I don’t know how many miles are on the Silver Bullet, but at almost 40 years old, I know it’s seen a few. The ride had been getting pretty sloppy lately and the alignment was knocked way out from the front end rattling around. It was time to replace a few things. I wasn’t sure exactly how much would need to be replaced, but I ordered the parts that I knew I would need and figured I’d get the rest when I started tearing the car apart. I talked with Ireland Engineering about suspension setups and settled on Bilstien HD shocks and struts, Ireland Engineering stage 1 springs and polyurethane bushings all the way around. My brother lives near Ireland Engineering and offered to pick up the parts on his way up for a visit.

Loaded with a bunch of parts, I drove the Silver Bullet up to Petaluma to work at Jen and Seth’s. We figured we could do the front and rear end in two days, and wanting to have the option of getting parts as soon as possible, I took Thursday and Friday off to do the work.

We started with the front end and soon discovered that I needed new tie rods, a center track rod and ball joints. Everything was still original, which meant we had to drill out the rivited on ball joints. We took the control arms to a machine shop for some help.

By the evening the front end was back together. On Friday we debated for over an hour on how to disassemble the rear end without dropping the car on the ground. After deciding to trust the jack points, we got the rear subframe out only to discover that I have the early long neck transmission. That means the mounts are different and the bushings I ordered would not fit. The subframe mounts did fit though and suprisingly, the rest of the bushings were not too bad, so they were left for now.

In went the rear springs and shocks and as we lowered the car, it settled quite nicely to be about 1.25″ lower than before.

The alignment was completely off since we just eyeballed it and the drive home Friday night was one of the scarriest experiences I’ve had. But on Saturday morning I headed to the tire shop and had Yokohama Avids put on the car and an alignment. Their computer didn’t have the 2002 in it, but I pulled the alignment specs from the 2002 FAQ and they used those.

Amazing! It’s a new car!

 My car finally came home today. 3.5 months later. I have a lot of trim work to do.

The Silver Bullet finally has paint. I should have it back Thursday or Friday if all goes well.

My car is back to it’s pre-accident state. On with painting!

After working with the insurance company since the 10th of December, repairs finally began late last week for my car. It was difficult for them to accurately determine the value of the car and the first adjuster missed a bunch of damage in his initial estimate. But everything seems to have worked out after the threat of totaling the car and Kwan at Beyond 2 now has it at his body shop. Once the bodywork is complete, he will keep it for a bit longer so it can also be painted. I figure that while it’s gone, it might as well get the remaining of the exterior work finished.

Also, I supposedly have a new, crack free dash showing up any day now that I can install when the car is returned.

I should have progress photos of the car in a few days.