Hey everyone,
I've only recently acquired my factory red 1989 Plymouth Colt GT Turbo car and I'm trying to decide on how to rebuild it and I want your opinion!!! Please keep reading about the car then what I want of it and make your suggestions, I'm all ears!!!
CAR:
-1989 Red Plymouth Colt GT Turbo
-Approx 168K miles
Condition:
- Unmolested or modded, factory condition
-Fender bender: Nose is squished a little, needs front bumper skin, hood and pass fender and grill, but I'm driving it "as-is" no problem.
- Engine is running, (4G61t) but smokes a little when you first start it or run it hard at high RPMs.
- No engine or tranny leaks I can see.
- Tranny is solid and shifts good
- A/C and Heat work awesome! ... Believe it or not!
- Driver's seat is mashed flat and metal frame bent. Hatch deck lid is missing.
- Kinda smells like someone microwaved a rat in the car.
- It has crank windows and I wanted power windows.. I know, small item.
ME:
- I bought a BRAND NEW 1989 Colt GT NON-TURBO as my first car! It was white with red striping. I ALWAYS wanted the turbo one, but they were real hard to find even new!
- I DEFINITELY want more than 135HP! Ideally, would be at least 190hp and anything over 200hp would be GREAT!
- I very much value the originality/restoration quality of this car, I want the exterior to look pretty much factory!
- I will definitely have the seats recovered as the original material makes me gag.
- I'm not a kid, I'm in my 30's, so rice-ing, drifting and coffee can exhaust tips are NOT my thing!
- This car does NOT have to be the fastest car around, I have a Tor-red Magnum SRT8 with over 450HP for that!
- I want to be able to daily drive it and use the A/C if I want too.
SO, what do I do to this car? I will be repainting it factory red and the interior will be re-done in leather or suede with factory seats and putting 16+ inch aftermarket wheels on it when it's rebuilt.
I am tempted to just take the original 4G61t and have it rebuilt and tuned and a new turbo..etc.., but basically still factory... I just don't know how much horsepower I can expect to get and still have a daily driver?
OR, I could just say "screw it" and make a monster out of it with AWD and a 6-bolt 4G63t conversion with performance tuning. I'm just a bit apprehensive about as I would need a Talon donor car and then it isn't "really" a rare factory GT Turbo car anymore.. as you can do that same conversion to a base Colt "E" car...
Well, thanks for reading this long post... and I'M ALL EARS?!!!