Hello Everyone!
My name is Andrew but on here (and other internet places) I go by automotiveflux. I figured I'd post about my project Hyundai Tiburon that I've had for a while now.
Let's get to some background. The car is a 2007 Hyundai Tiburon GS, I am the second owner. Bought it from a guy who's wife had been daily driving it since new. It had also been the car their daughters learned manual on and eventually it would serve that purpose for me as well.
I bought it to replace a project that had stalled out (rusty 2004 Infiniti G35 coupe, eventually parted it out) and to learn manual on something basic that I wasn't afraid to break. Bought it for $1800 CAD (Canadian Metric Dollars).
Infiniti Spy Shot (March 2021)
Since then a few things have happened... more posts to follow! I've also made a bunch of videos on this car. Introduction here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-rB6ErsDZ0
In reply to automotiveflux :
What corner of Ontario located in? Watching for further posts on the car.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
Central Ontario! Thanks for the interest, I've got more to share about the cars history before getting to how it sits today.
In reply to automotiveflux :
Keep the info coming. I like your Tib.
As a former Ontarioian, (I guess I have lived in SK longer now tho) I need to road trip and visit members one day. Look forward to the build!
Update time, although this is another blast from the past.
So I bought the car in March 2021, I didn't have it certified yet (read: roadworthy, legally) but I was driving around on the 10 days grace that the government gives to get repairs done after buying a car.
April 2021
All was going fine, manual was being learned and I was daily driving the car 45 minutes to work and back each day. Unfortunately my job at the time would sometimes require me to deliver documents to various places but always with a strict time constraint (they were bids). Generally I'd borrow a company vehicle but I was feeling confident so I took the Tiburon. Disaster struck.
On the last corner of the trip I blew the clutch release bearing. At the time I thought my inexperience had caused the transmission to shatter or something, I had been in a rush and my shifting wasn't great... I would later find out that the previous owner had swapped the clutch but left the original release bearing, which is why it failed. 170,000km on the car at this point.
I still got the bid delivered, I just ran the last 200m and dropped it off, we didn't get the job haha
I had it towed back to my work's heavy truck shop so the guys could have a look at it. They took it all apart and had it back up and running after about a week. I ended up going with a new clutch and a few other fresh parts needed for the safety inspection.
That's the old clutch above.
Finally the car was truly roadworthy and had been looked after by a bunch of guys who are used to much larger machines so I felt confident it wouldn't break on me again.
Video on this event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avse2ZqO60w (ignore the hair)
Up until this point I hadn't done anything to the car myself, I just didn't have the confidence at the time to pull the transmission off the engine and do the work required. That would change a bit later on after parting out my Infiniti Coupe, I haven't had anything significant done at a shop since this event. That whole ordeal above ended up costing me over $2000... that's inspiration enough to do my own work.
After daily driving the car throughout the rest of the year I did a few small things. I've never been very concerned with the aesthetic of something as long as it's functional, but the cracked passenger mirror was bothering me more than it should have, so I replaced it with a silver non cracked one from eBay. The eventual plan it to colour match it, or go black on both. Not sure.
Seen above with Infiniti sized winter wheels (gained a decent amount of ride height from those)
I also had to replace one of the wheel studs which was fairly easy all things considered.
Rust is the bane of my existence, I need to move somewhere dry haha
Here is how the car sits now, just with a bunch of snow on top of it. (photo from October 2022) I've decided to stop winter driving it and instead brave the deep snow with my truck, so it will be here until spring 2023.
Good to see love for this old platform. I did one for the challenge in 2019 and planned for one lap 2020 but we all know how that worked out.
Cool car, I really like the colour.
Watching this one. Fellow Hyundai racer. Enjoy the platform and its durability.
Thanks for following along with this, although I still haven't defined how this is a "build" yet.
First things to address:
- car needs a battery, currently doesn't have one as I sold it in my Infiniti sedan
- passenger rear caliper is partly seized and eats brake pads, should be replaced. I've got a set of Infiniti G35 calipers i may try to adapt, and eventually run all G35 brakes. Not sure yet.
- car needs new tires, will probably just buy some better wheels. I'd love a set of the 17" GT wheels but they are uncommon.
- sometimes hard to shift into reverse, clutch might need to be bled
- strange squeak (metal on metal) when reversing and turning at the same time, very annoying and I have no idea what's causing it
- timing belt, no service history so I should really get to changing it
Fun upgrade path:
- coilovers, there are a few options still out there, including some $250 ones from maxpeeding rods haha
- cold air intake, I'll DIY this from a generic kit most likely
- header to open the exhaust a bit, along with mufflers, I'd rather not be labeled "boy racer" but the car needs to make some noises
- major dream upgrade is turbo, the beta II can take a bit of boost, I need to work on my fab skills before attempting that
Goals are pretty simple. Just have a fun road car as an alternative to my truck and my wife's rav4. Maybe in the future I'll attempt the local autocross club or ice racing.
Picture from the snow storm last week, lowered my car without even trying!
so fun fact, you can run the XG350 calipers and rotors on the tiburon. Use the later versions for the 12" rotors and dual piston calipers. The dual piston calipers have the same volume as the single large piston tib caliper. AMAZING stopping power with this setup and 245's
In reply to bobzilla :
Thanks for the tip, I'll be on the lookout for those cars at the scrap yard (although they might be a bit rare here)
I always had a soft spot for these as this body came out the year I started driving. By the time I could afford to find one, there were no nice ones near me. Looking forward to seeing how this goes.
In reply to automotiveflux :
new parts are pretty cheap to be honest from places like amazon and rock auto.
In reply to kevinatfms :
Very cool! My car is the 5 speed so this would probably work. Not a bad price either. Looks like they might not ship to Canada unfortunately
automotiveflux said:
In reply to kevinatfms :
Very cool! My car is the 5 speed so this would probably work. Not a bad price either. Looks like they might not ship to Canada unfortunately
PM me, i can grab one and ship it to you.
Well it's spring now and despite being half way through a basement renovation I decided to spend some time last night on the Tiburon. The car was missing a battery so I bought a cheap Wal-mart one and tried to fire it up.
After quite a lot of cranking it finally fired and immediately blew an accessory belt, the one for the alternator and power steering specifically (maybe the water pump also?) 
That killed my test drive, but also reminded me that I should really just change all these belts and double check all the pulleys before going any distance with this car... I still warmed it up and moved it back in the driveway a bit. Everything else is normal thankfully.
basic list of items required before the summer
- new belts
- oil change
- fresh gas
- insurance
- should probably get some new tires/wheels
planed items after these less fun things are sorted
- fabricate a custom single exit exhaust
- gut the rear interior parts, remove rear wiper
so yeah, things are happening slowly but still moving forwards. My eventual goal is to run in the ice races next winter and possibly join a rally cross club locally, also snow rally is a thing here and sounds like a great time.
Video on this event is here (my second channel): https://youtu.be/n_e4OyZ2SYc
