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After talking To my local shop and taking advice from you lovely bunch, I decided to wait a bit and look for something in better shape. I'm now the proud owner of a 1990 GTUs. Mechanically really sound except some sticky throttle linkage. And she needs a LOT of cosmetic attention. Already has a few tasteful upgrades, KOYO rad, Emission delete, ss omp lines, new engine/trans mounts short shift with new bushings. it's tight as a drum, but yeah nearly 30 year old plastics and rubber. Still to have gotten a GTUs I could't be happier, S5 n/a with all the goods and pretty well maintained. It drove over 700 miles home with no issues.... minus the time the throttle got stuck wide open... Really excited to finally join the club of weirdos who love spinning triangles. A big thanks to everyone here for the advice and vast ocean of knowledge!
I haven't tracked down past the third owner, hopefully being me. Before me it lived near Nashville and that owner purchased it from someone in Georgia happily now she is further south where there's no salt. 136k miles on the body and somewhere around 40 k miles on the engine. Still the original irons and housings just rebuilt. It's a restamped model.
but yeah I haven't tracked it all the way to it's original dealer yet. I hope to find that info soon. Even the clock still works... Sometimes... The spoiler is a little mangled, and the front lip is gone. Old paint and a fair amount of hail damage. All the locks and latches are showing their age. The engine bay was pretty clean even before I washed it with some Gunk. Still think the OMP might have a small leak but nothing terrible. The stock snorkel doesn't fit with the Koyo. I'll need to figure out a way to modify it or I guess just get an aftermarket, but I would prefer the stock unit if I can get it to fit. A little dent in the front quarter. Stainless OMP lines
It needs a lot of TLC, but for 4 Grand I think there's a lot of car left. Hopefully I can go get her inspected today and work on getting it tagged soon. I wanna drive it again really bad but I can't take it out till it's legal.
Oh and this car isn't going to see wide bodies or wisefabs. Being rather rare I want to keep it mostly stock. Aside from what the previous owner did, which is all things I would have done. I think first on the list will be new tire rod ends and removal of the leaking, groaning and not working PS. I'm gonna take the time to remove the rack and make it manual the proper way.
It looks great! The OEM single stage paint will cut and buff very nicely if you want to put the work into a thorough detail. Spoiler are pretty cheap if you can find a decent one locally as well, unfortunately the plastic and rubber exterior parts always fade/deteriorate faster.
The OEM pedal pads are still available new if you want to replace the grip tape and IMO the OEM black manual window door panels look much better than those aluminum flat ones. If you feel like you want more power out of the car I'd recommend installing the tapered aux port sleeve inserts and pulling the trans to have the internal gear set replaced with one from an NB Miata for closer ratios. The closer ratio trans paired with the 4.3 rear really wakes up a free revving car like that loves high RPM driving like the GTUs. I wish you the bets of luck with it.
I saw this car when it was for sale and considered buying it for nostalgia but passed because I didn't need anymore vehicles to tinker with. I had an '89 GTUs that I wanted to make a 6-port turbo track ready car, it was great fun but I ruined it. I stripped and sold the drivetrain in favor of a TII drivetrain and then just ended up parting out the car. Don't be like me.
thanks! I don't know if i even want to do any more power adders. At least not till it's totally sorted. It's not scary fast but ya know... they're not slow either. I have the original door cards which will eventually go back in but ill have to repair the driver's side one. Mostly i'll just be getting it back to new, replacing the bushes that haven't already been replaced, new shocks and springs. Maybe in the future a set of rims with a bit more tread patch than the skinny stocks, but i'll keep the OE wheels around if i want to take it back.... and if i do get rims then i really really want (have always wanted) a set of Advan RG's which i'll probably never be able to afford so it'll probably just stay on the originals.
Well after a week and a half the car is nice and clean on the inside, and I know how to build an FC interior (Mazda built it so intelligently!). I started out just wanting to remove the rear carpet to remove a wax stain, and after that just started digging till I had even the HVAC boxes apart. Every piece I removed would reveal years of use and mild neglect, urging me to dig deeper.
taking advice from here I got an ice cream for the stick tool to remove the warning indicator trim. Best tool I've ever bought!
The dash came out with minimal drama, it's old, brittle and yellowed but didn't shatter to pieces... Don't mind that little piece of plastic there. Superglue and patience is your friend.
So that could explain why the HVAC wasn't blowing very hard and made noises... This wasn't even the bad part. I pulled THREE vacuum bins full of debris out of the HVAC and wiper tray. I also installed new foam on most of the HVAC mode doors as the old stuff disintegrated.
Ready to be wiped down and put back together!
Viola! Back together and with almost no rattles now, and the HVAC works great and isn't disgusting now.
I can get it registered in a couple if days and finally drive it for real, not just around the block to check my work.
Oh yeah I fixed the sticky throttle. I guess the removed fast idle can't be totally removed, and the linkage for it is just flopping about. That little piece of metal would catch on the throttle stop bar when you would go wide open. I was hoping i could just remove that linkage and replace it with a washer but I guess it's a whole unit so I just cut the little tab hanging up off. Now I can give her the beans!
Well there's a big ol' pic dump Not sure if it should be here but I'm just excited to have done it and share the job with the community.
Next on the list is an oil leak on one of the SS OMP lines at the pump... I think, and removal of the PS and converting the rack to manual, but I wanna wait a week and actually drive it as I haven't really gotten to aside from getting it home. Thanks again to everyone here for the support and info!
Well after a week and a half the car is nice and clean on the inside, and I know how to build an FC interior (Mazda built it so intelligently!). I started out just wanting to remove the rear carpet to remove a wax stain, and after that just started digging till I had even the HVAC boxes apart. Every piece I removed would reveal years of use and mild neglect, urging me to dig deeper.
taking advice from here I got an ice cream for the stick tool to remove the warning indicator trim. Best tool I've ever bought!
The dash came out with minimal drama, it's old, brittle and yellowed but didn't shatter to pieces... Don't mind that little piece of plastic there. Superglue and patience is your friend.
So that could explain why the HVAC wasn't blowing very hard and made noises... This wasn't even the bad part. I pulled THREE vacuum bins full of debris out of the HVAC and wiper tray. I also installed new foam on most of the HVAC mode doors as the old stuff disintegrated.
Ready to be wiped down and put back together!
Viola! Back together and with almost no rattles now, and the HVAC works great and isn't disgusting now.
I can get it registered in a couple if days and finally drive it for real, not just around the block to check my work.
Oh yeah I fixed the sticky throttle. I guess the removed fast idle can't be totally removed, and the linkage for it is just flopping about. That little piece of metal would catch on the throttle stop bar when you would go wide open. I was hoping i could just remove that linkage and replace it with a washer but I guess it's a whole unit so I just cut the little tab hanging up off. Now I can give her the beans!
Well there's a big ol' pic dump Not sure if it should be here but I'm just excited to have done it and share the job with the community.
Next on the list is an oil leak on one of the SS OMP lines at the pump... I think, and removal of the PS and converting the rack to manual, but I wanna wait a week and actually drive it as I haven't really gotten to aside from getting it home. Thanks again to everyone here for the support and info!
If you convert to manual steering rack you will need the mounting brackets for sure too. There is a company that makes polyurathane steering rack bushings for the fc. Really helps with steering effort.
Awesome find. Keep it near stock. Find a T2 front lip and or T2 side skirts and call the car done. GTUs are becoming rarer nowadays. Back to basics, sport model for the S5 line up. You have a good start with the mods already on the car. Pm me I can go on and on about GTUs.
I'm gonna end up using the PS rack and just cut out the plunger like on the flyingmiata post. New bushings are an excellent idea though!
And yes, this car is not getting a track treatment. What are the restamps at now, like 80-90 of these left? Being how rare they're becoming it's only getting drivability mods, (which are all mostly already done) and restoration.
intros only in this section, which this has now turned into a build thread. we have a build section for such as this if u wish to continue to post/show progress. thread is now closed.
12-10-18, 08:15 PM
Proud owner of a 90 GTUs
