Wow, time flies. I put the front end back together completely and torqued everything to spec. The car is still sitting in the barn.
We ended up taking a sawzall to the bushing on the bottom of the rear damper, so it is free to move around. Next, trying to pull the strut assembly out, I was told to remove the outside bolt on the lower control arm, lower the arm and pull the strut assy off. Would have worked great, but that bolt sheared off as well.
Sick of dealing with the Minnesota rust, I called a friend who does mechanic stuff on the side and he is going to come look at it on Tuesday and see what can be done. I'm tired of trying, then failing and messing it up further. I want it to be on the road.
For Yule my parents got me one thing off my list: Hella 500 driving lights.
Once it's on the road I'll get those installed.
Just got a text today from mechanic friend and he said:
"If I got my hands on a well cared for but 300k mile eg vx would you be interested in a straight trade?" He doesn't know a lot about it at this point but I could glean this:
Pros:
Great fuel economy
Awesome 90's teal paint (red is my least favorite color)
Only option is (broken) A/C, aka crank windows, manual locks and steering, etc.
I trust him and he's not the type to screw someone over
Cons:
Even for a Honda, 300k is a lot
Ren's D16Y7 will be more fun
No pics yet and condition of chassis is unknown
I've already spent almost $100 in parts on Ren- not a lot, but I didn't pay a lot for it either
Notes:
Hail damage and some rust- sounds cosmetically similar to Ren
It would be great to have a car that drives right off the bat, and a straight trade may give me that. I don't know if it has any issues.
Any preliminary comments on the VX?
PS- I took an EG around the Nurburgring in Forza awhile ago and it was very, very fun! Seems like it will be a very tossable chassis. The Mk1 GTI in the game was quite accurate to real life, and those two hatches felt like FWD brothers to the Z432 (if I am allowed to compare its holiness).