1993 Touring "Refresh" - Fun Driver Build
 

I've been pretty lazy about posting my ongoing FD refresh, so here goes....

This 1993 Touring was purchased new in CA by a friend of mine's father, and was his daily driver until he died last year. My friend inherited the car and had it shipped to MD where he found that he is too tall to comfortably drive the car, so we managed to swing a deal. It's a totally unmolested car with 110k and as his father's daily driver, it has a lot of wear and tear related issues to address. On the upside it has a recently rebuilt engine, and the only thing that's inop is the power antenna. I'll be attacking the interior first, refinishing what I can and replacing the rest. It's going to get the dents removed and a paint job, I'll address some of the common shortfalls like cooling, then do a few mild upgrades like a down pipe and suspension. Should be fun!

As purchased:

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I didn't mess around long, the beat up interior plastics were really annoying. So out it all came.

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Thanks to a Leatherique treatment the seats actually cleaned up very nicely. I still may re-dye the driver's seat at a later date.

I am very fortunate to have a friend who manages a top notch bodyshop, he did the paint for me on evenings and weekends over the course of a few weeks. I went back with the OEM silver.

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Back at my shop! You'll notice that it now has an R1 front lip, clear side markers, shaved front emblem, smoked rear lights, and Depo front signal lights. The clear side marker lights are a little too bling for me, I'll probably smoke them slightly to remove some of the chrome look.

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looks clean bud! I need a legit paint job in the future

Thanks! I got very lucky having a friend in the business, he did the prep work in his garage and was able to use the bodyshop paint booth on a Sunday. It's a very good quality re-spray, more than good enough for a car that I plan to enjoy.

Looks amazing! Love the SSM FD's

I've gotta drop a dose of reality here---- the paint job came out great and I'm actually pretty stoked to see where this thread goes. However, please get rid of those clear markers (all four of them) immediately ;)

Also, curious..... did you consider shaving the rear wiper?

I utterly, to the depths of my soul, despise orange side marker lights.:D Now I agree that the current clears are way too bling and stick out on the otherwise subtle car, I'll be smoking them soon to see how that looks. I plan on eventually tinting the windows and going black with the wheels, so the smoked side markers would be consistent.

I have a rear wiper delete plug that I will be installing after the interior is complete. I didn't want to weld the hole closed just for the sake of originality, I'm trying to avoid doing anything that can't be reversed in the future. I bought a nice aluminum gasketed plug and had it painted to match before shipping, I've done the same thing on 911s and liked the look. Plug is here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321670052618?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Looks great! Its to bad you did not weld shut the antenna hole while you were doing all that work.

I agree that the side markers look awful but just smoke them like the reverse lights and you will be good to go.

I honestly considered shaving the antenna hole, but decided that I didn't want to make any permanent changes. Plus I tried the radio with the primary antenna unhooked and the reception royally sucks. I listen to a lot of iPod, but also enjoy sports talk radio. Gotta keep my FM!

The paint looks great! I wonder if you got it for the price of a few beers or if you actually had to pay your friend.

I am going to run a stealth antenna that you can mount to your glass or under your headliner.

I still paid quite a bit, but much less than if I had formally paid his shop. Just the paint itself is expensive, that would be a LOT of beer.;)

There are definitely options, but I didn't want to go into permanent body modifications.

Progress, interior is "done" from the front seats forward. All of the interior panels were stripped and repainted with Duplicolor Charcoal Gray Metallic which is a great contrast. Other work done: Redline Goods Nappa leather shift boot and e-brake handle/boot, RX8 style 5-speed knob, shifter rebuild, Bluetooth mic for the radio, rebuilt Bose amps, Lloyd Rubbertite floor mats, Nardi Torino wheel with cruise, JDM armrest, and a lot of other little stuff.

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This thing came out incredible!!
The interior looks like a brand new car.

Great work man

Interior came out nice :icon_tup:

Looks great!!! What did you use to strip the interior panels?

Acetone, lacquer thinner, lots of scrubbing with a Brillo style abrasive pad. I did part of them and the painter friend of mine finished, prepped, and painted them for me. I've rebuilt motors but HATE cosmetic work like paint and body, gotta know your weaknesses!:)

OP did you make those floormats?

No, the floor mats are Lloyd Rubbertite. They are a perfect custom fit mat, I've had them in a bunch of cars. I ordered mine through pelicanparts.com, which is primarily Porsche parts but sells Lloyd mats for all makes.

I recently did the exact same to my interior, except mine is red so I stayed with the black interior plastics. I have the exact same shifter boots and RX8 shift knob! I really like how mine came out, and yours looks great with the gray contrast and black interior.

Another update, I apologize for the less than perfect photos. On the maintenance front I knocked out air filter, fuel filter sock, spark plugs, plug wires, and a new battery. I also wrapped up the install of my rear seats, I have small kids so the ability to haul 3-4 in a punch was a big plus. New tires in the form of Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS and the stock wheels were refinished in black.

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We're did you get the rear seats at? And seatbelts also? And how much .

I have kids also and would like the need to put them in the back really fast for anything.

I managed to get lucky and find a forum member in Canada with rear seats who wanted to trade for bins. Good deal for both of us in the end. I've hauled my five year old in back with my 11 year old in front, for kids they are great!