My Rusty Beater: Update #2

Replaced: dented front fender, hood latch, headlights

In order to replace the fender, the following needed to be removed: front bumper cover, one headlight, and the right rocker panel. Here was a "kill 3 birds with one stone" situation.

Old parts off, ready for new

Fender

When I bought this car, it had a dented front, right fender. It had always been my plan to replace it. So I finally bought a new, primed fender from Ebay for $57. It showed up with a few small dents in it. I complained to the seller, and since they did not have another in stock, they refunded my money, and said "keep it"...not asking for it back. I decided to still use it, as they were small dents, and it was an improvement over what was on the car. I painted it with rattle-can, gloss black rustoleum ($7) and it looked fine. I also painted the grill, satin black. Which after 20 years, was simply faded, unpainted plastic.

Dented fender, before and after

Hood Latch

Since the bumper cover was coming off, I replaced the hood latch, ($28) which has a contact switch, and electrical connector. This tells the computer that the hood is closed, and allows the car alarm to be armed. Since the old one was very dirty, and gummed up, it was not telling the computer that the hood was closed, So I could lock the car with my fob, but not set the alarm. The latch was easy enough to access, with the bumper cover off. The new part fixed it. Now... when locking/unlocking with the fob, the parking lights flash, indicating that the alarm is working.

New and old hood latch

Headlights

Since I had to remove one headlight anyway, I decided to get a new aftermarket set from Ebay for $75. I had originally restored my headlights, but even so.... these looked better, being new. I also added a bead of silicone caulk ($4) around the housing/lens union, as this was chinese made, and I decided to take charge of quality control, to prevent the occurrence of condensation.

The brand new headlights, seen with the patina paint, contrast nicely IMO

Total cost of parts in this post - $121

Coming up next: Oil pan and flexpipe

My 2005 Scion xB: Update #2

Complete exhaust system replacement

2005 Scion xB

15-year-old, original exhaust, time to go.....

I noticed about 6 months back that my car idled louder than it had before, so I figured a hole rusted out somewhere in the exhaust. I got it up on a lift, and felt exhaust puffing out the top of the muffler. So I ordered a direct fit Bosal muffler. However upon trying to remove the old muffler from the rest of the piping, it snapped off just upstream of the muffler connection. (The whole pipe was probably rusted thin.) Ok,... I guess I'm replacing most of the exhaust. I ordered the rest of the system from the downpipe to the muffler. So I got downpipe, cat, resonator, muffler, hardware, gaskets, and piping for about $350 total.

Old muffler visual inspection

On disassembly, the pipe broke, on the upstream side of this connection

The OE stainless steel muffler lasted about 15 years before the seam came apart.

The old spring bolts, between the header and downpipe, wouldn't budge with my big breaker bar. So I bought a 1/2" drive, 1200 ft. lb. impact wrench, from harbor freight for about $280. Worked like a charm, and now I will have this tool handy for other stubborn bolts down the road.

The old exhaust parts

The first round of new exhaust components - $350

First attempt ended up being a "manufacturer fail."

The Bosal muffler was fine. However....The center section made by Eastern didn't fit right (supposed to be direct fit). It was a subtle thing. I didn't pick up on it right away. The spring bolt connection (female end) was not made to the proper depth, so it leaked, and was louder than it should have been. I wouldn't be able to see the nature of the problem, unless I mocked it all up, off of the vehicle.

Second try at new exhaust system

I decided, if my exhaust manifold was going to come off, for a mock-up to check fitment, I would replace it. So I found a brand new, 4 into 1, DC Sports-type, stainless steel header, for the bargain price of $98, from some private seller, on Ebay. Not sure what brand it is, but it is SS, nicely welded, with thick flanges.  Plus I ordered a downpipe, cat, resonator, and pipe to the rear axle from Davico ($294), to use instead of Eastern, keeping the Bosal muffler. Confirming my suspicions, the Davico was made with a deeper receiver on the downpipe. It looked like it would work fine, and it did.

the 16-year-old OE manifold with the new aftermarket header. 

I'm using stainless steel zip-ties to hold the shifter cables away from the heat.

There is no heat shield, and the primaries take up more space than the OE

The car does sound a little throatier now. Especially at cold start. Probably the header. Fairly factory sounding though, not too loud.

The new header is NOT meant to be a performance thing. It's just the cheapest option for the factory manifold I could find. The rest from the header-back is just meant to be factory. Even though I do have a short ram intake (and now the header), A performance cat-back alone, would run me at least $750, so I decided to pass on that, since we are not talking about any big power numbers.

I happened to have a chrome tip from an exhaust on another car, so I am using this to extend the tailpipe past the end of the bumper cover. You don't want exhaust gases released underneath the car. I had to get someone to weld it on, as I don't weld yet, but I will be acquiring that skill soon.

Project = success

Costs

Header   $98

Cat-back   $295

Muffler  $115

miscellaneous hardware  $15

(OE cat recycle  -$70)

Total - $453