Project Starion
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8/17/2003  Work continues on the interior and under the hood

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Excellent progress was made since last week. The interior is completely out and hordes of heavy crap have been thrown out of the car in anger. You'll notice the lack of any HVAC components and stock motorized seat belts. Also, all of the heavy padding on the firewall and trans tunnel was removed to allow access to the thick sound deadening tar.

Using a heat gun and putty knife, this material was slowly removed. This isn't exactly loads of fun, but it is necessary to install a roll cage. Another benefit is more weight savings since it is heavy stuff. In this photo there is still a little to be removed. I also plan to wipe all areas down with paint thinner to clean any tar residue left behind.
Here's a close-up of the driver and passenger area. When the time comes, I will be removing any unnecessary wiring from the chassis harness. The engine harness and ECU will be replaced with the parts I sourced from a 92 Eagle Talon 2.0 Turbo. After that is finished the dash, console and carpet will go back in.
All told more than 30 pounds of this stuff was removed from the car.
Unnecessary items are starting to be removed from under the hood. Some of the departed items are the A/C components, oil cooler, stock intercooler and lots more. Once the engine and transmission are removed, more items underhood will be either simplified or removed to clean up and make way for the 4G63 and its components.
After getting the A/C compressor out of the way I noticed a large engine ventilation area in the block. I almost dropped a socket in there. This engine block will make an awesome doorstop.