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1996 Plymouth Expresso Coupe. SOHC-MTX.
Bought her from a co-worker looking to unload it 10 years ago for a $1000. She need some TLC which I gladly gave her and then to my surprise when I took her to the car wash the 1st time, BOOM! Paint flying everywhere! Oh well I had a coupe and fell in love with her! She was my second neon and the 1st I did most of the work to her myself.
She has has 3 different suspension set-ups and numerous different wheel tire combos.
Mods are:
MOPAR ECU, Borla muffler (now removed and replace with a glasspack in the tunnel)
Maddog STS, Modern UDP, ATX TB, ICEMAN cut for ATX with K&N Filter, X-High rates on KYB's, MSD plug wires, Booger bushings, Booger solid bobble strut, Sport rear sway bar, Front strut tower bar, PT CLUTCH, A/C removed, TYC headlights, and 2nd gen front and rear seats and center console.
pics from a couple years ago


I was going to part her out and sell. It was a tough decision. Need money for my wedding next spring. I was going to finally build my motor for her but decided to ask the GF to marry me and spent the money on the ring instead. Best decision I have ever made by the way! When I told my fiancee that I was going to sell her she said "NO! You cant sell it! You can sell any of or all of your other neons but not this one!" So I replied that means after the wedding I am doing all the body work and building my motor. She said ok. soo here we are with the slow ressurection from the almost dead. Just like "CHRISTINE" the movie. And besides killing people this car is like that Plymouth Fury, it always fights me and always is getting put back together kinds awkward like Arnie did in the movie. LOL! Anyway comments welcome.

Bought a good white buldge hood and decent sport bumper last summer. got the hood on last year.

And finally got the sport bumper on yesterday.
before

after

looks better but I miss the aftermarket foglights. they were amber and WAY brighter. I will have to refinish the OEm fogs and hopefully they will be brighter.
Also heres some pics of the new exhaust


Except for the glasspack in the tunnel it is all parts from my garage. the 1st tailpipe I welded to the stock piping was a SOHC tailpipe cut off of a rusty OEM muffler. lol! but it wasn't long enough and was shooting the hot exhaust gases on the bumper and it was starting to melt. so I had some bigger piping that slid over the 2.25". took a hack saw to it and actually got a really good angle cut out of it! Sounds awesome to me. I am happy with it. Might spray everything black to hide it. Next year the Borla will go back on. The shop I had put it on years ago did a hack job putting it on and stupid me I cut the Borla tip off and weldeda bigger tip on.
Plans next year ae to get my motor build (DOHC block with a MAGNUM HEAD and Crane 14) Long tube header, high flow cat and new piping all the way back to the Borla. Along with Body work.
For now it is just lil things and getting my 3.94 in her and driving her!

What fogs were those, I like how they look with at bumper.

Cool that the fiance is forcing you to keep the car. Should be a fun project.

i like that exhaust. looks good.

Thanks! It's totally swwet that she is making me keep it!
The fogs were some cheapy projector fogs I got from Walmart years ago. All I remember is that the box said BLAZER on it. that was the brand name. I love them! I have another set on my other project/DD.

Thanks! I was expecting to get ragged on for it, but it was hella cheap, sounds awesome (IMO) and works for now.

I second that, I almost did the same when I had a cat....

Does the wife have a sister? I'd like to have an old lady that didn't meow every time UPS showed up.

Yes she has a younger sister. Not sure how she feels about building cars though.

I keep looking at old pics of her with the black hood and I miss it! Seriously thinking of repainting my other hood satin black again and putting it back on. what does everyone else think?
I also have a few other things that will hopefully pop up by next weekend!

My buddy J (jdt18) helped me split the case on my 3.94 trans that will be going in sometime soon and installed diff pin saver tabs. Thanks again J!

More updates soon

paint it! black hood ftw

I have one already painted satin black but it badly need to be resprayed. The black is got tons on chips in it and white showing from them. I think I will be sanding it down soon and respraying it satin black. i may even have a body shop spray it if it is in the budget. Otherwise it might not get done till after the wedding. lol! time seems to be too little.

Scored a rusty pacesetter header from a buddy! Thanks B! Hopefully it doesn't have any holes rusted through it yet. I will check it out tomorrow.

Well i cleaned up the header a lil bit last week and found 2 small rust hole in it!
Made me a lil mad, i was hoping to get it put on before i left for MOPARS in the Park in Farmington, MN this last weekend. But i will get it on soon enough. 1st i have a coolant issue to figure out.
She got hot on the trip up to the show. she never spit any coolant but she had to be boiling it up. I think the thermostat was stuck closed so i busted it open and ran that way most of the weekend with no issues. But on the way home she started running hot again. thinking the coolant wasn't getting sucked back down without a t-stat in there. after i sat for about a half hour and added very lil coolant to her she ran fine al the way home. I am also going to look into the rad fan relay. not sure it was always turning the fan on. I might even put a different fan in. Not sure! just hoping to correct whatever is wrong. She is way more fun to drive than the DD! She has been my DD for the last month and a half! And she wiil be until i replace the wheel bearing that is bad on the regular DD. which i will have to get done real soon. that one had AC and the fiancee won't go anywhere in the summer without the AC.
More updates soon.

Just a quick pick from Friday before i headed to the Show.

I have had these laying around in my garage for YEARS! Decided to throw them on just for fin and the weekend

Put a new t-stat in her today. hope that will solve the overheating issues. we will see.
Also going to add some polyurethane bushings to the booger booble strut i have on her. That should solve the vibrations I am looking to get rid of. I alo switched out the front tires on friday as well. The tires on the sport wheels on the front were the tires that were on the wheels when i bought them. pass side was pretty much bald. I did save the drivers side and now I have a full size spare. Hopefully real soon I will be able to buy some 195/60-14 tires for the front to match the tires on the rear. Also get the matching H-rating as well Looking at some Fuzion HRi's. I put those on the fiancee's Sunfire a couple years ago I they have performed well. Just looking to get all 4 the same size.

Hey Derrick, glad you're keeping the coupe. Must be a good woman if she is supporting your car habit.
Did Zach tell you I'm doing some work to the strawberry as my minor project car. Thinking about KYB struts, what do you think of them? I don't plan to race or do alot of hard cornering but the stock struts are shot! I have started a project log but can't seem to figure out how to add pics and Zach is still touring with the band. He's been having a good time. Great experience for a young man. Zach's silver Neon is coming along slowly..neither of us has ever done this and are learning as we go. It has got me more interested in redoing a few of my own, preferably coupes! Also the 2.4 in Zach's car needs an alternator and he has an underdrive pulley. Any recommendations and does a 2.0 alternator work?

Now keep up the good work on your project. And I'm looking for 2 sport wheels, know of any?

Later
Old Chief

Thanks Dan! And YES! She is a AWESOME Woman! Nice to see you taking over the Strawberry sedan. It needs some TLC!
No real progress...different t-stat seems to (solved?) be solving the overheating gremlin. Wish i had a day off and the funds for gas to go for a haul to see for sure. She has never acted up in town, just on the interstate.
always hated how much vibrations the booger bobble made, so I finally added some neoprene rubber fender washers to it andmost of the vibrations went away. well the metal on metal sound anyway. And i can actually here the rad fan now while in the car! lol! Slow but sure progress. Hopefully soon I will get the motor and trans pulled so I can swap out the 3.55 for the 3.94 and replace the water pump and the beat to hell steel oil pan.

How'd you do the hood? rattle can? working on a flat black hood myself and right now i'm doing a roller paint job. any better way?

When I painted it I used 3 cans of big spray cans of Dupli-Color Auto paint in Satin black. Tuned out pretty good for a quick job. My buddy was bored and said lets do this. So we did. I wish I would have done more prep work. Al we used was a de-geller of some sort. All it did was take the glossy shine off the white paint. i should have scuffed it up with a scrotch-brite scuff pad so the paint would have sticked better. The pic doesn't show it but the paint is really chipped and cracked. Hoping to get it repainted soon and back on the car.

[quote="wraith"]

How well can you see with those headlight covers on?

Can't see very well at all. just threw them on for the trip for fun.

Haven't driven her since Tuesday.
Having TPS issues
I have tried 3 different TPS's and even a couple differenr TB that I have laying arounf the garage and the issue is still there. I even tried a different ECU. Pretty sure the problem is in the plug or in the wiring harness somewhere. Going to try a TB off of my DD just to make sure that I know I have a good TPS and that the issue is in the wiring. Might have to look through all my crap and find another engine harnes and throw it on.
OHHHHHH, I MISS DRIVING HER!!!!!!!
Looks like my day is planned today. A long hot day out in the garage.

Finally went to the JY yesterday to get a new engine wiring harness. but no luck! they were all cut up so i did the next best thing and cut the plugs i needed and soldered them to a spare 96 harness i had that was missing some plugs. got it all done and rewrapped and installed last night. No more TPS issues! Runs like a champ again!

new harness

Well CHRISTINE is up to it again.
TPS issues again!
Been parked for 2 weeks. too damn hot to work on it. plus i was/am too damn mad at her to want to work on her! going to try another tps sensor some time this week. i do miss driving her, but her cousin (my DD) now has working A/C in her soo that is what i have been driving.
Hope to have a update soon on some actual progress.

Finally got off my butt and worked on getting her back on the road again.
Switched out the TPS again! And now she is running again.
I got my lil evil Hot Rod neon back!
Man I can't wait to finally build ny motor this spring after my wedding and get it in her and have even more evil hod Rod fun with her!

Finally got off my butt and worked on getting her back on the road again.
Switched out the TPS again! And now she is running again.
I got my lil evil Hot Rod neon back!
Man I can't wait to finally build ny motor this spring after my wedding and get it in her and have even more evil hod Rod fun with her!

i can barely remember my last ride in christine! haha cant wait for the motor rebuild and body work! ps grab n go has a clean white trunk lid if you are interested.

Very Interested!
How much?

27.99 but you can get 5 back if you have a core.. they are usually pretty easy to talk down in price if you tell them you came from sioux falls or something.