i think it'll take more than a weekend if you're doing it all by yourself. you will definitely have to compress the springs in order to take it off the strut. the springs are about 4 inches longer than the full unloaded length of the strut so if you just take the bolt off, be prepared for projectiles. also the bolts for the lower arms in the front are only accessible by wrenches so make sure you PB everything 30 min b4 you start. be prepared for much beer drinking and swearing. also the bolt for the back lower arms in the front end are a bitch to get out because they slide into the subframe when the nut is off. make sure you schedule an alignment with a shop as i presume you're doing your tie rods too. i'd love to come help you as i've done all of this on my car but you're rly far away and i have midterms lol. best of luck to you man, i hope you have a spare car to run to the parts store for random stuff or a beer run

 

I appreciate all the positive feedback I'm getting. I figured as long as everything was going to be apart, I'd be able to kill 4 birds with one stone. I'm trying to formulate a plan right now on the best way to attack this bitch. I was thinking about trying to knock out the CA's on Saturday at least and then doing the springs/struts and brakes on Sunday. I'm figuring 8 hours each day would suffice?

I guess I am to assume then that I can re-use the stock hardware? I can't be the first one to encounter this. Anyone?

 

you should do it in this sequence.

Day 1: take the brakes off first, take the CAs off and then take the spring/strut off. set everything up so that you will only need to put the car back together. then put at least 1 side together today.

Day 2: put the rest of the car together. start on rear end. take off the brakes first, replace them and put it back onto the spindle. replace rear spring/strut. the rear suspension is very easy to replace, only hard part is putting the combo back in where you'll have to do a lot of jiggling and turning of the strut so that it fits in the slot in the lower CA.


i reused stock hardware for most of the work. things i'd replace are the caliper pins, anti rattle clip for the front, tie rod nut, pinch bolt and lub everything up with anti seize. one thing to keep in mind is do not stuff the hole for the caliper pins with too much grease or else they pins lose their intended function

 

I appreciate the advice man. I really hate ot sound **** about the hardware issue, but like I said before I'd hate to cut corners. The Tie Rod nuts and Pinch Bolt I have included as hardware with the kit so no worries there. I guess your plan is as good as any and makes a bunch of sense. My biggest worry is getting everything back together once its all apart.

 

well something was bound to go wrong. I no longer have a garage bay to do my CA install. I'm tryin to line something else up. I'd hate to have to do this in a friend's garage without access to some decent tools.

F*ck my life