2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT Spyder

Rare Eclipse

Summer is here and that means it's time for fun in the sun. If you live in SoCal it means it's time to uncover your precious convertible. Well, what better place than Los Angeles for Mitsubishi to have a totally trick aftermarket version of their current Eclipse?

Originally built in time for the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas last November, the Eclipse GT Spyder's purpose was to show just how much an owner can do to his, or her, personal Eclipse. It's a big market (otherwise known as the Import Tuner or Sport Compact market), and manufacturers need an awe-inspiring vehicle like this to inspire drivers to indulge their passion for car customization.

Mitsubishi started off with a 2001 Eclipse GT Spyder and then handed it over to Robert Wilson of Modern Image Signworks in Huntington Beach, California. Modern Image's job was to come up with a way to show the market just how many cool things you can do to an Eclipse. Judging from the end result, it went far beyond just performance products and some flashy graphics.

This Spyder started life with silver paint. Silver is one of the more popular colors today, but it wasn't the tone Modern Image was after. So it was off to Car Prep in Fountain Valley, California. This company specializes in custom colors and show quality paint jobs. To get the custom paint looking factory, an unbelievable amount of body parts, fasteners, hoses and trim had to be removed or taped off.

Once the car was prepped, it then had to be sanded to remove the clear coat. Finally, it was ready for what turned out to be 15 coats of PPG Chrome Yellow paint. Each coat was painstakingly hand rubbed or sanded. The finish is six-digits rich. But why stop at just a color exterior paint job? We're dealing with a convertible here and the interior is going to be visible too. For that, the Spyder was shot off to Wet Works Garage in Stanton, California - or at least the interior was.

You don't see this too often, but to make the interior match the exterior, nearly all the hard plastic parts of the car were painted the same Chrome Yellow. To pull it off, Joe of Wet Works sanded, sanded, and sanded some more until the grain of the plastic was completely smooth. Any imperfections were filled with Bondo and then pieces like the dash, console and the custom rear seat panels were primed and painted. It all went through the same multi-coat process as the exterior. The end result is eye-popping yellow all over the car.