Underneath, installment #7
I've made some recent progress and had some setbacks in the
suspension-and-brakes rebuild.
The crossmember _still_ isn't back from the welder yet. Eek!
There's a fair amount to do, I know, and I would imagine this is the
"busy season" but I'm getting impatient. The business with there being
more cracks visible to the naked eye than the Magnafluxing found is
frustrating; I think I should get my money back! Anyhow, based on a
statistical sample of one, I'm not impressed with the process. Of
course, I've never had a connecting rod let go at 7,000 RPM, either.
The underside of the car looks great, except for the few spots
I'll get welded later, which I left exposed. First, I scraped and
wire-brushed anything exposed or with loose undercoating. Then, I
Metal-Prepped the exposed surfaces to 'etch' them. Next, I coated those
areas with the POR-15 coating. While that was still tacky, I went back
over those areas with the brush-on rubberized undercoating. Finally, I
undercoated the rest of the underside. I ran out of the Dominion
undercoating (2 quarts) I got mail-order from Canada on a Saturday
morning, and I didn't want to wait another week. So, on a hunch, I went
to a body/paint supply store about 6 miles from here I hadn't been to in
years. They had some, so I got 2 more quarts. It's Transstar brand, and
I didn't like it as much as Dominion's; it came out of the can a bit
gloppy, and dried so fast it turned into a gummy mess in the cup I was
using, and on the brush, in minutes. Old stock? Wear a respirator with
either; I have a poor sense of smell, didn't notice the fumes, and got
high as a kite in about 2 hours even though the garage was wide open
with cross-ventilation. An old 3M respirator I had left over from
spray-painting worked fine after that, except I was cooking in the
respirator, goggles, hat, gloves, etc. The hat was needed after I tried
using the POR-15 under the car and got some in my hair; had to cut some
of my hair off. And they're not fooling about the POR-15 staining your
skin, my hands looked like cr*p for a week-and-a-half after the 1st
session; even kerosene wouldn't touch it. Then I got some gloves.
I finally found a powder coater; a new facility, about 15 miles
from here. I can just make it there and back on my lunch break (After my
1st two trips on weekdays, _then_ he decides to start opening up on
Saturdays. Ugh!). As I don't have the crossmember or A-arms, I start
with a box of small stuff. Front coils, spindles (stub axle carriers)
and about 20 small bits. The bill was $200 (micro-ouch), the stuff looks
great. I expected to pick up whatever special tape is needed and do the
masking myself. Instead, the owner said he'd take care of it. This is
great, it saved me time, the order was turned around in 24 hours, BUT---
he coated the bearing surfaces on the spindles and the upper fulcrum
pins. AAAARRRRGGGH! Now I have to get it off somehow. Shortly I hope to
be back with the big parts, I'll be more careful with the guy on
instructions.
Yesterday I played with the swaybar clamps. Earlier, I had
picked up some Zerk fittings; they were 1/4"-28tpi, they look exactly
like those on the fulcrum bushings I got from Dale's. So I drilled the
front face of the clamps and tapped them. Then I drilled halfway through
the poly bushings. Finally, I used a Dremel to gouge a concentric groove
around the inside of the bushing. Now, I should be able to keep the
previously noisy swaybar lubricated. BTW, I've seen Zerk condoms
somewhere; as these fittings face forward are right in the path of any
road debris, covering them might be a good idea.
Last night I painted the new rear leaf springs from Dale's with
POR-15, as the paint that came on them didn't even stand up to the
cross-country shipment. A little buffing was in rder, to give the
surface 'tooth'; the paint on the leaf-clamps came right off. Now the
springs look much better and perhaps will stay that way.
On a whim, I bought a couple of cans of the VHT spray paint made
for brake calipers and rotors. I had seen this stuff advertised in
Mini-Truckin magazine (no, I didn't get bright yellow or purple, I got
gloss black). I mulled over the possibility that I might be causing heat
retention in the brakes, then dismissed it. Did'ya see the giant brakes
on the "tuner cars" in R&T this month? _They_ paint the calipers.
Anyhow, it takes a while to mask off the various areas on the brake
parts you don't want covered, and the new rear Fiat calipers basically
had to come apart. Then, after more Metal-prepping, everything went out
to the clothesline on the 1st still day. That clothesline is rather HD
vinyl coated cable I put up years ago for this express purpose; I hung
headers and other heavy bits out there before. The brakes did me in,
though. Once the last rotor went up, well, the cable held but the lag
bolt screwed into the tree pulled out. Everything dropped into the lawn
and had to be recleaned. One longer bolt later, I was back in business.
The brakes turned out nice, and I don't know about you guys but I hate
seeing rusted top-hat sections on brakes. Late last fall I put drilled
Brembos on both Susan's Nissan coupe and my Toyota mini truck; both are
already rusting.
Lawrence R. Wright
Purchasing Analyst
Andrews Office Products Div. of USOP
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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