We're on Boost said:

We're still going for a drive tho right?

Wait a sec though, the one picture where the crack has been welded and then it cracked again through the weld - is that somebody else's miserable experience with the same thing?

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That’s the crack gouged with material removed to see if it went all the way through.
No welds yet.

miliman13 said:

That’s the crack gouged with material removed to see if it went all the way through.
No welds yet.

Click to expand...

Oh I see, that's concave, not convex there.
Looks like done with a die grinder?

On a positive note at least you can drive all year round if you wanted to right?? No having to worry about dumb snow??

All the hard work will pay off for sure. It's going to be like driving a new car at this point.

jesse12345 said:

On a positive note at least you can drive all year round if you wanted to right?? No having to worry about dumb snow??

All the hard work will pay off for sure. It's going to be like driving a new car at this point.

Click to expand...

True , but I wish I got to see snow ️ every year in FL, it’s the one time having a AWD makes sense.

I’m hopeful it will feel like new.

That is true! I will say back in my younger not giving a crap years that awd in the snow was a ton of fun. Around here the salt just swallows them up unfortunately so they are parked all winter, zero fun.

Another positive note, at least you have a manual which is way lighter than that dump truck auto. Call me Mr positivity today.

So I dropped tranny, this low profile tranny jack is great, made the job easier.

Used a 4x4 fence post and ratchet strap to hold the engine up.

Nothing gets by me cuz I just noticed my case had been previously repaired / welded.

I kind of noticed this earlier in the year when I went to install the 3000gt slave and noticed I had to grind down some weld for it to fit.

Took it to a farm, got it welded for cheap- it was a struggle to find anyone who would weld cast, I’ve seen so many YT videos of skilled foreigners who weld trannies with them still installed. So I thought it would be possible in America………….

All but one refused and the gentleman who came to me failed to get it welded (tig).

So I went with what I could get and had it (mig)’d.

I also stripped all the paint off( along with some of my face ) no point in painting trans it always with time looks like crap, so I opted for the bare look.


I cleaned up the weld on both bell and end case, but then end case started leaking again thru the pinhole so I just put a lill JB weld in the whole and FINALLY the entire car bumper to bumper is 1000000000%
Leak free .

I also went ahead and got new boots for both the inner tie rods and the front lower control arms
The 2nd largest size is the exact fitment for the 2G front lower control arms.

When installing tranny I notice my only U bolt was to short.


So I ordered the cheapest hardware I could find, and the short bolt I replaced along with the extra bolts I ordered where the perfect thread to install that one lill front sub frame bracket….

Love it when things work out.


Had to steal the seals, TOB, and fork boot from Vader - the other car I have just to keep the unexpected cost down…… but I’m still gonna have to buy it all over again….
For the other AWD.

I had to do all this because the cost to get started to weld aluminum is Fuqn insane, it would of cost me 3-5x more than what I paid + buying the tranny jack. Cuz all I have is a flux/stick machine. Tried stick welding aluminum- with aluminum electrodes, it’s a lie it’s impossible to do.

And that doesn’t even include the argon tank, which in my area has been a depressing challenge to find at an affordable price. 300+$ for the smallest size.

W/3 she runs and she is back on her feet off the lift after 7-8 months.

When pulling her into bay I drove over a sand bag - to keep rain out and I’m convinced the passenger front shock is blown…….. you know cuz I wasn’t just there - yaiiii

Now that car is back down I re stored the sound proofing.

Trunk

Quarter panels

I managed to source the parts for a new sound system at low prices but I still some more than I wanted.

Had to make my own paths



Padding behind door speaker

Had to drill the oem bracket rivets to flip over the bracket on the driver side and to make a new bracket on the other side since the dash mount points are broken.

Had to install/remove the center dash like 10x to keep checking for proper fitment while I did this. This is because I wanted a single Din and the small space under the radio. And the kit i bought is plastic so I reinforced it with the oem brackets.


I’ve never had music in this car, I had a 2x Din Chinese unit with Pyle speakers and the sound quality was beyond terrible

Never been into music this is the first system I’m putting together. But I did pick everything based on the highest quality sound possible per my budget


I want something just for me, not the neighbors or people when I drive by so I decided on a 8” sub , this is so I can try to retain the factory space without having to add a box / losing my trunk space.

I see you had to weld where the seat mounts as well. Every car so far I had to weld that same spot. It was straight up rusted gone on my rs.

Is there any particular reason you ran all new wires through the doors? Someone did that on mine but they ran it through the rubber. I reversed it all but everyone has their own way so I'm not judging, just curious.

I may also steal that idea and run the sub on the floor. I hate not having trunk space and I'm not huge into audio anymore, I just collect it now.

Great job so far she's almost there.

jesse12345 said:

I see you had to weld where the seat mounts as well. Every car so far I had to weld that same spot. It was straight up rusted gone on my

Click to expand...

This was the 2nd time I had to weld it, I guess I didn’t get enough penetration the first time. But yes very common.

jesse12345 said:

Is there any particular reason you ran all new wires through the doors?

Click to expand...

yes theres is, the speaker wire I purchased is new and thicker, and I have to use new wire since Im routing the speaker cables from the amp rather than the head unit.

I want the cleanest sound possible.

I definitely get it. I know in my gsx I was able to get the bypass harness and run that to the rear to my 2 channel amp. It sounded great and since I was running the subs I didn't care much about the bass to the speakers.

Man now your getting me itching to get a sound system going again. Thanks for the motivation as always.

Sound systems are a part of the car "experience."

Especially in these cars it's almost a must.

I'm replacing all of my speakers currently. Why are the wires so small?!

Are they small or do I just have tiny hands?!?

Tiny hands...

Probably referring to gauge size. Unless you're running 100W RMS through each speaker, which a price comes with to do so, no need to go bigger - nearly unnecessary.

GIB said:

I'm replacing all of my speakers currently. Why are the wires so small?!

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From factory?
I thought the same.

Yes, small wires from factory. I'm not installing subs, but some upgraded interior speakers.

Remember, if you aren't going for a competitive level, they are most likely fine unless they are severely deteriorated and/or exposed.

Yeah I don’t know what I’m doing , because after all this time making everything perfect

I go to turn on radio and I have to max it out to hear anything and it sounds like complete …….
All quality parts toooo………………….


This is what I get for thinking I can have nice things

How do you have it all set up? What's the impedance on the speakers and what amp do you have? Check to make sure the polarity on one or more speakers is swapped.

jesse12345 said:

How do you have it all set up? What's the impedance on the speakers and what amp do you have? Check to make sure the polarity on one or more speakers is swapped.

Click to expand...

So I had to calculate the voltage output AC from the amp based on the speakers RMS by playing a 1khz tone for speakers and a 50hz tone for the sub.

This is how I adjusted the gain and I used my ears to adjust the crossover low/ high pass values.

And man it sounds sooooooooo gooood !!!


Originally I really wanted a retro head unit but this one doesn’t have the quality (db) rating the Kenwood unit has so I had to give her up.


I don’t hate how I can change all the colors on this unit and connects well without signal interruption.

The following are fitment mock-ups, I still have some work left to do, and I want to fill in the bare spaces too. And I can also hide the battery which is neat

I’m thinking of installing a fire extinguisher like shown and maybe also one that sits In trunk bewteen the amp and the sub that has hard lines to the engine bay - for emergency access - I say this because of what has happened to members on this site.


I just folded a random piece of fabric to cover bare space between the amp and sub
That’s why it looks bad - ignore all the little details.

Okay so you did get her all sorted out. It all looks really good, heck yes!

If you want to get fancy use an O-scope to watch for clipping.