The sunday after i got back from the drive, i got curious as to what one of those thunking noises was.. Behind the driver's seat there's a chamber for a Bose subwoofer system, or the glove box on the RHD vehicles. Popping this open revealed an amplifier for a subwoofer that's no longer there. Just flopping about, not fastened down in any way. Oh good.
I yanked that out, with a large sum of stereo wiring that was no longer in use.
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Oh look, it's a big pile of previous owner.[/caption]After that, started cleaning out the trunk. There's some sort of oily residue all over the inside of the trunk. About a bottle of 409 degreaser, and a roll of paper towels later, that nasty mess was cleaned up.
Next was the window tint. I kind of like it on the rear, but it's way too dark on the fronts.. So that had to go. I picked up a heat gun at harbor freight and went to town. It actually came off fairly easily once brought up to temp. A little more work with a razor blade and what was left of that bottle of 409 took out the rest of it. I can now see out the windows in less than sunny weather! huzzah!
Minor tasks rectified, it became time to start attacking the suspension with the replacements and upgrades i'd purchased.
I jacked the car up, and attempted to take off the wheels.. Whoops.. forgot to break the lugs loose before I did.. not a problem, i have an electric impact and it makes.. oh. Damn. These are really on there. Had to get a little clever with a jack handle to get the fronts off. Oh look.. there's two different sized lug nuts on each wheel.. 19mm and 21 mm.. WHHHYYY??? i get if you don't have a full set of the same size, but why would you inter mingle them like that? I can see 1 wheel having 21s, and the rest being 19.. but this? WTF? Whatever, moving on.
Next I attacked the light task of swapping out the brake pads and decided i should get that pesky e-brake adjusted too. Both of those went pretty quick once i figured out the procedure for adjusting the e-brake properly.
Next up was the rear swaybar. I yanked it out, completely. with what i want to do, i wan the rear wheels having full articulation. The big Hotchkiss unit i have for the front should keep body roll in check enough for both ends.
Next was dealing with the aftermarket toe arms.. Hooray.. toe adjusters. I got the passenger size off with out too much fighting, but the driver's side was absolutely seized. I would need a torch, and it was already 10:30 on a work night. Time for bed.
The next night I came back, torch in hand and PB Blaster at my side and went to work. After much heat, and some agressive use of a floor jack for additional power, it started to move. The last arm was free, and I was going to be able to wrap up the back end! Huzzah! Pull the bolt out, and.. Crap.
One of these things, is not like the other. One of these things doesn't belong.
The metal under the toe adjuster has been worn away over the car's life, now leaving a big ass hole where a bolt should be fastening to metal. Continuing to make things worse, this is part of the sub frame, which is made of aluminum. So, welding would be difficult, expensive, and beyond the scope of most of my car buddies. Not to mention, this pick up point controls toe, so if it's slightly out of wack, and gives me more toe than i should be able to have.. it's protestable.
So, at this point, I've ordered a replacement subframe from a junk yard, and have also ordered whiteline's bushing kits for the subframe and differential. I guess if i have to tear everything off the car, i might as well get those hard to reach bushings while i'm at it.
On top of everything, I'd spilled my beer fighting the car to free the toe bolt. Damn.
I called it a night, and went to bed.
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