Summer is here and that means it's time for fun in the sun. If you live in SoCal it means it's time to uncover your precious convertible. Well, what better place than Los Angeles for Mitsubishi to have a totally trick aftermarket version of their current Eclipse?
Originally built in time for the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas last November, the Eclipse GT Spyder's purpose was to show just how much an owner can do to his, or her, personal Eclipse. It's a big market
(otherwise known as the Import Tuner or Sport Compact market), and manufacturers need an awe-inspiring vehicle like this to inspire drivers to indulge their passion for car customization.
Mitsubishi started off with a 2001 Eclipse GT Spyder and then handed it over to Robert Wilson of Modern Image Signworks in Huntington Beach, California. Modern Image's job was to come up with a way to show the market just how many cool things you can do to an Eclipse. Judging from the end result, it went far beyond just performance products and some flashy graphics.
This Spyder started life with silver paint. Silver is one of the more popular colors today, but it wasn't the tone Modern Image was after. So it was off to Car Prep in Fountain Valley, California. This company specializes in custom colors and show quality paint jobs. To get the custom paint looking factory, an unbelievable amount of body parts, fasteners, hoses and trim had to be removed or taped off.
Once the car was prepped, it then had to be sanded to remove the clear coat. Finally, it was ready for what turned out to be 15 coats of PPG Chrome Yellow paint. Each coat was painstakingly hand rubbed or sanded. The finish is six-digits rich. But why stop at just a color exterior paint job? We're dealing with a convertible here and the interior is going to be visible too. For that, the Spyder was shot off to Wet Works Garage in Stanton, California -- or at least the interior was.
You don't see this too often, but to make the interior match the exterior, nearly all the hard plastic parts of the car were painted the same Chrome Yellow. To pull it off, Joe of Wet Works sanded, sanded, and sanded some more until the grain of the plastic was completely smooth. Any imperfections were filled with Bondo and then pieces like the dash, console and the custom rear seat panels were primed and painted. It all went through the same multi-coat process as the exterior. The end result is eye-popping yellow all over the car.
The Eclipse is full of other tricks as well. To complement the lines of the car, a Wings West body kit and wind was installed, including a new grill piece they just made. Under the hood you'll find a lot of chrome and powder-coating courtesy of Specialized Powder Coatings and California Polishing. Performance goodies include an AEM intake, Bosal exhaust and an Holley ignition.
Unbelievably cool TSW wheels crouch inside the wheel wells. Called Pin Drive, TSW just put them on the street and they are an extremely limited edition. Almost as big as you need, they're 19-inchers wrapped in 235 front and 245 rear Yokohama tires. They show off massive AEM rotors -- 13.5" up front and 11.5" out back. But the super cool part is the single lug installation. Setup just like a race car: there is just one massive lug that holds the wheel to the car.
To try and spin those massive tires is a Nitrous Express, 100 horsepower, dual stage system. The dual stage is a 30 horsepower pinch available right off the line; and then with a sensor on the throttle, you get the remaining 70 horsepower when the pedal is pushed past three-quarters. Dual chrome plated tanks are mounted behind the rear seats.
Then there's the audio system. Kenwood gets the green light on this system and it was all installed by the experts at Gold Star Audio in Irvine, California. Co-owner Steve Mehr and installer Ryan Roybal started with a Kenwood Excelon KDC-Z919 CD player in the dash. This cool machine also plays MP3 encoded CDs. It sits in the yellow dash surround by a carbon fiber trim panel.
Just like the dash, the doors were disassembled, sanded and painted yellow. During the time they were apart, Ryan completely Dynamated the doors and sealed them up for better bass. In the factory location there are now Kenwood KFC-XR60P 6.5-inch component speakers.
An added touch for the doors is the matching upholstery insert. A super grippy suede-like material, it was imported from Italy and is the exact same stuff as what the race-ready Cobra Side Winder seats are covered in. The fancy stitch work in the doors and elsewhere in the car was performed by Stichcraft. The seats will certainly hold you in place from all the G forces the Yokohamas generate as well the Schroth 4-point harness. Because the race harnesses connect to the rear pickups, putting passengers in back becomes impractical. So the installers chucked the rear seat and built an amp rack! With all that extra space, Steve and Ryan re-fabricated the entire rear portion of the Spyder. The side panels were rebuilt of custom fiberglass pods to hold Kenwood KFC-W1703 6.5-inch midbass units. Coated with Chrome Yellow and covered with black grill cloth, they're right about where the factory speakers used to be.
The lower portion of the seat now holds a pair of Kenwood amps. A KAC-X501F 4-channel amp powers the front and rear speakers while a KAC-X401M mono block juices the three rear subwoofers. Both are mounted on a hand formed piece of yellow fiberglass with the Gold Star logo nearby.
In the trunk, the spare tire well was used for the sub enclosure. Filled in with fiberglass and MDF, a double box of sorts was made. The lower portion holds three Kenwood KFC-W253 10-inch subwoofers. On top of it is another enclosure made from Plexiglas. Because Steve didn't want the bass to just rattle the trunk with the top down, the top box is vented, or open on the side that faces the passenger compartment.
Pretty easy to see from inside the car, a large rectangular opening just above the amps is covered with black grill cloth. This is the port, or exit for the subs, similar to a bandpass enclosure. The top portion of the box is lit with red neon and has a cover with the Mitsubishi logo cut from it.
Connecting the whole system are Scosche wires and RCAs courtesy of Nathan at Scosche. The battery for the car is also enclosed in a Holley race cell for the added performance look. An Ungo alarm system handles the locks, windows and passenger compartment.
Modern Image gets the call from a number of car makers besides Mitsubishi to create rolling masterpieces like the Spyder. Robert's graphic design skills and Modern Image's ability to pull off such cool looks using mostly vinyl cut graphics like the blue bolt on the Spyder, gets them the nod all over the industry.
After winning a customization award at SEMA and getting lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" at the Los Angeles and Anaheim auto shows in the Mitsubishi booth, the Spyder is going to make a cameo in an upcoming Adam Sandler film due out this year. If you want to see more, get your movie tickets.