Ok so with a little more time, I was able to look underneath my car and notice the broken upper control arm and blown out bushings. I decided it was too much for me and I took it to a shop (SB Automotive in Downey, CA). That place is great! Bryan is a cool guy and treats customers right! They took a look at my car and came up with the following which needs to be done to my car:
1. Replace upper and lower control arms
2. Replace motor mounts
3. Replace trans mounts
4. Replace inner and outer tie rod, front pass side
5. Replace lower ball joint, front pass side
6. Replace ebrake cables
7. Replace oil pan gasket
For all of this including parts, the total cost would be $1610. When they told me that I was like
so I talked with Bryan for a while, then thanked him, payed, and left. I was already set on selling the car and starting over, but not a single person has replied to my craigslist ad (I guess I was too honest). So, I'm rethinking just keeping the car and spending some real money to get it running right. I went on to latemodelrestoration.com and got together the parts that I need. The total comes out to almost exactly $500. Now the question is how much will the labor cost me? I can do the trans mount, ebrake cables, and oil pan gasket myself (maybe on the oil pan gasket, I'm not allowed to make a mess in the driveway lol).
How much would someone say this labor should cost me? I'm looking for a conservative amount. Keep in mind I am a college student working part time.
If this plan doesn't work out I might be looking at getting this and having a monthly payment X_X:
which would actually be great, except for the part of shelling out $350-400 a month for 5 years!
1. Replace upper and lower control arms
2. Replace motor mounts
3. Replace trans mounts
4. Replace inner and outer tie rod, front pass side
5. Replace lower ball joint, front pass side
6. Replace ebrake cables
7. Replace oil pan gasket
For all of this including parts, the total cost would be $1610. When they told me that I was like
so I talked with Bryan for a while, then thanked him, payed, and left. I was already set on selling the car and starting over, but not a single person has replied to my craigslist ad (I guess I was too honest). So, I'm rethinking just keeping the car and spending some real money to get it running right. I went on to latemodelrestoration.com and got together the parts that I need. The total comes out to almost exactly $500. Now the question is how much will the labor cost me? I can do the trans mount, ebrake cables, and oil pan gasket myself (maybe on the oil pan gasket, I'm not allowed to make a mess in the driveway lol). How much would someone say this labor should cost me? I'm looking for a conservative amount. Keep in mind I am a college student working part time.
If this plan doesn't work out I might be looking at getting this and having a monthly payment X_X:
which would actually be great, except for the part of shelling out $350-400 a month for 5 years!
but I suppose the more I do myself, the more I save, and the more I learn. I'm definitely not touching any steering components though. As for the 
