My other daily driver!

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Both front axles boots were nuked. Also found the front rear trailing arms were toasted. Front axles from rockauto.

Look at these things.

 

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April 25: So things got serious. After trying to get numerous shops to drop my rear subframe to replace the aluminum bushings with poly I finally gave up and decided I would do it myself. The further I went, the worse things got. My poly bushings from years ago were toast. Rear toe arms done. Both rear oem axle boots torn and leaking. And one barely came out of the diff.

 

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April 25: Shipped the diff off to tmzpeformance and got to work swapping bushings. I initially tried to drill the aluminum out as you can see. Made a huge mess and the 10lb sledge and I got laughed at for trying. Neighbor loaned me his press kit which was a life saver! Something like this: https://a.co/d/d2ZnbGL

 

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May 25: cleaned up, painted, polished my OG Greddy power extreme. Scored a 3” mls gasket too. That’s vht high temp spray paint. Polished the muffler with 0000 steel wool and metal polish.

 

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May 25: well guess what you can’t buy any longer? Rear toe arms. Paul finally had some back on the site so started lighting money on fire. Got the boot kits and tool and learned how to installed those. Used the stock bolt to try and make the arms the same length as stock. Went ahead and installed the new prothane bushings on the rear trailing arms too. I’ll sell those later.

 

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May 25: Bought a rear DC strut bar. Removed and deep cleaned my JIC’s. Rear cover to be trimmed later.

If you have the front single bar DC strut bar hit me up, I’ll buy it right now!

 

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June 25: Few more weeks a check or two later: Scored some Volk rear LCA’s. Installed the covers on them as well. Again, tried to get them to the same length. Not shown, installed new prothane bushings every where else in the rear. New poly on subframe for the RM swaybar too. Sanded and painted both rear calipers. Sanded the rear bumper and skirts. Installed both new rear oem wheel bearings with all new hardware.

 

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June 25: sent the 2g rear lsd oem axles off to a local shop in Bufford GA. Turns out the owner Jon loves our cars and knew literally everything about our axles. After souring him another axle with a good inner cup, he completely rebuilt and reassembled to oem. I cannot recommend cv source enough!!! He only works on oem but trust me, go there.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

Like new!!!

 

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June 25: ordered and received new rear badges a I had made. The awd needs a redo. More sanding.

 

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Jun 25: After hunting these for years…found some used oem talon mudflaps!!! To be cleaned up later.

 

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Jun 25: Ran out of things to do waiting on tmz for the diff. Shifted attention back to the front end. Unfortunately, Volk did not have any lca’s in stock. Ordered some oem front lca’s and pressed in new prothane bushings. Did the upper arms as well and cleaned the JIC’s. All bolts got a got bath in simple green aircraft cleaner in the heated ultrasonic. I cannot believe how bad the inner poly was. Also, protip when removing those on the new arms, you have to fold the trim in with a punch and hammer and they only press one way.

This also cost me 45 mins of fumbling. The prothane bushing insert was the wrong size! Ended up using the old metal inserts.



MANY hours of labor here in these photos.

 

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Jun 25: After what I’ll describe as waiting very patiently, my wife was over me taking up the gym space (garage). Tmz finally returned my overhauled oem lsd in like new condition. It went in the same day.

Huge push to get the car on the ground and new fluid installed in the diff. I used exactly what Tim said, redline. https://a.co/d/5PEYHxY

Also installed new non-ecentric toe arms bolts. Everything except the driveshaft torqued to spec at ride height.

Pro tip: if you still have abs you will need a way to attach your wire to the new Lca’s. 32mm clamps are perfect. https://a.co/d/elUr9MJ

Kind of guessed on the rear swaybar heim joints. Could use some help on how to adjust those right.

 

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Aug 25: Grabbed an add a fuse, trimmed the cover so it would fit, and installed an aem boost gauge tee’d off my boost controller. My stock lid on my coolant overflow broke so obtained a used one. Bonus, it had the oem sensor! Cleaned that for a good bit and swapped it in. Like new!

 

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Aug 25: My sunroof’s drip tray was holding on by only one side for 10 years after the oem plastic screw hole exploded. It rattles like crazy. In comes a product called q bond. https://a.co/d/dXENBmc

It’s CA and baking soda which is amazing for fixing anything interior plastic wise. I used a bolt, a screw, and the aforementioned to make a new way to attach the drip guard. And it actually still moves with the spring!!!

 

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Aug 25: Passenger door window was rattling like crazy. Did the usual rattle fix. Stuffed some foam mattress in the plastic triangle too. A 3m felt for kitchen chair legs really helped on the upper inside pieces. Dead silent now at idle even with the poly motor mounts.

Got excited to install an extremely rare piece I’ve been holding forever but alas, it is for the driver side.

 

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Missed this somewhere back. Installed more soundshield soundproofing on the entire inner front doors and then went absolutely stupid and replaced my 5 channel amp. Out came the old amp to be reused in my wife’s cx5 and in went two new amps. Under the passenger seat I removed the passive crossovers and in went a 10 way active arc audio blackbird. I also installed all new 4 gauge grounds with ferrules, and power wires, as well as 3 sets of stinger 8000 rca cables from the dash, and one set of stinger 8000 rca’s and an amp signal to under the driver seat.

Car Audio | DSP Amplifiers | Blackbird Amplifier

Power, flexibility, and precision in one compact package. The Blackbird features 8 bridgeable speaker outputs and 4 DSP-controlled RCA outs, delivering 12 DSP controlled channels witn almost unlimited tuinng control. Ideal for OEM integration, active systems, or hybrid sub setups. Clean...

www.arcaudio.com

Shortly followed by its mirror under the driver seat of an arc audio nighthawk to power the JL W6.

Car Audio | DSP Amplifiers | Nighthawk Amplifier (Non-DSP)

Designed as the perfect companion to ARC’s DSP amplifiers like the Blackbird, the Nighthawk delivers reference-grade power without added DSP complexity. This 2-channel Class D amp produces up to 800W bridged, with ultra-low distortion, balanced inputs, and rugged versatility—ideal for subs...

www.arcaudio.com

Now every speaker is on its own channel and controlled by the dsp via pc. At some point soon the sound tuning will be done, and all the audio timing will be perfect. I’m slowly removing all the rattles and the car is really pretty awesome to daily drive.

 

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Speaking of rattles. Want a easy to do way to tighten up your doors? 10 mins with an hex wrench and I have brand new door strikers.

 

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Went back out this evening and to insulate the sunroof drain pan and upper roof. Ended up having to qbond the mount again and fixed the passenger side one which broke while removing the thin piece of metal. There is now insulation on the top (if you were to reach from the inside, bottom (shown), and beneath the drain that spans across. This was a huge improvement in addressing the roof rattle.

 

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So you bought Volk rear LCA’s but you still have ABS. Well how do you keep your lines out of the way? Simple. Buy these and use 4 of them and some stainless steel bolts and nuts.

Keadic Insulated Clamps https://a.co/d/iGBXl7R

 

[DogWhistle]

Enjoying the thread and your sometimes innovative solutions and sources. It’s impressive the way you can tackle purely mechanical projects as well as feel comfortable with the electronics too.

Thanks for documenting with photos too.

 

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Just came across the OG build photos so tossed them back in at post number 1.

One of the things I had to figure out without a welder was how to get the talon taillights to mount on the gsx body. Drilled the spot welds out from the talon. Carefully measured. Then I attached the mounts with self tapping screws. Primed and painted.

Was a huge moment when the tail lights turned on.

 

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I’ve been trying to find a new phone mount that doesn’t suck. This is the winner.

 

[LostInColorado]

I want to get a 2g for a daily driver!

 

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Time to upgrade the fans (hopefully for the final time). Friend of mine turned me on to these new proform brushless fans. https://www.proformparts.com/produc...ctric-radiator-fan-universal-12-volt-4200-cfm

Two 12” fans move an astounding 4200 cfm of air and do so with a soft startup. The soft start prevent the electrical system from seeing a huge voltage spike which allows me to run 100% off the stock wiring and and fusing. Previously, my spal fans required a 30amp fuse to stay running. All of this while being thinner too which should help keep them from melting due to the exhaust.

Part 1:

Rip the bumper off, drain the radiator, and yank it out of the car.

 

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I did the rest of the install on video. Like, Subscribe, and Enjoy!

Part 1: what are we doing here?

Notes from me video. Keeps the fans away from the exhaust, not radiator as a source of heat. Clearly you see how my ac fan was melting. I ended up using the cutting and grinding tools to get it whete I needed. Little at a time. Cut, try. Rinse, repeat.

Proform brushless fan install, part 1


Part 2: make it fit!
Proform brushless fan install, part 2


Part 3: update
Proform brushless fan install, part 3


Part 4: wiring
Proform brushless fan install, part 4: wiring.


Part 5: more wiring, close up
Proform brushless fan install, part 5: more wiring.


Part 6: Do they work? I swear to you this was not staged. You can see how dark it is as it took a while to finish refitting all the parts.

You should buy these right now.