While it’s certainly no DragonVette, this 1992 1G Mitsubishi Eclipse GS has been subjected to a dreadful backyard PUI – Painting Under Influence. Having been run to the ground and resprayed black very badly while clearly intoxicated, it has been rescued by the local Mitsu garage and it’s being rebuilt with the idea of getting it back on the streets, looking more civilized, by summer.

As I’ve never visited a LeMons pitlane, this Eclipse stands as the worst paintjob I’ve ever seen close by. Click for more pics.

The previous owner also ran the engine dry, so there’s now a Galant GTI replacement engine sitting in the engine bay. The garage guy rolled his eyes talking about the car, as it had originally been rather nice and reasonably kept, and when maintained at their premises it had been a pretty sight. Then, it got into completely wrong hands.

After being painted, it needed some work done but somehow the then-owner never got round to doing anything to it and the car languished on a backyard for some years. There’s green moss growing on the car now. A guy (the GDPO’s cousin) I talked to said the car’s black paint would stain hands if you leaned on it on a hot day.

Some sections look like bedliner. The prep work has also been horrendous, where applied; some bits just have the paint sprayed over rust. Some bits are just cracking.

Somehow it does look like a retired OCP-Detroit patrol car, having served amongst Tauri.

Eclipses are actually a sort of rarity here, as they were never part of the import program. They’ve trickled down from Germany in later years, mostly. It also seems Mitsu Europe got a large-ish stock of DSM in the early ’90s and slowly registered them over the years, as there are pop-up-headlighted 1Ga:s registered new in Germany as late as 1996, despite being long since replaced by the 1Gb and then 2G.

I’ve once driven a 1993 DSM, a 2.0-litre FWD like this one. It too had its share of paint issues, as the left rear section had been resprayed badly and there were micro bubbles forming all around the sheetmetal. Dealbreaker for me, right there.

The passenger side rocker panel has been removed and a new one will be welded in its place. Here and there, red paint rears its head as plastic pieces and inner fenders haven’t been removed before the respray.

Parts availability for the Eclipse, outside of the 4G63 engine, is dreadful here. As it was never imported here officially, there hasn’t been need for parts support, so most everything has to be ordered from Europe or scoured used from junkyards, as some examples are now ending there. I really hope they get this thing together, as it deserves a better fate than its current state.

Here’s a 1990 Eclipse ad to end with. I love the voiceover in this.
“The styling.. is sexy. Driving.. is really exciting. This is the Eclipse Feel”

[youtube width=”720″ height=”423″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUKIVV5rHTk[/youtube]