01/10/01
- BFG Drag Radials (255/50/16)

I threw these on an extra set of salad shooters I got off of Ebay for only 30 bucks! Damn they hook good!

03/13/01
- Cat. Convertor lookin' Off-Road Pipe

Finally got around to doing this. All I did is cut the forward end of the convertor off and rammed a 3" piece of galvanized tubing down inside it. Then I had a buddy weld a 3 point flange on it and close up the end. It looks totally stock on the outside still.

03/22/01
- MAC Lower Control Arms

As easy as it sounds to put these on, those 4 bolts are still lots of fun to take out due to all the rust and dirt on them. Use a wire brush and plenty of WD-40 prior to removal. It'll make it easier.

05/14/01
- MAC Panhard Rod

Haven't really noticed any difference, but I don't generally take my car to it's limits as far as driving in the twisties goes.

08/06/01
- Driveshaft Loop
I should have done this a LONG time ago. I've heard all the horror stories and even witnessed the kind of damage a driveshaft can do. One benefit of waiting was that Jeg's finally makes a loop for our cars that fits great. And it only cost me under $40 shipped compared to the $100 BMR or Metco piece. Just 4 nuts and bolts. Remove the rearend of the driveshaft and slide it on up to the front. You'll have to remove the seats for this also and the console. This is a two man job. One tightens nuts on the bottom and the other gets to run his/her hand under the carpet and hold the bolts in the holes. Takes about 2 hours start to finish.

08/22/01
- Suspension Techniques Springs

Here you can see what a 1.75" drop looks like. Check out the gap between the tire and fender.

I thought I could get this done in an afternoon. Well it turned out to be a major 2-day ordeal. The rear springs are cake. The fronts are another story.
I started out on the driver's front, and had trouble getting the strut mount off due to severe corrosion in the top of the strut mount. It acts like a dirt/water trap, and rusted out the threads on the end of the strut. I tried to buzz it off with my impact gun without cleaning the threads off very well and damn near ruined the whole strut. Tap and die set fixed it though. I still managed to tear up the strut mount and had to make a run down to a local junkyard and pick up a used one. TAKE NOTE: A NEW strut mount costs ~$90 or so, but I got an entire strut/spring assembly from the 'yard for $25. The strut mount consists of a metal frame encased in rubber. The hole that the strut rod runs through has a long shim in it. That shim "welded" itself to the strut rod from all the corrosion and I couldn't get it off. Ended up spending about an hour doin' some serious grinding on it with various Dremel and air tools to get it off.
After you get everything back together, I highly recommend filling up the inside of the strut mount with either grease or RTV (I used RTV) before re-installing the assemblies so next time around hopefully you won't have to deal with the corrosion.

10/07/01
- Subframe Connectors

This should have been one of the FIRST things I ever did. My subframes are not name-brand, but after talking to other people, ANY subframes are better than NO subframes. They definitely make the suspension do more of the work instead of all those bumps in the road getting absorbed in the chassis of the car. You can also visually tell the difference when jacking up one corner of the car; less twist in the frame.

03/11/02
- Update
I've recently acquired some Spohn LCA Brackets. Also found a used Granatelli MAF for cheap on the 'net. Seat-o'-the-pants feel? None, if anything maybe better off-idle throttle response.

My factory Bose CD player also took a dump a couple days ago. It's been acting up for the last year or so, and doesn't like to take CD's. I think there's a gear or something stripped in it. It just clicks --- click, click, click, while it's trying to pull in the CD. If I'm nice to it, I can coax the CD in. Well, it's jammed now and I can't even listen to FM on it. So that'll have to be pulled for surgery. Hopefully it's just dirty inside or something, as I don't really have the cash allocated right now for a new stereo. That's in the future mods list. I want to replace the whole system with an Alpine deck I found and 4 good 6 1/2" speakers and join all that with my MTX sub and amp. That should pound good enough for me. :)

08/01/02
- New Balljoints, Poly A-arm Bushings

Can't say enough how much FUN this shit was!! It SUCKED actually. My car ended up on jackstands for 6 days due to work, etc. Luckily I had a next door neighbor that works at a machine shop and he pressed in the new balljoints for me. I installed some PST poly bushings in the lower A-arms as well. Very messy job. I just used a torch and burned out the old bushings. The book says to press them out, but after so many years the rubber just welds itself in there. Once I got everything back together it took some finagling but I got it all back to where it once was. The car still steered like crap so I took it in for an alignment at Firestone. I went ahead and paid for the lifetime alignment under the advice of others, and forgot to give them the custom specs I wanted. -1.1 Camber is the biggest thing I wanted, everything else was good. They set it all back to factory specs (-0.5). Now I remember how much the car sucked in the handling dept. And if memory serves me right, the edges of the tires wore quickly that way as well. I went back to a different Firestone recently to have them set the specs I wanted, but I could tell right off the bat that I wasn't gonna have anything but problems from this guy. "You should take it back to them." "Fine." So that's what I did. I also had some popping noise coming from the front right side since I had them align the car. I put a wrench on EVERYTHING and couldn't find anything loose. Very baffling and frustrating. Finally had one of my friends look at it and they mentioned needing more grease in the balljoint. Even though I had put 9-10 squirts in there, it wasn't enough. I finally squeezed almost an entire tube between both joints and all is well now.

08-02-02
New Wheels and Tires
Girdle

- Woohoo!! Got them from a guy on the 'net in a For Sale board in F-Body.com for cheap! I was going to get ZR1-style or 10-spoke SS wheels, which I think are BOTH great lookin' wheels, but I scored a set of what I REALLY wanted anyway for about the same price as a new set of ZR1's or 10-spokes. I found a LOW-mileage set of Torquer 2's (17x9) with some Kumho 275/40/17 tires on 'em for $1,200 bones. Not bad in my book. All I can say is it pays to be patient, and you'll get what you want at the price you want it.

I also got a girdle recently in the mail from a guy for cheap, it was new also. I just installed it today. Not only does it LOOK great, it serves a purpose to help strengthen the differential.

08-09-02
- These Wheels KICK ASS!!

Can't give enough praise on how much of a difference these A.R.E. Torquer 2's make my car look over the stock wheels. Now I just need some more power to back up that "Terminator" look. hehe

08-17-02
- Steel Braided Brake Lines

Just got some Earl's Stainless lines installed. They weren't all that bad until I got to the front. The front right side would NOT come loose! I fought with the nut on the hard line for an hour, then resorted to vice grips and that didn't even do it. I finally gave up and busted out the 'ole Dremel tool and buzzed it off. Then I found out that autoparts stores don't sell pre-bent lines only straight stock so I had to bend it all myself by hand. I purchased a tubing bender but that was only good for the first 3 or 4 bends, then there was no way I was going to fit it within the tight confines of the engine bay. Of course the parts store didn't sell ONE line that was long enough to get to the front right side, so I had to splice two lines together. I re-wrapped the new line with the old spring-wrap that was on the original. That definitely aided in no kinks when bending the lines by hand (carefully). I managed to get it all in, and it doesn't look too bad after all was said and done, although I did manage to get some nice blisters from doing the spring-wrap by hand.