1997 Eagle Talon 420a Turbo DSM finally gets Custom Paint

And in the Beginning....

A Long Long time ago.......

(About a month and two days from Feb 10 08)

( drums, dum dum dum da dum)

In a Far Far Away Place .......

( about 7.4 miles according to the gps)

In Advance Collision it began.... There were many parts...

There was one Spray gun, with guey sparkle stuff in it, to rule them all.....

Here you see the Prismatique Crystals in the Clear Coat solution. This stuff sparkes like stars as you look at it becuase they are so small. Unlike metallic coat these change with direction and lighting conditions... Its Precious.. Dum Dum DUmmmm!

And its all up to this Painter , Mr. Jolley

There are still parts that have no coating at all. The two left were the Center sections for the tail lights and the Deck lide needed two tone black and silver paint, then clear over twice. Mr. Jolley cleans the area to be painted vigeriously with a scouring pad and some kind of buffing compound.



Here Mr Jolley taped off the Center section and the slack will be wrapped around and hung from the rafters.



No really we hung it from the rafters. I am digging the spearamint flavored tape. Mr jolley was digging it too.




There are tough descisions to be made. Mr. Jolley had some Captian Morgan to think it over.

Here is the second part that needs paint. Its a rather large one. This is the decklid that will be taped off, primered, sealed, painted silver and the reverse taped and agian painted Black for the top. Mr. Jolley will coat the decklid with the Precious and then coat agian with clearcoat.




Mr. Jolley taped off the black topside first. I think that we have wasted a small spruce worth of paper on this car. I am just waiting for the treehuggers to attack us for plundering their forest.

Mr. Jolley is a perfectionist and goes over the black areas twice for better coverage and depth. The decklid will take a couple hours or more to dry enough to touch. Though we have a Oven to bake the paint its really for production and actually weakens the paint. Its also not the same shine as a car that dried without the 180 degrees of heat.


The Eagle Talon Hood is a beauty in itself. The hood is painted hear but has dust from being sanded some to remove imperfectinos before clear coat.


The hood was pretty dirty after all the sanding and it was very important to clean it well. The solution is water and alchohol he is spraying on the base coat. Mr Jolley is getting it ready for the Precious

Those pesky door handles on the Eagle Talon and Mitsubishi Eclipse seem to dryrot and break. I have a set of new ones The handles were removed completely to make sure they had coverage all over. This is before the Clear coat was applied.

Door handles were removed so why not the gas door. Doesnt the gas door deserve just as much attention. Well it got what it wanted. The door was painted 360 degrees to make sure its fully covered. We really dont want anyone to know that the car was originally white.

The Frost White color really is bright before clear is applied. This ofcourse is the rear after basecoat was applied from the rear.

From the front it looks like barely anything is actually being painted right now. The bumpers were painted by themselves becuase they needed adherence promoter because they are plastic. Then they were sealed before base coat.

Even though the car was just painted and has not left the filtered air of the paint booth, the car is wiped with a tack cloth. The cloth is like a shop wrag thats sticky. It will pick up any small hairs or dust left over from the base coat being sprayed on.

Before Clear coat over the Base Frost white

The paint really looks slick after the clear coat was applied. After this layer becomes tacky another layer of clear is applied. Theres no need to worry about runs at this point as the entire body will be wet sanded and buffed then polished to a Glass shine. Wet sanding removes "Orange Peel". This is somthing caused by the paint slowly moving down with gravity after its sprayer but before its dried. Its a wavy look that most if not all OEM Paint jobs have from the factory. they simply will not take the time to remove the waves.

Removing the door handles made it easier to get to all these edges. I have seen handles painted on the car and they are fine about ten feet away but when you see them up close there are tons of flaws and uncolvered areas. Most get away with that because they painted the car the same color it was before. so a missed spot is not a big deal.

I took this one for my family. I think they were suspecting that I sold my car as I have not had it for a month and its been 6 weeks since they have seen it. I really am getting to warm up to not having a badge. I think that I can survive without it , if its no longer avialable from the dealer.

Bumper as I seen it. I was not hear for the front a rear bumper being painted. They were painted during the day and I was at work. The front and rear bumper were painted together. They both had adhesion promoter applied and sealer. The piece at the bottom of the windshield was painted too at the same time.

The hood was wet sanded about 15 minutes before this picture and then buffed with three progressive compounds from 3M. The hoods orange peel is almost non existant and clear is like glass.

Here is this picture of the difference between W26 Frost White and W12 Northstar White. This picture was takin at dusk but I feared that the next day Mr. Jolley would be putting the Eclipse / Talon back together agian. Then the line would be gone behind a tail light at that point.

Wow the car is pulled out of the booth now. I really with it already had the front bumper on hood for this picture. I am thinking the car will be back together and drivable tonight and tomorrow do all the Wet sanding and buffing. This is good though as it will give me time to remove the racing suede seats so better mounts can be made and the Apexi Fuel computer and new injectors and O2 sensor can be put in. The right turn signal wire came loose. i believe it was pulled loose when removing the front bumper. I hade soldered the wire and then Hot glued the gap closed to seal the inside of the turn signal. Tail lights and turn signals are notorious for getting water in them after a bumper has been removed. I will do it agian. Its a small price to pay for you ride to have some sweet new clothes :)

DSM Eagle Talon 420a Turbo Gets in the paint booth for custom paint

Here is Chad taping off the rear hatch hole. All the oriphices must be painted over. Door jams, and Rear hatch jam is whats being painted first, then the doors and rear hatch will be reinstalled to paint the whole car over. You can see here that he had to repair a chip in the paint I developed on teh rear bumper. I was fiberglassing a mockup mold to see if I would like the setup for subs in the rear seat and a drop of fiberglass landed on the bumper. Later I tried to pop the small sliver of resin off the paint like I have done every other time with success and it popped the paint off instead! Who knew the bumper was really black up under there. Strange becuase the front bumper is a yellow color on the inside under the paint.



Chad tapes over the other side of the rear hatch. Both doors were already done at this point. All the parts are laying in the next room. The whole booth wash washed and new filters put in the cieling before he pulled the car in.

Picture of Passenger side without the painter standing there. I dont know wat he is goint to prime the car. I covered both Sueded seats with a blanket that I used to get the new hood home.

The tail lights are sitting in the car at this point. I have contiplated having the tail lights retinted. To do that I must first wet sand off the black thats there and get it to a 600-800 grit finish to be able to respray with good quality. The Tuberon exhaust is still looking good. Because of the overly rich situation ( small idle tuning issue) when I leave I need to bend a piece of card board and tape it over the exhaust tip. That will extend how far the exhuast blows out to prevent damaging black sutt with unburnt gasoline in it to collect on the fresh paint of the rear bumper.

Here is the current condition of the 420a Turbo install. It is still looking very nice dispite the dust and rain that has been going on the last three weeks. It has rained on the car 5-6 times. The manifold and turbo have incurred a small amount of surface rust spots as a result of not being started. Both surfaced will see acitone and a fresh coat of High Temprature Black spray before I take the car to a meet or car show. Otherwise there are no rub marks from the Oil and fuel lines on any powder coating that I can see. I changed out the filter with a APC Turbo Filter with Heat shield and I am so so about the way its installed. Due to its shape movement is limited. The filter just doesnt ever feel really tight on the pipe, it can still flex a little at all times. It may be due to the fact the base of the filter is silicone and not hard rubber like some other filters.

I thought this was really funny. There were alot of employees in the shop tonight and you have a random body guy spray painting a table on the floor standing in front of a Paint booth with a painter. Just goes to show you you either can do Body work or Paint but not Both!

I think they were using every stand they had here. Its like my car Sneezed really hard and this is what happened! The Hood , Hatch and both doors are off right now. All the jams, under the hood and under the hatch had to be painted to match. The rear hatch was the only part of the car free from dents and other imperfections. Ironically because most Import cars more than ten years old have dents in the trunks deck lid ,or even worse, hole drilled for wings and spoilers.

The passenger side door has already had it's jam painted as it sits here. The color is pretty cool. Its a cool silver, frost white color. You can see the stock hood in the background here and it has two small dents filled in it. Even the underside is being painted. We already removed the insulation from the underside of the hood and will add some better insulation later from DEI or Thermo-tec. The Matts that have aluminum coating and are good for 1000 degrees radiant heat protection.

The drivers side door recieved the same treatment of painting the jams however this door had more filler and primer. Seen here the door has already been wet sanded and washed. The painter texted me about ten minutes ago to let me know the car is now back together and tonight it is being painted all over and clear coated to be ready for pickup tommorow.

Car being dimantled getting ready for Paint. 420a Turbo Talon

DSM Gets Dismantled for Paint , Eclipse / Talon

First off sorry for the Blurr in the lights. They are halogen and very bright. Here is the Turbo DSM getting naked for its big make over. At this point there have been two dents on the Hood Fixed, one on the driverside fender, two in the passenger side rear fender, two in the drivers side rear fender and a chip fixed on the rear bumper. Both doors had around ten dings that were smoothed over. The Front bumper was removed to sand and primer it. The front bumper has "spider cracks" This is where the bumper flexed and shattered the paint, this was due to an accident "hit and run" from jessies neighbor. Now and days flex additive is added to paint for bumper to reduce ( prevent) cracking for about 10 years.


This picture was takin about a week before the doors came off but its a good picture and went with the subject. The Dents were filled in the doors in this picture and then primered.

The 420a has seen alot of dust over the past two weeks in this shop. This is a diagnal shot after the hood was removed. The doors came off first however. I do like the new Bulbs I installed in the turn signals while the bumper was off. They are sorta clear bu when you pu power to them they are amber. Very cool. They come OEM on the 2007 Eclipse so I tried them out.

This is the area that was damaged I didnt even know about on the passenger side fender. The damage was very light however they filled in this low spot and primered it over. The door jams are being painted today from what I understand. the painter got behind on his side work and everything has been delayed a week which left me without a car. Using cabs suck but its better that walking.

420a Eclipse Candy Red Ported Intake Manifold with SRT-4 Injectors Installed

Here is the mockup of the Intake manifold setup. This manifold has been Dipped and sandblasted to remove oil gunk buildup that occurs from the emission system. Oil can build up for blow by on the turbo as well but my engine already has thousands of miles on it well before it ever saw a turbocharger. If you look inside of a stock 420a engine with around 100,000 miles on it or more you will see at least a 1/8 inch thick build up on the inside. In some spots it can build as thick as 1/4 inch around inlets and outlet nipple and sensors. A little buildup has minimal effect however at the buildup gets taller that the dimples and flasking on the inside of the intake the air stops tumbling inside the intake. This is a common problem with ported and polished intakes however when it does it without being ported and polished your just burning extra gas at a loss of power. Thats right you lose power at this point as there is less airflow ( like a clotted artiry, think of the grease as butter) and less fuel atomization ( the fine mist that makes a clean burn).

We are limited in alot of ways by doing a Mild Port by hand. I could smooth out the inside of this manifold with a paint mixer and sand paper or even a electric " nail file" approach. You can purchase thin electric nail files for maybe ten dollars and they are about as thick as a double a battery. Attach them to a dowl rod and you could reach most of the inside surfaces. The surfaces to pay particular attention to are the flat surfaces Directly in front of each port. Also the edges can be smoothed out some around the edges of the port. This area does not cause the air to tumble so it will not affect idle.

The part of the Intake that supports low rpm idle is the last three inches of the intake plenum. Literally from the support flange ( little dimple you see on the bottom its sitting on) to the Main flange that mounts to the head. This is the intake I have for my 420a Stage 2 Turbo Setup I am about to put into commision. The injectors are 270cc SRT-4 Style injectors. These are actually set to flow LESS . This is due to the drop in fuel pressure. The FMU will be dropped 15 psi ( maybe more if needed) to correct the difference in injector size and the FMU will be given a more aggressive Boost to pressure ratio. The car really seems to want more boost than 5 psi I have been running the last three months. I have a Turbonetics T3/T4 so only running 5 psi really is a drag. I have considered switching to a smalled T3 that could still flow 350Hp. Anyways, these injectors will flow around 550cc at 85-90 PSI from the Walbro HP 255L Fuel Pump. The pump and FMU can produce 110 PSI of pressure so 600cc + is possible with this new set. However I want to keep the pressure low arround 85psi if possible to conserve the fuel with better fuel mix.

This is a picture of one of the injectors up close. They really are not much bigger than the OEM. However they flow 90cc more at idle than the OEM ( Oem injectors idle pressure is 55 PSI, Accel injectors 45 psi or less)

New 270cc SRT-4 Injectors Arrived for 420a Turbo Talon

The new injectors came by Fedex. I was really suprised that they arent that big. Not really much bigger in outside diameter at all. These new 270cc injectors were literally half the size of the 550cc injectors that originally came with the kit that I recieved and later sold. The 270cc number seems small but that is also flowing at 55 psi. The FMU can raise fuel pressure to 90 psi to compensate for Boost putting the potential fuel to around 600cc per injector. Thats much more than I really need for 250 hp Goal that I am working for this month. I still need to install the injectors and the Candy red intake as well. I am also itching to get the Candy red calipers on under the wheels. I bet they will look great! I am still working on getting the Turbo Heat shield on, It must be trimmed to fit over the Tial wastegate, I can't continue any of the sub projects until the car is back from paint. I been pretty bummed the last three weeks waiting for it to get some new clothes.

• Install 270cc injectors




• Install Red Intake manifold




• Install VROG FMU recalibration for new injectors




• Install New Spark Plugs




• Change oil ( yeah its that time)




• Have computer Calibrated




• Install a O2 sensor ( soon to get a Wideband)




• Install the Candy Red Calipers on the Front




• Retint the Windows for the Front to lower 30 percent




• Install the Navigation Unit




• Install the Diamond Audio Equipment and Xbox 360 in the back

Here is the Turbo, I am investigating the oil film and checking if this kind of thing is normal. I will be capping off the Boost signal nipple soon as I will be getting the boost signal from the manifold in the future.

Pioneer Avic S1, Eagle Talon DSM Navigation

Eagle Talon DSM Navigation !!

Thanks to my Fiance Jessie she purchased me a " get happy" gift that came in Feb 13 " also Valintines Day! " I was really thinking that somone tried to rip her off when all a sudden it shows up. Its perfect condition too! It Literally in every way looks new. I was soooo Wowed by the Gift. The last time I had Navigation I looked up directions on Mapquest, Disconnected my laptops internet and sat it in the Passenger seat. Okay thats redneck Navigation but I managed to get there! Thank You Jessie !
Deffinatly a Pioneer
Hmm Looks like a external GPS antenna

Pioneer, the leader of in-dash navigation, proudly introduces the AVIC-S1. A portable GPS Navigation you can take with you anywhere. For a full experience of what the AVIC-S1 can do for you, view the interactive demo.

Compact, Versatile, and Easy-to-Use-The pocket-sized portable navigation system provides reliable route guidance with a host of advanced functions for superb convenience and ease of use. Stylishly thin, it is easy to move from car-to-car or to take with on trips. The built-in SiRF Star III GPS and antenna provide fast and accurate positioning, and the rechargeable battery can run 6 hours between charges.

Map Data Coverage of U.S. and CanadaThe 2GB Flash Memory contains the map data of the U.S. (48 continental states) and Canada. Just unpack and use it — no PC connection is needed for startup. Future map data updates will be available by SD card — just load into the built-in SD card slot and the update will begin.

Multiple Search Functions- Quickly set a destination by address, zip code, destination history, and more. Search for a gas station, restaurant or coffee shop using the POI Search — destinations are sorted into categories for short-cut searches, or use the touch screen to type in the name.
Bright and Clear 3.5-Inch DisplayMaps and menus are easy-to-read on the large, anti-glare 3.5" LCD. The "3D map view" provides a clear picture of your location and the route ahead, and you can easily zoom in or out as needed.

Directions by Display and Voice Guidance Route directions on the display are enhanced with the clear Voice Guidance provided through the built-in speaker. Select from English, Spanish or French as needed.

Simple and Intuitive Operation DesignThe AVIC-S1 is designed for ease of use. The Touch Panel provides convenient and intuitive control. The innovative "Scroll Wheel" allows you to adjust the voice guidance sound level or to scroll through menu icons quickly, and the "Map" and "Menu" buttons provide easy access to the most commonly used features.

Built-in Bluetooth® Wireless TechnologyHands-free talking on a compatible cellular phone is available. The built-in microphone and speaker allow you to make and receive phone calls handsfree while you drive.

Included Accessories:
AC Power Adapter
12V Power Adapter
Carrying Case
USB Cable
Suction Mount
Dash Mounting Plate
Quick Start Guide
AVIC-S1 User's DVD

Eagle Talon DSM Body Work Begins, Custom Paint Soon , Cell Phone Picture Teaser!

This is a cell phone picture teaser. I did take plenty of pictures to be posted on the Paint section of the blog but I have not had a chance to download them yet as we stopped by and watched this on valintines day for 2 hours after dinner. Here Chad starts looking the car over for visual imperfections in the car body surface. Just as in fiberglass , the more perfect the surface you paint the better the results! He used a sharpie to Mark out the various areas that needed work. I thought my body was pretty good and another paint shop told me it was, but I had around 20 dents scattered across the sides in the form of door dings and two dents in the stock hood, three dents in the rear left Fender from Jessies neighbor backing into my car.

This is a new fender on this Drivers side of our Eagle Talon DSM. Turns out new does not mean perfect. There were low spots that more or less are dents that occurred in the manufacturing process at the factory or UPS dropped them. No matter they are small enough to level with body filler. The fender was takin all the way down to the metal because rain had already started to rust the surface.

Its Valitines day so she wasn't going to sit and be bored. She took pictures at random, I would say I over document at times, but hey we can always delete pictures right? She looked Beautiful FYI

Eagle Talon Badge Removal-
The Rubber logo was in good condition but may not look as good after being painted over, then primer, then sealed then Painted agian. I made descided to get rid of the logo and paint under it. I still believe they are available new as Stick-ons with double sided tape. if not it will encourage me to made the custom 5 1/2" one that I have been wanting to.. the Logo that was removed is 7 1/4 inches wide at the top.

It came out very smooth looking, it doesn' even have scratches from the removal process. Very Clean.. Heck I could leave it like that :P


End of the day- At the end of the day there were only three dents left to fix that I noticed, One of those was the dent from the neighbor that hit the car. Primer is scattered about the car now. I have primer on every panel except the passenger side fender, rear bumper and from bumper right now. Okay thats the end of the Teaser!. The car still has to be scuffed all over and then sprayed with sealer. The bumper , hood , doors and hatch will be removed so that the door jams, trunk jams and crevices will be matching. Even the inside of the hood will be painted to match. Theres much prepwork to be done before the Base coat is sprayed next friday then the Clear will be sprayed saturday. ( since mine is under the table) Of course never count on things going to schedule so I am keeping my fingers crossed for Sunday next weeks for the car paint being DONE . Thanks Everyone !