Some weeks suck

 

I guess this week did have some redeeming qualities - I spent a day brewing, for example. But there has not been a lot of progress on the car just lately. I'm a little bit stopped on the rear suspension as I need to get some time on my uncle's shop press, installing the bearings and hubs in the rear knuckles, before I can bolt them up to the various arms.

But I have been stealing a few minutes here and there to get these brackets painted. These will also bolt up to the rear knuckles to allow the connection of some adjustable control links for the independent rear suspension.

Front suspension - check!

So, as noted earlier, the sway bar I was waiting for showed up from the Subaru dealer the other day, and I spent some time putting it in yesterday. This required partially disassembling the suspension I put so much effort into previously, and it was a complete pain getting the bushings compressed into place, but it did all go together. And then I reassembled the front suspension again.

It's not truly 100% yet, as it would be meaningless to adjust and torque everything until it has wheels on it and it's supporting its own weight, but all the parts are on the car.
 

Parts day!

 Well, the replacement sway bar showed up today. I had ordered it online from the local Subaru dealer (cheapest place I found it, oddly), and the parts truck just drove up and dropped odd the new bar and matching bushings. Here is it in comparison to the bar I took off the donor car - the donor part is both wider and thicker, and has several mounting points on the ends, where the stock part only has single mounts. I have no idea what the donor part is, but it seems to be some kind of go-fast aftermarket part.

I believe that this is the last piece I need for the front suspension, so at the weekend, I'll be putting all of that back together.

To the rear!

Well, I am stopped on the front suspension for the moment. I've ordered the correct sway bar and the bushings it needs, but until it gets here, the front of the car is stopped. So I moved to the rear end.

This is a trailing arm off the donor, bolted up to the chassis. It's really very satisfying when I can actually put parts on the car.

 Next up, the toe links, which will allow adjusting the toe angle of the rear wheels. Again, this uses the link from the donor car, and it mounts up with this both with an eccentric head and a matching eccentric washer.

I knew I had saved these eccentric bolts and washers, but they were somewhere in a box of donor parts, so I had to dig through the shed a bit to find them. As a backup plan, I had found them from a local Subaru dealer's parts department, but it turned out that I didn't need to go down that road.

And then the forward lateral links got bolted up. This is the right side of the car, looking forward. Where those three arms come together is where the rear suspension knuckle will live. There are a couple more arms still to add, and of course a coilover on each side.

For now, I have a bunch of spacers and brackets to paint, and I will need to press bearings and hubs into the rear knuckles.

I need to buy the bearings and hubs.

Too hot in the shop today

 I got an early start in the shop today, because temperatures are just stupid - it was 83 degrees when I woke up before sunrise, and aimed at 110 this afternoon. I knew that if I was going to get anything done, I had to do it early, before it actually got dangerous.

So I pulled in the spacers from the paint bench, and I got the front shocks reinstalled.

 More of the spacers were earmarked for the steering rack brackets, so I got the rack bolted to the car as well.

And I even got the steering rods connected to the front knuckles!

Unfortunately, I then discovered that the sway bar from the donor is an aftermarket piece that does not fit in the kit. I have a line on the correct sway bar, so I will get that ordered up this weekend.

By the time I got all that done, it was too hot in the shop, so I had to call it a day and go do other things.

Shocking News!

 I got the Koni coilovers for the front suspension all assembled and ready for install

 And then I got them mocked up in the front suspension.

And then I took a bunch of spacers and a bracket out to the paint bench for corrosion protection!

So not a giant update, but progress is still being made. Once these are well painted and dried, I'll be able to mount the coilovers for real, and get the steering rack bolted up, too!