Centralia or Bust! ......Delilahs build

[GC89]

Way too long of a project............unfortunately It has gone through just about every counter productive set of limitations there is:

Ample time to work on it ===============> minimal funds
Ample Time // moderate funds============> no access to a work location

and now

Ample (no such thing as truly enough) funds====> minimal time


Two steps forward one step back...................
Ordered a new rack from autozone. They had the PPS version in stock online, lifetime warranty + the best price after 20% coupon.

box showed up like this

After opening I could see they use very supportive packing:sarcasm:

The lines were beat up and clearly bent where they enter the flare fittings, the other one was worse. On top of this it looked like they hardly cleaned the rack had reassembled and then spray painted over everything, grease, rust and all. They also spray painted over the boots new boots.

I assumed lifetime warranty meant they would put some care into the re manufacture and not want a high replacement rate...............appears I miss judged their business model.

I returned it to one of their local stores and after some snarky comments received a refund. I have a genuine toyota rack seal kit on order and will be rebuilding it myself.

 

[kakanator]

wow that vatozone reman part so sweet lol. That sucks sir should have checked out rockauto.

 

[supraguy@aol]

Bought mine from Advance for a great price after online rebate. Mine was in slightly better shape.
Good call on rebuilding your self. Hey when you get a chance, pm me your address. I need to ship you out that console cover.

 

[GC89]

wow that vatozone reman part so sweet lol. That sucks sir should have checked out rockauto.

Rock Auto does not have any PPS units in stock, the only option was shipping to cardone having them rebuild it and then send it back to me. It was also more expensive.

Rebuilding is the cheapest route anyway and based on my experience with other reman racks I will put much more care into it and end up with a better product when done. I also have a sand/soda blaster, a powerdercoating setup and a mean case of perfectionism so it will come out looking brand new .

Bought mine from Advance for a great price after online rebate. Mine was in slightly better shape.
Good call on rebuilding your self. Hey when you get a chance, pm me your address. I need to ship you out that console cover.

I checked advanced but they didn't have a good promo or rebate at the time. PM Sent.

 

[supraguy@aol]

Didn't get the PM?
::shrug::

 

[GC89]

Re-sent, not sure what was up with it. Didn't see it in my outbox either.

 

[GC89]

Been slacking on updates although I have slowly been making progress here and there. Finally was able to finish up putting up lighting and a few other things in the 4 post bay. Car is on the lift and blocked up, only getting one day a week after work to put towards the car atm.

I also started removing a few thing on the road to dropping the sub frame, tems, shock bolts, sway bar end-links, motor mounts. Unfortunately I could not find the 'key' to my gorilla lock lug nuts and had to order another. Not being able to get the wheels off halted progress a bit. Should be here any day so I can get rolling next time I make it out.

also had a few parts arrive

Next up:

Build brace to support engine
remove wheels, calipers, brake lines
drain ps
disconnect steering shaft

 

[GC89]

Got some work done on the car before/after the Hawks game yesterday.

I threw this brake together for supporting the engine while I drop the sub frame. I had some old strut top mounts laying around which worked great.

I was able to get the motor to set up and give me about 3/4 of an inch on both mounts, so I should have no problem getting the sub frame back up.

Not much else to show but I received a replacement wheel lock key and removed the wheels, brake lines, calipers, rotors, steering shaft, cracked the upper/lower ball joint nuts and drained the ps fluid. The sub frame is ready to drop as soon as I figure out how to remove the abs sensors, I put some pressure on them and they did not want to move.

Going to try to get the subframe out later this week and begin the disassemble/cleaning process. Has anyone removed abs speed sensors before that can provide some insight?

 

[GC89]

Realized my last couple pics didn't work, they should be fixed now.

Had a few more parts show up. Snagged a brand new fan shroud off the forums, thanks steveaw11!

Also had my rack rebuild kit show up along with new targa seals....for a rainy day.

Going to try to get some more work done this evening. Hoping I can figure the ABS sensors out, the tsrm is less that helpful.

 

[GC89]

Made some progress last night. ABS sensor came out after hitting them with wd40 and twisting while making sure to only apply pressure to the metal bases. Also drained the ps fluid, removed the steering, shaft ps lines and misc other things that were still hooked up.


Finally was able to drop the front sub frame.

Pulled the rack to take home. Im going to media blast the exterior before disassembling it to keep contaminants out. I was hoping to also take the hubs homo degrease/prime+paint and the lower arms but the ball joints were being stubborn and it was late.

Lots of cleaning and prep work ahead. Also hoping my bushings from Ronnie show up by the time I am ready to put this back in, hes been MIA lately.

 

[supraguy@aol]

All of your recent pics don't show up.
At least not for me.


(Once you fix this issue, I will be editing this post to say "Great work, looking good!")

 

[GC89]

Did that fix it?

If not which ones are not showing, the last post or several?

 

[Billybob9187]

I can see the ones in 290 but not 289 and 288

 

[GC89]

Ok, Hopefully all fixed? Been trying to link pics straight from google photos since my phone automatically uploads them but it is a pain.

Whats everyone else using for photos? I used to do photobucket but I hate having to add them just to embed them somewhere.


Also can anyone who checks out this thread comment if they are not able to see pics and mention the post(s) # for me.

 

[GC89]

The slow but steady progress continues.

I was able to get the sub-frame out from under the car and stripped down. Seems like one of the common things I always see is people mentioning that you should always plan on purchasing new camber bolts and that its pretty common for them to have to be cut off. Mine came off easily with a quick hit with a rattle gun and and couple taps of a 2x4. They look great and had nearly zero corrosion. The Upper arm bolts were the same and the zinc/cad plating is nearly perfect.

Next step is to pressure wash the subrame and lower arms and pick up some gloss black epoxy paint. The bushings in the lower arms arent terrible but they do look their age. I am planning on pressing them out and ordering a set of whiteline poly bushings this week.

I was planning on just ordering new dorman uppers considering how cheap they are on rock auto. I have seen a few posts stating that the ball joint design on the aftermarket arms is inferior to toyota though, this has me wondering if I would be better off cleaning my arms along with pressing new bushings in and repacking the ball joint boots. hmmmm???????????

 

[GC89]

I also sand blasted my rack and its ready for fresh paint and to start disassembling. And I brought home a box full of other parts to blast and paint or powder coat.

Took a pretty great ride up a local mountain the other day off work as well. Gotta soak up the gorgeous fall we get here before the temps drop too much. Thought it was worth sharing.

 

[Billybob9187]

I still cant see 289 and 288 nor 295 and 296. Maybe there set to private in google pics.

 

[GC89]

There I went back and moved all of the pics for the last two pages to photobucket and re-embeded them. I'm done with trying to get google photos to work.

If anyone still cant see any of the pics let me know which ones. Thanks


Oh and not much new to report............did an initial cleaning on the hubs with a wire brush. Going to start on the swaybar links, camber bolts ect tonight hopefully. Little at a time.

 

[Billybob9187]

Pics are coming in now and everything looks great. I like the lift you have. I need one of those in my life. How tall is your garage or shot ceiling?

 

[GC89]

Its my pops shop so I cant take much credit other than helping set a lot of it up. Mine is 20x24 with a 10 ft ceiling, his is 60x60 with.....18ft ceilings maybe, Thus why I chose to do it there despite having a 25 min commute.

He also has a 2 post lift in one of the front bays which would have actually been much easier to drop the sub frame but I knew this project would take a while and didn't want to tie up his main work bay.