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PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 10:38 pm 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 3:53 pm
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Location: Nashville, TN
Year and Trim: 82 GP
The Regal is finally getting some much needed love and attention. It really needs a new shell without any rust and a lot of work to swap things over to really solve the issues it has. In the meantime however I have decided to do what I can to make the car last a while longer and make it more enjoyable for me. There is so much rust that the car has been hiding though that it's only a matter of time before I go down south and found a replacement. I thought I'd make a thread for all of the shenanigans for kicks and giggles.

So those who have been following it may remember that I almost got rid of it a few years back due to the rust on the rear strut towers. I was hesitant that I would be able to do anything to fix it since it's in such a hard to get to area. Recently though it had been making a lot of rattling noises. I really like the car so I decided to take a crack at it to see what I can do to keep it road-worthy before the snow hits.

Some before:

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The result was surprisingly good. I didn't get many shots of it during, but here is the end result:

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So what you're looking at is one of the entire edges of the strut tower was rusted full of holes so I cut the whole thing out and welded in a new piece of thicker steel.

This little piece of angle iron is what I think really made the biggest difference though:

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shoutout to my brother Matt for the idea.

That was done to both sides and even though the mounting plate felt really stiff on the car without the rusted section, it must have been flexing really bad because the car feels 10x more stiff now going over the bumps and is much quieter.
I may go back and add another piece of that angle iron to the other corner of the strut tower mounting surface too because my next suspension thing to do will be lowering springs! They are in the mail now so I may end up installing those during or before the October shindig. I also picked up a set of the anti-pogo washers as well and am going to look into making my own spacers for the engine/transmission mounts.




Between now and the next few months the Regal will also be getting a few other updates:
- the aforementioned lowering springs
- replacing of the factory monsoon amp with my Kenwood 4 channel amp.
- extra sound deadening all over the interior
- new seat heaters for the front seats. the factory heaters have never worked since I had the car and I didn't want to mess around with resoldering them every few weeks.
- Some homemade rust protection using oil and wax.




The icing on the cake for me is that the car is getting a newer set of snow tires that I picked up on craigslist for dirt cheap. They're going on my white buick wheels this time instead of the 5 spoke pontiac wheels I had been using before.

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Those are Blizzak WS80's with about 9/32" of tread left. The old Blizzak WS70's were amazing but they're down to 4/32" now so it was time for them to go.

All of the parts are on their way now, but I just need to find the time to get it done. This car is going to be so much more enjoyable to drive this winter now!

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2009 Chevy Silverado 2500HD crew cab, 6.0, Z71. The project mover.
2002 Regal GS: 3.4 pulley, E85, and quicker than my old 99
1982 Pontiac Grand Prix L67, T56, GT45, T56, Holley EFI; It's pretty quick Mod list here


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 12:08 am 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 3:53 pm
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Location: Nashville, TN
Year and Trim: 82 GP
I got a lot done this weekend.


I started with the suspension:

rear subframe went down without a hitch or even a broken bolt!

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Old vs new lateral links:

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my at home alignment method using the bolts for the links:

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New lowering springs:

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old springs removed:

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Old vs new:

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these things were extremely easy to install. They didn't really put any tension on the strut assembly so bolting on the strut mount was surprisingly easy.

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I also added more braces to the rear strut tower sheetmetal to help make things safer with the higher spring rate springs:

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"anti-pogo" washers vs factory strut washers:

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I also made my own motor mount spacers:

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It seems to be doing pretty well with the ride now. the rear is so much stiffer now and the front feels pretty planted. I still need to go get it aligned properly though because it's all sorts of messed up right now.


Some before and after shots for the lowering:

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It looks amazing in person!




The next part of this project was the interior:

stripped!

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The carpet already had about an inch of heavy foam on it too!

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You can spot some of the new sound deadening on the rear deck here:

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I didn't get many shots of the progress here, but I went through 72 square feet of sound deadening. I laid it all over the floor and on the inside and outside of the front doors. The rears got probably a 40% coverage all around. The trunk also got a lot of it installed too.

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It's really a totally different car now. It's a night and day difference from what it was before. The heat even stays in the car for a while longer after shutting off the car. The sound quality from the sound system is so much better now as well.

Now it just needs an alignment, snow tires and an undercoating and it will be more than ready when the snow flies!

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2009 Chevy Silverado 2500HD crew cab, 6.0, Z71. The project mover.
2002 Regal GS: 3.4 pulley, E85, and quicker than my old 99
1982 Pontiac Grand Prix L67, T56, GT45, T56, Holley EFI; It's pretty quick Mod list here


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 1:00 am 
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Year and Trim: 1992 SSE
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Great progress!

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WHITE WHINE - 1992 SSE Supercharged 236.26 ci (.040 Over) 15.090 at 90.2 MPH on old engine w/ slipping trans & melted O2 sensor - Gen 3 M62 and matching TB, Gen 2 Pully, Zillamotorsports Ported LIM, YT 1.72 Roller Rockers, SII FPR & Injectors, Hypertech Thermomaster chip w/ 160 Thermo, TransGo Shift Kit, Infinity/Pioneer Speakers and 10" Subs, 1300 watts, 140 amp Alternator, Ricepipe CAI w/ heatshield, Pilot Angel Eye Foglights, Clear Corners, '02 17" Chrome Bent 5's, Magnaflow F-Body Muffler and Hi-flo Cat, Ceramic Coated Ported Exhaust Manifolds, Fan Override
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 7:07 am 
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Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 11:47 pm
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Year and Trim: 95 SLE
Nice job on the rust repair and spacers.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 3:09 pm 
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Looks great Ben!! Glad to see you didn't relegate the car to the scrap heap. She's got some life left in her.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:42 pm 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 3:53 pm
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Location: Nashville, TN
Year and Trim: 82 GP
Thanks guys! I know some of the rust repair isn't the prettiest but I'm sure it'll keep the car going for as long as I want it to. In all likelihood I will probably drive this thing until the wheels fall off since I like the car so much. That should take a lot longer to happen now that I braced those strut towers. :lol:

It has ~220,000 miles on it right now and if I can get it closer to 300,000 then I will consider it a success unless I find a better shell or something.

It's going in for an alignment this week and the snow tires are getting mounted this weekend, but I'll wait to throw those on until a little later in November unless the snow starts flying sooner.

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2009 Chevy Silverado 2500HD crew cab, 6.0, Z71. The project mover.
2002 Regal GS: 3.4 pulley, E85, and quicker than my old 99
1982 Pontiac Grand Prix L67, T56, GT45, T56, Holley EFI; It's pretty quick Mod list here


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:30 am 
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Location: Cambridge, OH
Year and Trim: 95 LeSabre Custom
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Car looks great in person and sounded much quieter than it did during Woodward.

Also, the spare seats made great chairs for the garage! :lol:

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1995 LeSabre Custom: 312K Miles | Custom K&N CAI | Edelbrock SDT Muffler | Camaro Tips | 180 T-stat | LED Interior
& Exterior | 20% Tint | PA Grill & Portholes | Limited Trim | GTP Rims | Ported LIM | Plus Many More Mods | Restoration Thread
2001 Bonneville SSEi: 225K Miles | Instense FWI | Intense MPS (3.4") | 180 T-stat | ZZP Plog | Ported Rear Manifold |
ZZP 3" Downpipe | Magnaflow Cat | Retrofitted HIDs | GenV M90 | GXP Brake Upgrade | 35% Tint | Plus Many More Mods |
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