73 on a slow road to recovery... by Done Yet?

9 minute(s) of a 308 minute read

How about a little front suspension work.

After fighting with one lower A-Arm bushing for two nights, i resorted to appying a little heat and having to make a few cuts into it with a cut off wheel to get it out. Boy was that bushing a real PITA. Once both lowers were stripped of there bushings and ball joints paint stripper was applied to each of them. I did this to help speed up the glass beading time. The first pic is the LCA after the paint stripper, the second is a few other parts that were glass beaded while i had the machine hooked up.





Then all of the stripped parts were primed and painted.







Then i tried my best to install the bushings and ball joints in all of the control arms with out scratching the new paint. Well that didnt happen LOL after a few battle scars i managed to install the bushings and ball joints in all of the arms.



Then i installed my motor mounts having a little more room with the control arms not in the way.



Then the A-arms and front coils springs were installed on both sides.



Good thing nothing on the front end was tightened down because i just installed the springs but wasnt really sure which end was up. I did a little searching on this site after the fact, and it turns out i have them in upside down  So i will be redoing the springs on Sunday. Thanks for checkin out my project. Rob

5-15-2011

Lets try this one more time LOL....

I started on the r/s removing the knuckle and spring in order to install it right side up this time once i had the spring installed and clocked in the right position, the ball joints were then tightened down and a cotter pin installed, and then filled with grease. While i was in the area i also installed my shocks. My rotors were already cut and bearings and seals installed and packed with grease so they were also installed. When i had both sides back together i mounted my two front wheels...... WE HAVE A ROLLER!!!! with the exception of some of the steering linkage that i still need to buy. I just cut a piece of wood and connected it to both knuckles to keep the wheels straight for now.











I also sanded down my grille and gave it a coat of satin black plastic paint, i also sanded and painted the grille mldg silver but it looks like fake chrome the grille i like the mldg will be painted with another color. After that i needed a little R&R so i cleaned up the tools and pushed the car back under its portable garage, and called it a day. Yes every once in awhile i need a break too

5-21-2011

Saturdays Update with a slight hangover...

I met last night with a friend of mine and a body man thats he works with. They both work for a bodyshop known for turning out quality work. The deal is the bodyman will be doing all of the bodywork and when he is done it will be ready to roll into the paint booth. This work will take place at my house. Then my friend will shoot the car in the booth at work, In return i will be giving him a boat in trade for the paint job. The bodywork i will be paying him a set price and supplying the material needed. The other 2 estimates were $4500.00-$5000.00 Including materials, the other was $3000.00 plus materials. We should be able to start the bodywork next weekend. I still need to buy a cowl induction hood, my intake sits a little high and will not fit under the stock hood. Make a long story short we sat around talking cars, drinking beer and it turned out to be a late night. So needless to say im kinda in slow motion today LOL... Ok for todays progress, first i wanted to mount and balance four different tires on my rims. So i loaded up the four wheels from the car and four different tires.



Took them to my job, and unmounted the four tires on the car and mounted and balanced the four good tires. I also installed new valve stems. When i got back to the house the wheels were then cleaned, trimed rings polished and the bolted back onto the car.



Heres the four tires i took off the wheels.



Now i moved onto my fornt bumper, I was trying to remove the brackets and the impact bar that sits inside the bumper. With the bumper bolts being pretty rusty the four that hold the outer bumper brackets were spinning and would not come loose. It took a little while but these four bolts were cut to remove the brackets.



Then i marked the rear spoiler mounting points and drilled a few holes. I messed around with the rear spoiler and have it pretty close. I cant tighten it down yet because i needed to epoxy in two of the studs and they were'nt dry yet.







And last i started to polish the fornt bumper in the pics you will see i only was able to finish half of it and the called it a day.

5-22-2011

Only a few hours of maro time today....

First thing was to take apart both rear tail lamp assy's. the take apart both front turn signal lamps. All of the lens and tail lamp housings were put in a bucket of hot soapy water for a good soak. They were then scrubbed clean and set to the side until i pick up some plastic polish.





The housing for the front turn signals were glass beaded and taped up so the inside of the lamp could be painted.



A little paint stripper was put on both hood hinges and springs, and both front bumper brackets to remove the bulk of the paint before getting bead blasted.



Once cleaned they were put in primer.



Not a hole lot of progress but i guess some is better than none, Thanks for stoppin bye to check out my project. Rob