Rust turned simple project into weekend long pain

So I decided that last Friday would be a good time to put my winter tires on the truck. It was also the opportunity for me to replace the old factory rear shocks with the new Bilstein's 5100s.
I had sprayed everything down with PB blaster Friday evening and the left rear shock came off fairly well. The right side however was a nightmare. The top of the shaft on the old shock broke off and after struggling for about 30 minutes or so I just cut the whole damn shaft off with the grinder. Rear was now done.

I knew my front pads were getting worn so I had waited to replace the front pads and rotors until now. I tried for probably two hours to get the slide pins out of the front calipers with no luck. I even took them off, heated the pins with my torch and tried the arm hammer. The might as well have been welded into place. I gave up and on Saturday I went to CARQUEST and got two Wagener rebuilts. I would have liked to have used the nice power stop ones but I needed the truck back on the road that day. So there was $250 I hadn't planned on.

The good news is the truck rides so much better and the shacking I had when braking is completely gone. I would like to get the 6100's to level the front but that will have to wait until spring. The 4*00 to $1000 is out of my budget right now.

 

Oh...how I remember the upstate NY vehicle rust!
I moved south 23 years ago and my rust problems have been solved.
In upstate NY it's brutal doing a simple job on a vehicle, knowing that something will be rust seized.

 

Life in the rust-belt is brutal.