Saturn Renovation/Redo (It's not black either)

AllBlkdOut07

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Made some serious progress on Saturday and Sunday(today), would've had all four struts on and maybe the pcoated knuckles and rotors if it weren't for a problem retainer. Thanks to Dan and his buddy for lending a hand.

Pics kinda suck, was more concerned about the work needed to be done on the car.

My friends and I spent over 4 hours trying to keep this lousy POS retainer on the passenger side from spinning while trying to loosen the passenger side cradle bolt. We tried vice grips, demolition bar, screw drivers, adding small pieces of 1/8" steel to try and keep the square piece from spinning...etc even PB blasted the hell out of it. We finally got it out by clamping down on it with a C vice clamp.

retainer2.jpg


Wasting hours on one damned retainer clip pissed me off. I have an anger issue and while cutting through steel plate to make a small piece to throw in there to try and jam it up, at the end instead of slowing down I kept sawing at a high angry rate of speed and slammed my finger into the vice, it hurt like a bitch and I thought I broke my finger. You can see the blood in the nail, the swelling has since gone down lol. There's the culprit, a mangled retainer.
retainer.jpg


Jig I made to hold engine while we dropped the cradle...worked perfectly.
jig.jpg


Passenger side dogbone area looks NASTY.
mmmmm.jpg


Replaced the upper engine mount (TAM), notice the old crappy 'sad face' TAM I removed. Apparently this 'sad face' TAM is known to be of a poor design and fails quickly, I could fit my finger inbetween the rubber and metal bracket, it's supposed to be tight, no gap.
tam.jpg


tam2.jpg
 

AllBlkdOut07

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Ugly, rusted cradle.
oldcradle.jpg


New cradle with everything bolted up to it.
newcradle1.jpg


newcradle2.jpg


newcradle3.jpg


I love the Harley Black Pearl powder on the sway bar, in the sunlight it has green and blue metallic specs in it. Too bad under the car it'll just look like dark grey/black. The antique silver vein looks good outside too.
newcradle4.jpg


Cradle ready to go in.
newcradle5.jpg


It's in.
rap.gif

newcradle6.jpg


Me tightening the bolts on the trans mount. I got like 4 shirts on, it was cold out in the morning but warmed up later in the day.
me.jpg


Monroe Gas Struts, Monroe Boots/Bumpstops and Progress Springs ready to go on next weekend.
strutssprings.jpg
 

AllBlkdOut07

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Rear cross member, newer trailing arms and AMR sway bar also installed, pics were too dark to show, I'll get better ones. The only issue is the passenger threads on on the frame for the cross member need to be chased out couldn't get a bolt more than halfway in.

Also, I need a passenger side cradle retainer in good condition, which I'll have to find off a salvage yard donor car.

Every bolt and nut was wired wheeled before going back on the car. I know it has a long way to go, but it will look a million times better than it does now when it's done.

All I need to do now is weld on the bodymount for the dogbone, since this is a newer cradle and the mount no longer bolts up to the cradle. I managed to get one from a saturn forum member who was nice enough to cut one off a spare car for me and send it over.
 

Black02Silverado

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:thumbs: Looking good. Yeah, tried car-parts. nothing local and freight would be out of the question for something farther away.
 

AllBlkdOut07

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You got some serious work done
Seriously!

:thumbs: Looking good. Yeah, tried car-parts. nothing local and freight would be out of the question for something farther away.
Shoot, sorry about that. Well, sometimes salvage yards will agree to send you just the fabric or leather instead of a whole seat. Is anything salvageable on the seat he has, i.e foam, frame of the seat? Otherwise, keep looking one will show up eventually.
 
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