ok ok ... sounds good

No problemo. Believe me, I've got it bookmarked so I don't have to find it again. While it's not at the TOP of my list, getting that is pretty high. lol

I dont think we discussed it here, so, while the thread is at the top of the section again, will GXP springs fit my GR-2s and OE height GT? I decided to take TBats advice again and steer away (get the handling pun? get it? yeah, I thought it was hilarious, too) from the heavier springs and only stiffen the chassis.

The first 724 USD arrived today while I was out of town.


Due in tomorrow: OE Springs, hubs, eng/tranny mounts, GMPP kit.

Slick, get ready, dude, cause it looks like I'm on my way to your place this weekend.

looks nice lol hope it all works well for you

i'd offer my garage to you, but thats quite a drive

yeah, that is one helluva drive just to sleep overnight and turn right back around. I coulda swore that Gustav woulda hit by now, which woulda kept me right around here.

Thank you for the offer of opening your garage to me, Corey.

Well, the story first, pics tomorrow.

I hit the alarm at 6:30 SAT AM and was driving by 7:00. Got to Slick's house around 8:45/9:00. Started working at 9:15/9:30. Thats about the time we realized that we were at HACGP's former President wasting time: TireRack didnt include the strut cushions with the GR-2s that I bought and GM didnt include them with the springs I got from them. Grr. Back to John's house to rip my suspension apart.

A couple hours later, head back to Chris' house to assemble my new struts. About the time that we were about to finish the first strut, John forgot to put the washer on top of my brand new KYB mount, and started torqueing down the strut nut directly on top of the KYB mount. Thanks John. I thought you said you were good at this (toldja I'd give ya hell, didnt I?). So off to O'Reilly's for Moog front mounts. Sexy. But for about $300 total, they had damn well be worth more than their weight in gold.

Got lunch, went back to Chris' house to get the struts together. About an hour or so later, back to John's house to get to work in earnest on Colleen.

Pretty much, we started at the rear of the car and worked forward. Rear strut assys went on first, then the fwd sway at the same time the aft sway went on (I did the fwd sway while John was aft). Fwd struts, and the eng & tranny mounts. While I was torqueing down the fwd struts, he was hard at work on the eng/tranny mounts. Kinda. He had me remove the nuts from inside the eng mount yoke. Thanks John. Then torgue the eng mount down. I finished the trailing arms, and we started work on the hubs. About the time that the hubs were about to be installed, John realized that the hubs and brakes had no loc-tite. and that there was a significant amount of grime and grease on the brake rotors. with brand new Hawk HPS about to go on.

So off to AZ he goes to get that stuff. When he comes back, he bears good tidings: Chris again came through. Chris had the sockets we needed to do the trailing arms. I had the other hub installed (minus the loc-tite), those brakes ready for install (because of the loc-tite). John decided to remove the old trailing arms while I finished the hubs and brakes. However: John was starting to get frustrated at the way I was doing the brakes, so I left him to do that while I torqued down the trailing arms. He most certainly came out on top with that deal.

At this point, the aft suspension was complete and most of the forward was complete. Now to check torque, fix my CAI filter that fell off during my drive to Houston, install the rims, check the torque on those, and get ready for alignment.

Problem. By the time that we got done, it was about 8:45. At night. dammit. 12 hours of suspension. And my alignment would hafta wait till morning. dammit.

Got showers, changed, and headed out to dinner. Got back to John's place, he showed me how to get to a relatively quiet road where I was able to bed-in my new brake pads. Then back to the house, got my "new" laptop finished up, then fired up the 360 till we were about passed out from exhaustion. Which took a staggering hour and a half, maybe 2 hours. He went to his room, I went the other way, and sensed NOTHING till I woke up this morning. Boy, did I feel this morning. Woke up, went to the alignment shop, went to lunch, went to pick up Ifitwasnt4u at the airport, dropped John off at home, dropped Mike off in my wife's hometown, and headed back to hang out with my wife and kids.

The moral of the story: the car got done (sans alignment) in one day. One really long day. One really hot, humid, no breeze, painful day. Oh, yeah: I learned yesterday that in-depth vehicle repair/modification has an evil way of makin a person feel REALLY REALLY old. I know. Cause I am that really old man right about now.

Pics are comin tomorrow, but brief description of the damage we saw: eng mount was totally ruptured, and the tranny had one rupture. Springs had some bounce left in them, but didnt really throw their mounts very far. my brake pads were badly worn: inboard was about 1.5-2 credit cards thick and the outboard was about 4-5 credit cards thick. The tie rod ends were dried out of all grease (Thanks for that grease, John).

John, I thank you once again for opening your garage and home to me and my car. From the number of components, the torque involved, and the facilities/equipment that I have available up here in Lufkin, I would NEVER have been able to do this myself. You saved me about 1,000 USD and MANY hours of head-scratching. You not only helped me fix my car, but you also helped to take care of my family by keeping their only mode of transportation safe and highway worthy. Helluva lot of fun down in Houston, learned a WHOLE lot. Thanks many times over.

Pics tomorrow.

lol ... so how do you feel old ?? and let me know what you think of everything

I felt old because yesterday, and a good portion of today my entire body was sore. I felt older than, dare I say?: Slick.

As for the performance? Not what I was expecting. Yeah, all the slack was removed from the suspension. Sure, the road noise and binding noises were gone, but everything is smooth and tight again. The car doesnt feel old anymore. Yeah, I still have plowing, diving, and squatting under harsh conditions, but I really didnt do too much by way of high-performance, now did I? it was all OE or better rplcmt. The STBs will help with the plowing, when they get installed. The GR-2s sure help with dampening the ride. I think I just might go with lowering the car in about a year or so (when I cant remember the soreness this project caused) to try and tighten the car up even more. Perhaps a 1.3" drop.

Here, as promised, are all the pics I got.

Starting out


Rear struts out


All struts out


Front sans struts


Both sways out


Rear re-installed minus trailing arms


Continued due to pic restrictions

Continued from above

Old eng mount


Old hubs out, new hubs in


Yeah, they're Timkens. You can now begin drooling.


Front ready for brakes


GMPP trailing arms in, OE out (look for breaker bar inside of inverted OE trailing arms)


Old tranny mount


As I said, I am now considering droppin the car to stiffen up the ride. Still pending is my fwd STB and aft slots with HPS pads. The only reason my fwd STB isnt installed right now is because I dont have the STB plates. That means the following are still on the procurement list: aft STB w/adapter plates, fwd STB adapter plates, control arms. My aft slotted rotors are due in during the latter half of SEP. guess I just hafta wait.

While I didnt net the gains I was looking for, I certainly netted the restoration I was looking for.

Thanks to EVERYONE here who helped me decide what application to go for.

you did all that work.. and NOW you want to drop it... lol

Congrats on getting it done!

hum now im wondering if i should get the gmpp kit .... hum....

gmpp kit is only slightly better than stock... If you're looking for corner carving buttery goodness, you need something better.

Rick: you are very welcome sir... There are days I miss wrenching on cars and then there are days I wish I was in better shape.

what would you sugest slick??

Nextlevel/Speedbuilt from www.pfyc.com or BMR

SpeedBuilt are supposedly better and would've been what I got had it not been for having a friend that was getting rid of his BMR's.