Well it ended today, but started a little over two weeks ago:
-Installed new turbo mani including: mani>head, mani>turbo, turbo>s-pipe, s-pipe>j-pipe gaskets. One new stud on the turbo (thanks Korey!)
-fixed oil leak from when CS s-pipe sheared in half and baked the oil return hose, replaced hose with OEM and new gasket.
-removed radiator to have leak found and repaired, two weld locations when I got it back.
-Installed a MX-6 rear strut tower bar (write up coming).
-pulled all four corners off the car and finally set them all up properly, raised the front a little so the cutout doesn't bottom out as easily and lowered the rear a touch so that I didn't have such an insane rack, set all cambers equal so it could be aligned correctly.
-rotated tires and had the two with nails in them plugged (thanks Korey!)
-rebolted the passenger side mount on the rear sway bar again. I snap bolts off on that thing like they are pretzels all the time.
-and the achilles' heal of my repair work, fixed the transmission leak from the alxe seal. This actually went really smoothly up until I had to put the axle back in and it wouldn't go, on several ocasions over many days it would not go, several people who have all done this before could not get it in. So I removed the clip on the axle to see if that was the problem, it was. Decided to see what happens if you leave it off and installed the axle, went in easily. wheels turned, everything seemed fine. Nope, fluid started pouring out after I turned the car off. So me thinking of how rough I was with the axle trying to get it back in previously thought I probably knicked the new seal, luckily I had bought an extra, installed it and got the same result, fliud leaking out rapidly. Trail and error caught up to me and I actually tested the axle with my hand and could slide it in and out just a touch. I's slide it in and it wouldn't leak, slide it out and it poured. So I decided that the clip needs to be back on. No harm done, just time/labor, alittle lubrication, some skin off the knuckles... So I search NAPA to see if I can just get a new clip, nope. Today I sat there studying the clip and it looked a little off, might be the problem, so I grinded that little b**** down some. had to take a little off each edge then finally I got the axle clicked in. I don't know what messed the clip up, my diff broke a coupel months ago and I am thinking that or maybe I yanked it too hard removing the axle that first time and bent it a little.
still have little things to do like clean the mess that is my car and reorganize my tools, reassemble the rear deck too. All and all I hope everything is gonna hold together, but I still feel accomplished as I always do after working on her. If all is well then I will be dynoing the mani on Thrusday.