Call it a restomod, maybe? '97 GPW

Hi everyone.

I haven't had a chance to introduce myself properly on the forum yet, so I figured now is as good of time as any.

My name is Brian. I've been an active stalker of Prime for about 2yrs patiently waiting for the NSX I wanted to become available; a '97-'01 GPW with black interior, or a equivalent Monte Carlo Blue. After almost two years of daily checking the usual "for sale" sites......BINGO!!! a '97 GPW popped up for sale on the Louisiana Craigslist. I've only put a little over 500 miles on the car since I've owned it, but I haven't had a chance to really let it loose on the CA canyon roads yet. Now that I've had some time to give it some much needed TLC, I finally got around to taking a handful of "before" photos. I'm planning a mild transformation for the car in the coming months. Just the usual aesthetic and suspension bolt on's; nothing to wild.


Since purchasing my NSX this past October, I've repaired a few issues the previous owner let go and also performed a few subtle enhancements. The most notable being the EPS. The rack needed replacing or rebuilding. $8000 from the dealer!?! Shock to the new owner! Thanks to prime member/vendor Matt Lindsey I saved a truck load of money having the rack rebuilt. Matt performed his rebuild service on my EPS and brought the steering back to life. If your steering is dull, sloppy, and/or has a bump in it like mine did, reach out to Matt.



Other improvements thus far are; 2 stage paint correction, refreshed the brake calipers, engine and under hood detail, new window guides and retainer thingy, mesh grill in the scoops, DF intake scoop, SOS stainless brake lines, SOS short shifter, and a "free" weight reduction; wiper motor, spare tire, CD changer, etc...
I have already reaped the benefits of Prime and Prime Facebook with a wealth of information, parts, and work resources. I've had a blast getting the car refreshed up to this point. My last build car/ money pit was a 370hp Civic EG I owned over 10 years ago, (small power by today's standards), and the NSX is reminding me of the fun and headaches that come with owning and modifying a car. I'm really looking forward to the next phase of evolution for my new money pit.

She looks beautiful. Nice work.

Very nice looking and clean car!

Congratulations on being the lucky owner!! I remember looking at this car back in September and was considering snapping it up!! Looks beautiful!!

There have been some deliveries this week! It's been 10+ years since I've modded a car, and man I forgot how much it sucks waiting for parts to arrive. Now if I can find the time to install my new goodies.

Subscribed. Looks fantastic, great job. Looking forward to more updates!

Nice looking car the way it is - then again, I like stock cars Interesting title that makes me wonder what you have in store for the car. I actually rather like some of the restomods I have seen of classic muscle cars and the like but the NSX seems a bit new for that sort of treatment. Are you really thinking of a powertrain swap? Full interior swap with modern electronics?

please don't use a c5 platform in reverse:tongue:

Looks beautiful! What a nice platform.

Extremely jealous! White on black is my favorite color combo. The car looks amazing. Is the rack really $8K?

Wow! Congratulations! 32K Miles! You sure found a GEM alright.

01a4man said:

Extremely jealous! White on black is my favorite color combo. The car looks amazing. Is the rack really $8K?

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Almost $8k once you throw in taxes. And try to find one.....

Congratulations on a very clean White/Black 97'. Can you tell me what exhaust you're planing to install?

Valhalla said:

Almost $8k once you throw in taxes. And try to find one.....

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WOW! Did not know that. Appreciate that info OP and Valhalla.

Sexy build - if you want any interior parts let us know, we'd be happy to contribute!

Thanks. Not exactly a restomod. It's really just a cheesy title that popped into my head.

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Thanks. Not exactly a restomod. It's really just a cheesy title that popped into my head.

blue_myriddn said:

Nice looking car the way it is - then again, I like stock cars Interesting title that makes me wonder what you have in store for the car. I actually rather like some of the restomods I have seen of classic muscle cars and the like but the NSX seems a bit new for that sort of treatment. Are you really thinking of a powertrain swap? Full interior swap with modern electronics?

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Thanks everyone.

More efforts have recently been applied to the car and more goodies have arrived. My wheels from BC Forged are in my hands :biggrin: and my AP-X exhaust is installed and re-tipped to my liking. I also had some time to install my '02 valance and mock up my DF fenders. I wasn't quite happy with the fitment I was able to get when I installed the fenders, so I took the car to DF and talked to Peter and Thomas about the fitment. They have been great in addressing my concerns and working with me to get the fenders lined up properly. In fact, the car is now at their shop for paint!

Since my car has been out of my hands for 9 weeks now, I've had lots of time to stare at my computer and parts shop. Seems like the longer my car is away, the more new parts I acquire for it. Hopefully I'll get the car back within the next couple of weeks, but who knows. Rushing the job is the last thing I want. The car has been in the hands of the good folks at Downforce USA for a respray of GPW paint. When I bought the car my plan all along was to respray the mirrors and driver-side quarter panel (due to scratches and scuff marks to deep to buff out) at the same time the '02 rear valance and DF front fenders got painted. After I took the car to DF to have them line up their fenders and paint all the aforementioned parts, they pointed out that the passenger-side quarter panel and B-pillar had been repainted sometime prior to my ownership. I noticed the bolts in the truck that hold the quarter panel on had some rust on them, which made me a little suspicious that it had been repainted at some point, but I never noticed the color difference in the parts until they pointed it out to me; probably cause its the passenger side. Now that I knew for sure, I couldn't live with it. I would never stop looking at the color difference, although subtle. So since the passenger-side quarter panel and B-pillar now needed to be repainted too, I figured now the whole car needs to be repainted at the same time so everything matches. I'll probably never know why the passenger side parts where re-painted, but the good thing is it wasn't because of a wreck. No body damage or Bondo were found. Must have been purely cosmetic.

All these parts taking up space in my house is getting my excited to get the car back and get to work installing!

[MENTION=32084]B97GPWB[/MENTION] Any updates? Looking forward to it.

B2FiNiTY said:

@B97GPWB Any updates? Looking forward to it.

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Unfortunately no real updates to report. Just a few more new parts taking up space at my house waiting for install. Downforce still has my car. Hopefully I'll get it back this coming week though.

Well after the horrible paint job experience at Downforce, I got my car back a month ago and decided to clean it up a bit and install all the parts I accumulated while they had it. The paint is still in ruin and I've left a few parts off in preparation for the next new paint job, but from 10 feet away and flat light.....not too bad.?


I finished all the installs last week and got the car properly aligned. I drove it for the first time today on a twisty mountain road and had a blast! The car feels super ridged and changes directions very quickly. I'm looking forward to more seat time and becoming more familiar with the cars dynamics.


The next new paint job should start in a few weeks, and this time painted by a true professional and artist. I'd rather not waste more of my time explaining what happened with my paint job at Downforce, so please don't ask. Just know that I would never recommend anyone have their car painted there. They make nice carbon bits, but paint work is certainly not their specialty.

In an effort to diagnose why my cars engine RPM's would hold and sometimes rise when I shift gears, I decided to take my car to Autowave in Huntington Beach, CA. They diagnosed a likely issue with the throttle body. As it turns out, the car was sold to me with a ported throttle body on it. The TPS was also altered or removed at some point, because the factory rivets were drilled out and replaced with screws. No idea why, as the car had no other modifications on it. I haven't yet to ask the previous owner for an explanation, but I'm guessing he'll have no idea either. Autowave gave me a great deal on a factory throttle body they had laying around and swapped out the ported one with the OEM unit. Now the RPM's drop just as they should when shifting gears, and they no longer rise. One more annoying little issue checked off this list!

I was wondering what happened with this car. Looks interesting now.