creep_nu

i agree with the others, just restore em as good as possible and let it go. if the new owner wants to upgrade the headlights then that's on them. very likely won't be noticeable once you get them cleaned up and clear coated anyways

you'd be surprised how easy it is to remove the bumper--mainly those little pop clips holding it on, and with a $10 pair of pop clip pliers from harbor freight, it takes....10 minutes? maybe 20 minutes the first time? still, luckily you wont have to worry about it.

excuse me, i think i need a new pair of pants. looking awesome there, excited for the build to continue

all the wreckers(at least around me...) just recycle cats, don't sell em to the public. i guess liability or something like that.

Got the other front control arm in this morning, and I have to say the mevotechs are quite nice. Definitely firmed things up a touch, but that may just be due to the old ones having almost 160k miles... worthwhile upgrade if you're replacing ball joints and/or bushings.

Look on YouTube, there's a bunch of reviews out there. Looks like the parts generally fit okay, but the bumper is folded when it's shipped so it's not going to be perfect and you're probably going to end up with some paint damage. For an accident repair I'd go for it if you just need something cheap, but you probably won't be happy if you're looking for perfection

i've got something similar to this for my older car. works pretty good. usually within 1-2 PSI on what you see on a pen gauge. might not be the most elegant solution, but it sits on the dash out of the way and works just fine. and it'd be a whole lot easier than trying to hack the ECU and cluster to get it working, if it's even possible.

fair enough, i'm of no help then.

any particular reason you can't get some shipped in from overseas? can't imagine it'd be any cheaper to buy 2 sets of lines to cobble together one set than it would be to buy a specific set and pay the shipping, and then you'd know you have a set that works.

that hurts to see. GL with the replacement, still excited to see where this goes

yeah my thought with replacing an engine would be to get the head gaskets and everything done anyways while you're already in there, and that that point you might as well do that to the original engine and save the $500-1k of a new block. if you spun a bearing or the block itself is warped or something like that, sure, but otherwise unnecessary. with OP stating there are "issues to the internals", i'd get more information from the shop and see exactly what they mean before just hucking a new engine in.

yep, just depends on what you want to do. i spent the better part of 50% of the value of my car refreshing my engine and clutch and etc not too long ago, and will be spending some money soon on paint work. does it make financial sense? not a lick of it, but i plan on keeping this car forever, and the investment makes sense from a sentimental and longevity standpoint in my books. dropping that money might not for OP, and he might be better off ditching the car and using the $4k or whatever plus whatever he'd get for a trade in as a down payment for another car, just entirely depends on their situation.

eh, even a reman is $2500, and there's no guarantee that the overall faults are fixed and you'll have a bulletproof transmission going forward. add in the cost of labor and you're at 50%+ of the value of the vehicle. financially, does it make sense to drop that money on a 7 year old car with 100k miles?

Got the ball joint tool in late last night, so I ended up finishing up the passenger side control arm tonight. Bit of a PITA to get everything situated and lined up, but overall very straight forward and an easy job. The front end shimmy I had from 65-80 is gone, and the car feels a bit tighter. Excited to do the other side this weekend and see how it is all done.

Yeah, I tried going at the lip, tried getting something in the split in the knuckle to open it up a bit to release it. Beat on the (removed) control arm with a dead blow hammer to try and pull it out... nothing. And yep, I'm sure I will find it, always happens that way. Oh well. I'll get em installed tomorrow when the tool arrives.

Yes, I've replaced ball joints before, it's just seized in there.

Yeah I am, got a set of mevotechs. Just can't get the ball joint out to replace.

Well, I started changing out the first dead control arm, it was the ball joint that was bad not a bushing like I said. Got the control arm off, went to grab my ball joint puller and...I can't find it. Musta lost it in the last move...can't find it anywhere. So...new ball joint puller on the way, should be here Sunday some time. Fack.

not today, tomorrow morning, but i got mevotech front control arms in since one of my bushings is basically gone so i'm gonna get them installed. in my eyes if it's not detailed how-tos one big post would be fine. makes it easier to read

between head gaskets and the better part of a thousand dollars in stuff i've got sitting around waiting to go on, and needing tires for the wheels i have sitting around i'll be around that $6k mark too. on a $10k car(at the most). ugh.

gotcha. i used a "2k" clear coat, basically a 2 part automotive paint clear coat.

there's tutorials all over youtube on how to polish headlights. chrisfix's is pretty straight forward. you can get cheap wet/dry sandpaper on ebay and a cheap foam polisher set for your drill if you don't have another polisher. for the paint...i don't know what brands yall have in aus, but your local hardware store should have a selection of clear coats, some should say UV protection on the label, that should work just fine. my last outback had gnarly bad headlights, took a few hours and did this one day, sprayed a few coats of clear on there and they were crystal for another 4 years. cost about $40 in materials all said and done, and i still have heaps of extra sandpaper still lying around.

we're all here to help if you've got questions(and we know the answers!). if you're polishing out your headlights and not protecting the fresh plastic with UV resistant clear coat or other means they are just going to deteriorate again quickly. you can go through the process of sanding them down, polishing them up, and covering them in some paint protection film, or use a UV blocking clear paint and the clearness should last for a couple years.

the shifter bushing and shift stops are *huge* improvements to the shifter feel, definitely recommended.

that's what happens when you use one engine for all your vehicles.