Lawson's 818C

  • Rear Suspension:
    • Prepped and painted the rear brake mounting plates. I removed the rusty dust shields from them which seems to be a common thing to do when they rust out.
    • I installed the rear wheel bearings, e-brake assembly, and hubs. This went pretty smoothly as the process was similar to the front wheel bearings. The e-brake assembly is a little finicky to put together but it’s not very complex.
    • Cleaned up the rear rotors for re-use.
    • Installed the trailing arms, lateral links. Bolting them on was much easier than removing the donor parts!
    • Assembled the Koni shocks and FFR forward links.
    • Waiting now on a few things to finish the rear suspension.
      • Engine install. Because the rear shock tower has to be off in order to put the engine in.
      • Trans LSD swap and installation into the car. Has to be put in so the axles can be mounted with the spindles all in one go. It doesn’t look like there’s a way to install the rear axle without disconnecting the upper links of the spindles.
      • I haven’t made the rear axle yet. I still have to disassemble the donor rear axle and make the frankenaxle from FFR, donor rear, and donor front parts.
  • Front Suspension:
    • Installed new inner and outer steering tie rods.
    • Fixed the ball joint boot by replacing the whole ball joint with a Moog unit.
  • Engine:
    • I got some good forum help on the remaining missing components.
    • Ordered a new knock sensor because my donor either didn’t one or I tossed it at some point because it was broken.
    • Ordered a new boost control solenoid because my donor’s was broken. I remember it dangling down by the axle when I disassembled the front of the car and now I know what that component was. I’m sure that was one of the 1000 things that contributed to my donor running poorly.
    • Finished connecting all the remaining coolant lines. PCV lines will be finished once the intercooler goes on.
    • Engine should be ready to go in next weekend (I hope)

  • Bearings installed


  • Links/trailing arm mounted on the frame


  • Pulled out the wiring harness to send to iWire


  • Repainted rear mounting plates


  • E-brake assembly and mounting plate reinstalled


  • Steering done!