Brendon's '67 Firebird thread by Tuske427

5 minute(s) of a 286 minute read

I had a little time this weekend to work on my car. Yesterday I made a few patch panels to replace (big surprise) some thin/ rusted out areas. Today I worked on double/ triple checking my rear suspension and how it mounts to the car. With the car upside down I had placed the leaf spring perches back to where they were tack welded- and they were not square with the car. The holes, when looking across, didn't line up. So I made a full day out of mounting my axle upside down, connecting the 4 links and measuring again. This actually had some benefits as I needed to determine where my panhard bar mount would locate as well as the shock mounts.  

Of course, as I went to roll the cherry picker and locate my axle- it just barely interfered with the rotisserie. Some 2x4's solved that.

I was able to measure again pretty much everything and the suspension is within a 1/16" of being equal. It is, I hope, close enough. I was able to trim down my perches as they can now sit better inside and I'll be able to weld them up the next time I work on the car. same for my panhard bar mount. That too required some trimming and modifying to fit right in my car. The shock mounts should be straight forward...  

I think I'll be working on my friend's Delorean next weekend and the one following I'll be at the Monster Jam World finals (Vegas) for work. I hope to resume on this soon.

3-20-2011

Did a little welding yesterday. I also drilled some holes in the frame and welded in tubes so I can install/ remove the lower control arms from the welded in perches. I also trimmed the DSE cross member for rear axle clearance and used the trimmed piece to extend the cross member to the end of the driver side frame rails. There was a tiny gap on each side and there was just enough material to finish them off.

Today it rained, and I had to go to work anyhow. Next time I'll do more grinding and it should look a little cleaner...

4-10-2011

Thank you, everyone!

Another weekend, more welding & grinding. I did install the gas tank brackets and I had to cobble up a tool to allow me to clean the metal along the frame rail and trunk pan enough to weld them together. I couldn't reach it with my grinders and sanders. I also removed the rear seat belt brackets and discovered yet more rusted metal. So I cut that out and patched it up.