I know these are 40+ year old cars, but dang, every time I make a plan, it gets complicated. Do a quick factory disc brake upgrade. Well, one rotor is crap, need a new one of those, might as well get new calipers too, they are cheap. I guess when I break apart those 40 year old ball joints, I should replace them, only about $20 each (times 4) Replace the springs while they are out? maybe, price $90-180 depending. hmmmm, look at those upper control arm bushings, the rubber looks all extruded out and missing in some areas, can't really wiggle them, but maybe I should change those........ while the ball joints are out. Oh, can't, the damn headers are in the way of the nut. Wow, look at that, the headers are also about 1/8" away from a brake line and within 1/2" from the proportioning valve there on the frame, I should relocated that valve up to the booster. Wow, I guess then I need to replace the brake line going to the rear since it ends down on the frame now. Looks like all the brake lines need to be swapped now, just to be safe. You know, it would be a lot easier to work on this stuff if I just pulled the damn engine, so that I can get the headers out, so that I can get the control arm bushings out, so that I can route all the brake lines. Ya know, if I'm going to pull the engine, I should just detail the engine compartment completely. Better pull that heater core too, hate to go thru all this and have it fail in a year..... Good lord, this car is never going to drive. I need to hire somebody to do my job so that I can play with my car.
Sound like its beer thirty there. relax and have a few. don't trip it will be worth it once its done:beer
happened to me this summer with my truck. One ball joint went bad. figured I'd replace all 4 while I had the truck and a spring compressor, then ended up replacing the control arm bushings, then the sway bar bushings......figured the cost in parts was better than the cost on my knees and back wrenching it all apart and back together a couple times. Have a feeling it'll happen when I start on my skylark this winter.....
I completely agree but wouldnt have it any other way. There is nothing I enjoy more then spending saturdays working on my buick. Of course, maybe spending a saturday driving it would be fun too.
No such thing as a free lunch I guess. Total front end overhaul is just part of the 40th year car service. The car will ride better, and the tires will last longer when it's done.
I can totally relate and understand, "been there" !! (May) brake upgrade,2 weeks later, right caliper freezes up. month after that brake booster goes out. (SMH and Lol) and now this past weekend the tranny goes out. So relax, take a break, and come back to it later. We're all with u..
"nothing" is easy. It's when you do stuff it get hard. :laugh: Doing anything on these old cars is like playing chess. Have to think 3 moves ahead. Just the way it is.
Am I missing something? All these years I thought that's the way it was supposed to be :grin: I guess I just expect this stuff, speaking from experience I suppose, but I like to plan for it. It's like pulling a driveshaft and replacing only one u-joint. Who does that? o No: Anyway, when I did mine I just planned ahead and did it all. All new springs, shocks, ball joints, tie rods, bushings, steering box, disc brakes, the whole chassis basically, that way it's all done. Now I spend my time driving it rather than working on it all the time :3gears:
I know the feeling. :eek2: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=223863 I wasn't going to do half this work when I started, but like you said, hate to have something fail a year from now that could have been done the easy way when everything was apart:idea2:
thanks guys, I guess it was mostly just the control arm bushings that frosted my cake. I planned on doing most all of that stuff anyway, ball joints, brakes and lines, but when I saw the control arm bushing and realized that I only can do that with the engine out, it just set me off. I would love to fire this beast up and drive it just once next year. I guess I should quit complaining, I did only buy it 11 months ago. So far I have done... Complete rear end overhaul with bearings and seals, added posi, new bushings all around, boxed control arms, sway bar, new everything on the brakes. Complete new trunk floor installed. Gas tank in and out, sealed and pressure tested. Repaired and replaced with metal all the rust around both front and rear windows. Have a th400 waiting to go in. Have front disc setup from ball joints out to dust cap all cleaned up and ready to install. Lots of other parts just sitting and smiling at me waiting to be assembled. Been a pretty good year, but I need a couple good solid weekends of work on it. Peace out. Jon
Been there. It pays off in the end. My control arm bushings were bad. I went the same "well, while I have this apart, I may as well replace this too" route. Ended up rebuilding the whole front and rear suspension. Gather all of the parts you need to do it all. The cost of parts can climb easily, so gather a little each week if you have to. Figure out what tools you'll need and if you have them or not. Then plan it out in stages. For example, I planned mine by weekends. One weekend I would do the front and another weekend, I would do the rear. Saturday I would do the drivers side front, and Sunday I did the passenger side front. The next weekend, I did the entire rear on a Saturday, double checked everything on Sunday morning, and was driving it on Sunday afternoon. It was like driving a completely different car.
