Sitting at the muffler shop bored as all hell waiting to get my Toyota welded up, whatchu up to car wise O?

I did this yesterday, but I only got the pics up today, so here we go!

Car's jacked up for reasons.

what is that accordion looking part

>Using jackstands
>>Not living dangerously
Come on user-Sama~ it's like you enjoy living or something

Doesn't help that the car sits quite low, and is quite heavy at 3500 lbs.

Off comes the wheel for me to find that soaking the sway bar links in 1000000000 gallons of penetrating oil has done nothing.

The original plan was to try and use bolt cutters to get a bit of leverage and possibly keep the threaded bit from spinning around in the bolt, but there just isn't enough space to work with there. This is the top part, where the most space is present.

Muffler bearing

...and here's the bottom piece, where the control arm is basically exactly in the way. Looks like there's going to be an angle grinder in my future.

Tack weld the bolt to the frame then tap the welds with a chisel a few times. Make sure the weld is Piss hot and fast. It won't stick well

That's a shock, not the frame. I'm just going to grab a grinder this week and lop it off. Nothing of value shall be lost.

This is Saab's super-schnazzy battery cover. It, the battery, and some other stuff needed to be removed for this next job: motor mounts.

Dusty dusty battery, but the terminals are in nice shape. Strangely, this one has a different shape than my old 9-5, where they jutted out flat rather than at an angle like this. I can only assume this is the original design.

Which muffler shop OP?

Tfw work at muffler shop in SC

Deceptively, this bolt came out easily. The battery holder thing, however, had been installed upside-down by somebody at some point in this car's history. It cracked upon turning the bolt, thankfully staying intact enough to be used again.

With the battery out of the way, a few fuseboxes had to be unbolted and one needed to be pulled aside. Some videos show a short bungee latching to the little framepiece that holds the main harness plug, but that means putting some strain on the brake reservoir, which is not desirable in the least, so I hooked it around the hood framepiece. The battery compartment has this very cool drain that would've been nice to have in my Taurus when it was leaking coolant every which way and collecting in the battery compartment. You can also see, just behind the coolant hose, the motor-transmission mount in question.

Tfw this came by.

PT cruiser, rusted to all hell with a ratchet strap holding up the tank

I wonder if this was a factory option

And here's a better view of the mount. These bolts were not nearly as corroded in place as the links, probably because the battery and other gubbins are in the way of weather and rain and sleet and salt and stuff.

On a PT Cruiser? Not sure if that was the case, but I have seen a Neon with a similar arrangement. Just before the framepiece he had secured the tie-down to fell off, of course.

Old mount's on the left, new one's on the right. The old one had not only collapsed, it was on the verge of breaking apart into three pieces, which I've heard of happening on other 9-5s. The transmission had to get jacked to the point of the car lifting slightly just to get the thread in for that nut in the middle to go on.

Brad's muffler in luggoff
Where you at?

This was the next side to attack, the big main motor mount holding the aluminum brace in place. This one was the one that led me to realizing how bad the motor mounts were, because I could feel it move back and forth a couple of months ago when I was changing the serp belt. Straightforward stuff, just unbolt and away it comes.

New one on the left, old one on the right. Again, the difference is astounding. This mount is kind of like a primitive version of Citroën's and Mercedes' suspension spheres, except there's no fluid component, it's just an air bladder holding a hard rubber piece with a thread on it. The old mount's bladder had collapsed, so it could just wiggle back and forth.

Even though I didn't get the sway bar links done, it was still a great day since one of the biggest annoyances on the car had finally been fixed. The difference is visible, too: it sits a full inch or more higher than it used to, and the whole car rides and drives much, much more smoothly than before.

This is what the engine used to look like, for reference. Not sure how much of the difference you can see, but it's definitely sitting a lot better now.

Oh Jesus boys they got me good
Someone done boxed the frame

...

Jesus the rust

Gadzooks, it's Martian soil at this point.

I hate northern cars

On what type of car would you generally recommend an exhaust upgrade? Say up to 3" diameter piping, mandrell bent, etc

Say I get a Celica GTS, will it make it sound nicer? I don't want the fart can crap but would like a nicer note when I accelerate.

Also how much does a job like that run at a shop? I know sometimes you can get bolt on kits so you don't have to weld and can do it at home.

Trying to decide how much I want to spend on a water filtration system for washing my car. I currently have no water softener or anything and the water from my garden hose leaves horrible water spots after rinsing. Even if I try to dry with a shammy it has dreadful streaks that take forever to get out with quick detailer and a microfiber towel. I can't decide if I just want to spend $40 or so on a cheap filter that mounts on the end of the hose, or if I want to spend more like $150 and get the nice wall mounted dual filtration system and be done with it.

>crush bent piping

Jesus your FACE AHAHAHHAHAHHA *snort* AHAHAHAH

>boat shoes
>with socks

please tell me you don't do this in public

>saab autists derail the thread again

...

Literally save your shekels and replace the muffler with a different brand. If you want it louder get rid of the cats. All that other shit is for power and full exhaust from the motor back sits 1500 to 5K

Replaced a lower control arm

Muffler shop of Columbia. My friends used to go to Brad all the time until I got the job at the muffler shop.

Pricey indeed. Is there a muffler that isn't a fart can or looks retarded? Cat removal is okay in my state as well so that's an option.
Also I wouldn't mind doing the whole shebang for more power but not for more than 1500.

Oil filter and oil turned up today. Change happens at the weekend.
I think 10L of oil was too much, but I figure it's better to have some left over than to end up not having enough.

Is that on hewjee/huger Street?

Looking for some dank wheels and coilovers so I can drop this bitch VIP style

Yup that's the one. I'm usually there from 2-5 weekdays. My car is a green SC300

Oh word. Your owner shit talked me to my face 5 years ago so I never went back. Fuck that douche wagon.

I used to go to Brads Mufflers, now I only go to Muffler shop of Cola. Seen me around?

I discovered a small hole in my rear driver side tire today. I got it patched for free.

Besides that, still waiting on a couple shipments. Just some rice stuff.