Okay, guys. I am at a sort of pivoting point and need some help.
My dad got his Eclipse brand new when it first came out and it has only had one owner.. (slightly irrelevant)

Well... four years ago, he was in the process of rebuilding, turboing, and modifying EVERYTHING with the car, but never finished. To keep things as straight forward and as simple as possible, he went to prison.

Right now, as of April 8, 2012, I have a 1996 Eclipse with 134k miles that has not ran in four years, but has been sitting up in the sun and receiving damage. My pivoting point is do I put work/money into the vehicle or would I be better off selling, although I would really like to get this baby on the road again for my own personal future daily driver.

Here is a list of the upgrades, ect ( keep in mind, I do not have any extensive mechanical experience ).


• Rear Fascia upgraded to 97’ style
• Fiberglass aftermarket front fascia
• Fiberglass aftermarker Tutbo Mid-Wing
• Additional aftermarker gauges
• Aftermarket drilled & Slotted brake Rotors(custom powder coated red)
• Front brake pistons upgraded to 2-piston design from turbo model
• Upgraded stainless-steel brake lines (front)
• Aftermarker *17 or 18* in. 5 arm split spoke designed rims
• Brand new power steering rack & pinion assembly
• Brand new radiator.
• Aftermarker engine oil cooler added and oil filter relocated and larger filter used
• Greddy Turbo Charger Installed- all exhaust plumbing from exhaust headere to performance muffler has been custom fabricated
• Custom cold air intake with ram-air filter
• Powder-coated valve cover
• Front mount air-intercooler (new)
• New after marker performance exhaust (Flowmaster)
• New Shock System-
• -Eibach sport lowering springs (front & rear)
• -KYB sport 5-way adjustable shocks (front & rear)
• New Walbro high flow fuel pump for turbo
• After-market front & rear strut bars.

The car obviously has lots of money put into it.

The problem: The turbo charger was not completed, which he informs me that he was using guides from this forum to install and should still be on here....and the car has been sitting up... another problem: I am a nearly broke ass college student. $1,500- $2,500 dollars possible to get back on the road?

To my understanding, the brakes are probably frozen, I need to bleed and refill EVERYTHING, and the gas has probably gunked up everything.

If anyone reads and replies to this, thank you very much. It is appreciated and any outside advice would be helpful.

If intrested in seeing pictues, my name is Austin Booty. I have an older album of the car on facebook of the vehicle four years ago.

The only way to find out if its worth it is to get into is. Take the plugs out and spray some wd40 or penetrating lube in it. let that sit for a little bit then try to spin it over via the crank bolt (leave plugs out). If it does I would say your looking better! Start to check to find what is bad first then go from there. Its gonna be ALOT of little things too.

Car looked pretty good 4 years ago.

First of all welcome aboard from one Louisianian to another. :thumbsup
From the pics it really did look good 4 years ago. It looks to have potential. For a car that has not been driven in four years you are going to have to take your time with it with a fine tooth comb. Even the little things like cracked vacuum hoses undetected can be a pita to diagnose.

Good luck. This forum is full of useful information. You can find just about anything using the search or the wiki.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. So it really would be that hard... mhmmmm..

I think I will give it a try. I'm going to try to get some updated pictures soon. If I won't attempt to get it running and "primed up," what do you think I could fetch for it considering the work?

Maybe somebody on the forums could buy it as a project or as a complete in parts?