Time for an update to this frustrating little project, so here's what's been going on.


My Skunk2 upper arms recently arrived, after ~10 weeks of being back-ordered. I also picked up a set of Ingalls adjustable rear upper arms.


The Ingalls arms were quickly installed.


I finally got around to adding washers to my ST sway bar. Exciting stuff here.


SPC adjustable compensator arms were delivered by a man in a brown truck, and these gave me some trouble.


The passenger side went in smoothly...


...but the driver's side was not willing to go quietly into the night.


This bolt seized in its bushing, and before I realized what was going on, the nut on the other side was forcefully removed from the track it slides in. I had to operate.


I cut a hole in the bottom of the car so I could get in there with a new nut and bolt. This picture didn't turn out so well, but you get the idea.


To add to the frustration, I ordered Konis and Ground Controls with GC upper mounts, and they took more than 2 months to ship. I am told that the GC upper mounts were the cause of the delay, because I wanted the grey ones. That wasn't enough though, as more setbacks follow.

Astute observers will realize that the springs in the below picture do not match.


Allow me to explain. When I ordered the Ground Controls, I based my choice on what I "thought" were the spring rates currently installed on my car. A long time ago, a fairy must have whispered in my ear that Skunk2 coilovers have spring rates of 400/300, because that's what I believed for quite a while. With this in mind, I asked for GC rates of 450/350.

However, the day after I ordered them, I got an idea in my head that I should go out to my car and see if I can verify anything from the markings on the Skunk2 springs. Turns out that S2 coilovers have spring rates of 8 and 6 kg/mm (448/336), and on top of that, the shop that installed them for me back in 2002 put them in reversed. I had been riding around with the higher rates in the back for almost 6 years and didn't even realize it.

With this new information, I decided that I wasn't going to be happy with 450/350, so I ordered up a pair of 550 lb springs that I would put on the rear, and I'd use the 450s on the front. ... But then GC sent me the standard rates of 350/250, which are completely useless. Kevin @ Panducky has spent the last two days trying to get it straightened out for me, but it seems that GC just doesn't care, and 450lb/in springs are in short supply. So in order to get the 450/550 combo I was looking for, I re-used the 8 kg/mm springs from the Skunk2 setup on the front. I tried to clean them up somewhat for the pic you see above.

Once I decided that I would use the S2 springs, I set out putting the new stuff in. I worked on the rear suspension first, this is a 'before' shot.


The rear was disassembled in short order. One of the rear shocks is clearly blown, no surprise really. Don't buy Tokico blues. These are the springs that I ended up using on the front Koni shocks, I think they cleaned up pretty good.


Here's the rear finished.


The front was next, though I forgot to take a before picture.



The GC upper mounts are a nice addition to the engine bay.


This weekend I am planning on installing the Si steering rack I got from a friend in Rhode Island, along with the new tie rod ends, then it's off to the alignment shop.