I've realized that I have no idea what proper suspension feels like. This is what you get for only moving from beater to beater.
Both of my struts were completely shot, basically zero damping. Install of new excel-g struts was smooth, removal of old struts (and specifically seized bolts) was not, but nothing exorbitant amounts of rust penetrant, torque, and hammering can't solve. Stock springs but new struts + mounts + bolts (mine were bad, and one I sheared off and passed on to another prof here at the U for failure analysis in his classes).
I've abandoned any hopes of ever doing rallyx or autox someday as I've just got too many hobbies already, plus I should hang out with my family when I'm not working. Planning to do the fronts on my own timeline in the next month or so, because it's sooo obvious to me now that those are just sitting there not damping anything as well. Again, not really going to upgrade anything, just install KYBs + mounts and call it a day. I think my control arms are fine (but hey, I said that about the suspension a year or so ago so what do I know). Should I bother playing with anything else while I'm in there? My budget is whatever a shop would charge minus ~$300.
Pics? Nobody wants to see the evidence of my incompetence. It literally looks like the old struts have been sitting in the bottom of the ocean.