk. Money well spent I reckon and cheap!
Murphys law, beautiful morning but when I went to pick the car up it bucketed down. "No problem" says Yogi as he tapes the screens back in place. Turned out to be the most rain I have ever driven the car in but it is home in time for the long weekend when I shall start to strip for the panelbeater.
Went to a BBQ last weekend and while doing the blokey thing of drinking beers around the racecar, found out that my mate had recently purchased and engine crane and 2 nights earlier had finished using it. Score!!! Mine as long as I need it.
That is all for now. Please help answer some of my questions in the Galant section if you can. Cheers!

mrelshauno wrote: when I shall start to strip for the panelbeater.!

Does he do a cheap job if you put on a good show

What are peoples thought on an easy upgrade for the front struts?

Mine had GH front struts that have been converted to coil overs running Commodore inserts, King Springs and K-Mac adjustable strut tops. Running stock calipers but with a more aggressive pad and slotted rotors.
They work a treat

Started working on the front today. Started taking multiple layers of paint off the chassis tag.


Was taking the indicator and surround off the LFG and had an interestingly stripped bolt.


Stripped in the middle but thread on the top and bottom. After trying everything for 20 minutes or so I looked through all my spares and found another so resorted to hacksawing off the end of thread.
Making small steps but working my way from front to back and finding more things for the panelbeater to sort out, buggar it!

In stripping down the body I found rust behind the bumpers. Looked good from the outside;


But in behind it was a different story;


Close up;



So I've pulled them apart, scrubbed down with a wire brush and sanded.
I then applied the first coat of Pasticoat Rust Converter which has a chemical reaction and turns the rust black. This is after one coat;


This is putting on the second coat. It goes on white........


This is the product and how it looks;


I have taken the bumper irons etc to work and sandblasted them yesterday. They came up a treat. More pic's to follow after the weekend.

Looks tidy as

I am doing the same kind of conversion on my LA Lancer.
So many things to do it almost does your head in, but will be well worth it in the end!

Good luck

Thanks Ryzor, I have been following your build too.

Heres some more paint on the bumpers;

The bumper irons after sand blasting;



And after a couple of coats of primer and top coat.................


Shots of the bumpers now......

This shows with primer on the right and the finished colour on the left (this was the mankiest for rust)



Here are the collection and then a close up...



This is the colour that I am going with for the body.



I will be putting them together later in the week to let the paint harden as they probably won't be going back on the car for at least 6 months.

did a great job on those bumpers mate! looks good

Heres a crappy cell phone pic of the back of the bumpers now;

Another cell phone pic as the computer won't talk to the camera.



I am three quarters of the way through mounting my new tacho into the instrument cluster where the clock was.
I have never been the biggest of fan's of the fake wood grain look so I have removed it from one of my broken spare clusters and obviously the photo shows it compared to the factory wood grain.
I am keen to hear your thoughts on the look?
I plan on using the old AM factory stereo as pictured to keep it looking right with no holes. Does anyone have a spare knob for the volume control as mine is worn on the inside and the silver disc on the outside is missing as you can see.
My current dash has that all hacked up for a modern head unit.
Haven't decided on whether to mount the new unit in the centre console of in the glovebox. Not convinced on the centre console as it would take a bit of fabrication to get it to look right but I want everything looking like it should be factoryish.
As I said, keen to hear others thoughts.

On another subject, I took out the dash pad today, it's not in too bad condition with a 2 inch crack near the base of the RH A pillar. Not to ugly but the left hand end is "curling" up a bit. The whole pad appears to be shrinking as it had come away from most of the mounting points on top of the dash that are screwed down.
What have you been able to do about this?
I have heard good things about this outfit; http://www.dashboardrestorations.co.nz/
Unsure of cost so a phone call or e-mail may be in order.

I hate the woodgrain too! Lol. I made a custom faceplate out of .6mm sheet metal. Made arrows where the indicator lights are. Left the steel where the stereo was so it covered the holes and placed a chrysler script badge in its place!

If you want a fully capable head unit but don't want to hatchet your original instrument cluster panel (or have a hideous cage bolted to the bottom of the dash somewhere) , have a look in the Stereo Systems thread from a while back - http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.p ... =30#p80996 There are a few different designs of these retro styled units on the market now.

Great link there Geezer, some good reading and info.

I managed to pick up a set of GTO seats today. I only had room to bring the rears home from work today but after 8 years on a farm with a broken windshield they have cleaned up ok although it looks like only the base of the rears will fit. That's no problem as I was primarily after the front. The fronts are a bit torn but I was always going to have them reupholstered anyway.

The rear fitted in mine fine. Just had to glue some padded vinyl to cover the exposed wheel arches. The GTO's had a arm rest molded into the rear trim that the A112's didn't have.

That's how I remembered it too Jason. Mine currently has vinyl over the rear arches with the old seat. I will try to fit up later this week.

No pictures this update. Shame, I needed to do before and after of my front guard. I was going to get it tidied up by the panel beater but first it had to get media blasted to get the old bog out. This revealed an ugly as repair on the front. The panelbeater is a craftsman and has cut the front out and shaping a new section to weld in. Unfortunately this means money but I will end up with a guard that looks like new. Just like the other one he did a while back. New diff is still on a mates trailer 300kms away so I look forward to getting this. One of the GTO front seats is in need of a replacement hinge so I am on the hunt for that at the moment.

Wow! Over 1000 views now. Thats pretty cool. I wish there was more news to share.
I guess I can share that I got a bit anal on the rear bumper corners. 1 had a pinhole of rust and the other had a small scrape so I got one of my spares with a snapped rusty bolt in it. Removed the offending bolt remnant and decided some rechroming was in order. This is where I should have taken before photos. My panelbeater had a look at them to tidy a nick up in one of them and decided he could make them look better. You are probably all familiar with the "dimples" on the corners where the brackets are sop welded onto the corners, well they are now nicely smoothed out. I checked the tracking number of the courier package yesterday and see that the corners have arrived at (insert web address here if they had one) Shiny Bits so I have to wait but I'm sure it will be worth it.
Next job is to reassemble the dash to see if my new factory tacho work's alright.
I still haven't decided on keeping the faux woodgrain or not so at this stage it stays.
Photos maybe at the end of the week if I get the LF Guard back.

Nearly a month on and the LF Guard isn't back yet. Saw him this time last week and I was going to have it on Thursday, grrrrrr! Has neededalot more work though. I have been trying to get hold of the guy rechroming my bumper ends but he seems too busy to answer the phone. On a positive note, my new diff turned up today at work. Its a 10 bolt with factory discs out of an EX Lancer. I will take some pics tomorrow if I remember to take my trailer to work.

Still none of the above parts but today I have worked on making the best dash cluster that I can out of all my various spares.
I think at this stage I will be sticking with the fake woodgrain as the best one I have looks near new and alot darker than others I have.
The GTO seats are now fitted but with my original seat rails. With the GTO rails the seats sat a bit too low.
I am painting more bits to go on this dash including the surround of the cigarette lighter.
Amazing that out of the five dashes I have, not one has a cigarette lighter.