Bits of MEANSVT2 in Oklahoma....
So Don, MEANSVT, posts in the Midwest forum saying he wants to return his SVT, which used to belong to elderceces, back to stock because he is going to trade it in towards another vehicle.
Suspension, lights, shifter, etc......all need to go and stock parts back on. Here's Don's car in its prime:
So I tell Andrew (02AllBlackSVT) and Jimmy (Phacade) about this and we all decide to drive the 3 hours to Wichita to do some part swapping.
A little after 8am Sunday morning, Jimmy and Andrew show up
We waste no time getting Jimmy's car in the air to remove the stock parts:
Wait.....is that Jimmy working on his car?
Andrew's car is looking a little bare there as well:
We had a problem with the rear lower control arm bolt on Jimmy's car because it was frozen in place. No matter how we tried, we couldn't get it to budge. So instead of breaking the bolt accidentally, we had to get a spring compressor. We went to Autozone to rent an internal spring compressor........which was too long to work. So we took it back to try a strut spring compressor...........which wouldn't reach the spring coils due to clearance issues with the control arm.
THEN we drove to Advance Auto Parts to look for some different compressors but had no luck. FINALLY we went to O'Reilly's Auto Parts and found the PERFECT compressor for the rear springs. Once installed, the rear springs compressed and came out without a hitch!
After getting all the stock parts removed from the cars at my house, we headed out the door to meet Don in Wichita........at 12:00 PM...........almost TWO HOURS later than I was wanting to leave. DAMN CONTROL ARM BOLT! :lol:
We got into town at 3pm and it was a madhouse of 4 guys all over an SVT like vultures over a dying armadillo. Two people working on the suspension, one on the lights, one on the shifter.......it was just a bit chaotic.
Why looky there......it's Jimmy working again on ANOTHER silver SVT, this time he's putting the wheels on Don's car after we installed the stock SVT suspension from Jimmy's car:
2 1/2 hours later, MEANSVT2 (or as I like to call it, 46&2, since it was elderfeces' old car) went from this:
To this:
Just a little bit higher ride there huh? :lol:
We gassed up in Wichita and headed back home by 6pm. We spent twice the amount of time driving to Wichita and back that we did in Wichita itself.......
Back home by 9pm and back to work we went. Jimmy and I started on the suspension while Andrew installed these:
Just a LITTLE bit of improvement from the old, wouldn't you say?
After about 30 minutes, we had the new suspension on Jimmy's car. Stock SVT suspension:
TO........H&R Cup Kit:
LOW.......RI......DER!! :lol:
Jimmy also got the Focus Central STS out of Don's car as well in trade for his stock shifter.
So, in the end:
Andrew traded his stock SVT lights plus his stock airbox (Don needed the airbox since the Vortech was removed) for ST170s.
Jimmy traded his stock SVT suspension for the H&R Cup Kit, his stock SVT shifter for the Focus Central STS, AND he bought some stock tail lights off Don for $20.
And what did Sonic and Ataru get out of the trip? 400 more miles on Sonic's odometer and a fun, busy, and a bit tiring day with some good friends and a chance to meet a cool Jetter in the process.
Was it worth it? Most definitely.......
Total money spent on all the new parts? $20 for the tail lights that Jimmy bought. The rest were straight swaps. Thanks Don for helping out some fellow Jetters make their rides a LOT cooler. :thumbup:
