I have a white 90 with a decent amount of rust underneath. I picked up the car for 300 bucks and it had a bad water pump that caused a CPS to fail. replaced the water pump, CPS, timing belt, front main, 2 cam seals, plug wires, and 5 out of 6 plug wells were full of oil so I pulled the valve covers and put RTV on them then replaced the plug wires because of a pesky misfire. the car had basket weaves on it with 205/70/15 pickup tires that were retreads (didn’t even know you could get those anymore). A set of slicers was includded but all 4 ties were slashed which was a shame. So I installed my 17" rims on it.
sweet so for less than 1K I have a nice looking (inside and out) car to roll around in… well not just yet! The previous owner worked at a car audio place and removed ALL of the speakers, head unit, factory amps, and hacked up most of the wiring for them. I decided I can live without because I enjoy driving a stock reliable (or so I though) car. Once I got the car started I realized 2 things 1 it had a fuel leak from the fuel filter which ended up being clogged and 2 the car has no exhaust after the resinator. So I fixed the fuel leak, then tied up the exhaust and did the only thin any self respecting SHO owner would do… I took it out into my storage unit parking lot to do some burnouts in the gravel 
. after a couple min I realized it was smoking. WTF now what. There is water spraying from the upper radiator hose. go to the parts store and get that swapped out in the parking lot. Drive it home and it is still steaming. This time it is from a crack in the driverside of the radiator. OOPS I mis diagnosed that one, but that is ok because the old hose was really mushy anyway. installed a new radiator. Sweet this car rocks its pretty quick, shifts nice… ooohh look a saturn ion wants to race. I threw the car into second gear and go for third and I broke my shifter. the bushing popped out on the cable shifter. I didn’t have any tools so I crawled under the car and put her into 3rd gear and drove home. A couple zip ties and i’m back in business.
A couple weeks later I am chasing my friend in his highly modded audi S4 around a highway on ramp and I am gaining on him and right at the top of the ramp I see a complete smoke screen behind me. I lost power steering. Apparently the pressure hose to the rack was resting on the rear manifold and melted. WTF I threw a barbed fitting in there with some nasty hose clamps. This fix worked very well on the street despite being a stupid way to fix it. A few weeks pass and a track day was approaching. So I decide to put my 13" brakes on so I swap out the spindles with the gen 2 set I have laying around and wouldn’t you know it the spindle bolts come right out! 30 min later i’m putting lug nuts on and I didn’t notice that one of the lug nuts was cross threaded. The impact gun turned that into a problem in a hurry 
well $90 in tap and die set later that was fixed.
Fast forward to track day. The barbed fitting failed… well actually the hose failed the barbed fitting did its job very well seeing as there was still a layer of rubber on it. I completed 3 more sessions without power steering. a few weeks later I replace the bad P/S hose and properly secure it. A week later the 13" rotors were cracked all over so they were junk back on with the 11.6" rotors
At this point thing are going well. there are a few things I deal with daily that are not a big deal like the blower for the climate control being on high even when off is selected on the EATC, and the no radio thing. and the tapping that the throw out bearing makes at idle. Well that didn’t last long I was power shifting the car one day and on the way home something in the clutch started making a hell of a lot of noise and vibration at higher RPM. I though ahh crap I broke something so I of course made a thread about it then I bought a stage 1 clutch from shonut, ceramic TOB, and a 8 lb flywheel from shosource.
the MOD list begins!
since I was replacing the clutch I felt it was only logical to replace the rear main seal and rod bearings (pics to come later). since both CV shafts had ripped boots I replaced both axles, and I replaced both ball joints since I wanted to upgrade the strut rod bushings on all 4 corners on the car. while I had the struts out of the car for the clutch I bought a set of koni struts and eibach springs. 2 rear sway bar links, and polly sway bar bushings front and rear, and since I had a H-brace sitting in my closet I figured I will install that while i’m in there… what else can I do to stiffen up the rear end? BMR rear lateral arms 
. To compliment those I will be installing my subframe connectors that I have had for over 2 years collecting dust.
so to recap a bad TOB ended up with me buying/installing the following
stage 1 clutch masters clutch/pressure plate from shonutperformance
8lb flywheel from shosource
ceramic TOB
extreme duty engine mounts front and rear from shonutperformance
2 ball joints
2 rear sway bar links
2 CV shafts
BMR rear lateral arms
H-brace
subframe connertors
ALSFB
replacing front and rear sway bar bushings
strutrod bushings on all 4 corners
koni struts
eibach springs
how is the project going?
I will skip the boring details about how I removed the transmission and the massive amount of swear words emanating from the garage from me and my helper joe. Subframe is on the ground, along side the transmission, flywheel, and the surrounding battlefield of tools. I excitedly brought the old clutch and flywheel inside my house to compare with the new parts. I immediately notice a HUGE difference in weight between the old flywheel and the new which is always a plus, I then take note that the old clutch was nearly new. This confirms what the previous owner stated. the old clutch disk was 9.75" while the new clutch master clutch was only 9 3/8". baffled by why I would be installing a smaller “performance” clutch into my car I shot a email off to shonut who I am still waiting to hear a response from to see if I received the wrong clutch. I got impatient and I want to drive my car so I began reassembly of the clutch and transmission. I decided on keeping the old clutch since it was nearly 1/2" larger than the other. The decider on this was reliability. I will be hammering on this and I don’t want to have to change it again in 25K. I understand that the clutchmaster one is a higher friction disk but since it is smaller it needs to be clamped harder to outperform stock, so I used the HD pressure plate with the stock disk in hopes of satisfactory performance. I assemble the clutch and install it in the car. I go to lift the subframe and I realize there is a problem. the hole in the ALSFB is too small for the subframe bolts to go through!. WTF I grab the ONLY drill bit I can find which is a 1/2" paddle bit designed for wood and hog the alum out to a useable size. Back to installing the subframe.
transmission and subframe are installed: Time for some rod bearing action.
cylinder 3 and 6 were already at the bottom of their stroke so I swapped those out first. I grab my breaker bar to rotate the engine and WTF it doesn’t turn? I give it a good yank from under the car (of course being in the most uncomfortable position possible) and I hear a grinding noise. I look over and I see a glittery substance coming from my belhousing. the flywheel starter ring is rubbing on the top of the belhousing. It isn’t hitting really bad but it is hitting for sure so I plan on letting it clearance itself as long as the starter will still go in, and before you ask YES the flywheel is sitting flat against the crank and yes I put all the bolts in according to spec. I will include rod bearing pic later cylinder 1 was completely wasted with only 101K on the engine.
suspension.
Getting the rearward lateral arm bolts is nearly impossible! The sleeve had rusted to the bolt and I have only had success in removing 3 of the arms so far and in doing so… let me just say it is a good thing the new ones are adjustable
go to change the rear sway bar bushing put the impact on the bold clack clack snap "swearing* much drilling and a couple easy outs later I have a bolt with a hole in it that is still bonded to the body with liberal amounts of rust.
I have not even started swapping the koni into the factory housings yet. Oh and here is a kick in the balls. the car had a ceramic TOB in it already but the sleeve that the TOB rides on must have been worn out because it was sloppy. put in the new sleeve and it was a much fit. The ONLY thing that has gone well is the Y-pipe studs didn’t snap.
current status: not motivated
after I finish this car I get to pull the tranny on my turbo car ohh yay me!
*cliffs fuck rust, and fuck parts that don’t fit