Saturday, March 22, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Subframe and Trailing Arms
Drilled and chiseled out the remnants of the bushing that was stuck to the body.
Couple of battle scars from drilling out the aluminum bushing parts, only superficial marks the structural integrity is still good.
Had the same result with the passenger side, currently in the process of drilling and chiseling this side out as was done with the driver's side. Not going quite as smoothly as the first one so I will let this sit overnight with a good soaking of penetrating lube.
While I am waiting for the pentrating lube to act I installed the new trailing arm bushings. Probably one of the smoothest installs on this build so far. I'll let the freshly painted subframe dry for another day before I bolt the arms back on.
Couple of battle scars from drilling out the aluminum bushing parts, only superficial marks the structural integrity is still good.
Had the same result with the passenger side, currently in the process of drilling and chiseling this side out as was done with the driver's side. Not going quite as smoothly as the first one so I will let this sit overnight with a good soaking of penetrating lube.
While I am waiting for the pentrating lube to act I installed the new trailing arm bushings. Probably one of the smoothest installs on this build so far. I'll let the freshly painted subframe dry for another day before I bolt the arms back on.
Rear End "Enhancement"
Been working on cleaning up the rear end components and removing the old bushings during the week in hopes of reinstalling everything this weekend. That's not going to happen. Pressed the IE poly differential bushings in, some minor tweaking was required but overall they went in smoothly.
The other half of the subframe bushing was still stuck to the budy of the car. My thoughts were that it was stuck on the stud itself so I drilled a series of holes in the side, sprayed some penetrating lube and went to work with a pipe wrench. I successfully cracked the aluminum along the holes I had drilled which made me think that it would come off quite nicely now...
Boy was I wrong, the only part that was stuck was the very top where it was pressed into the steel unibody. So I successfully snapped the aluminum at the body and will have to find some way of chipping the rest of it out. Of course if I hadn't pressed the new bushing in I could have thrown it on the lathe and turned it to eliminate the interference with the left over aluminum.
The 1/4-1/2" of aluminum that is still stuck in the body, hopefully I don't end up with the same result on the passenger side bushing.
One actual success that I had was the subframe and differential got a couple coats of primer and paint to stop the rust buildup. This will never be anything close to a show car so only the loose rust was knocked off, no need to get the surface smooth.
My first attempt to remove the subframe bushings was to cut the steel bushing structure and then bend it out as I had done with the control arm and differential bushings.
This obviously didn't work out real well so I turned to burning the bastards out, about 10 minutes for each bushing and they hammered right out.
Like normal I am too impatient to wait until the subframe is cleaned up to put in the new parts. So I pressed in the new poly bushings, this may come back to bite me in the ass...
The other half of the subframe bushing was still stuck to the budy of the car. My thoughts were that it was stuck on the stud itself so I drilled a series of holes in the side, sprayed some penetrating lube and went to work with a pipe wrench. I successfully cracked the aluminum along the holes I had drilled which made me think that it would come off quite nicely now...
Boy was I wrong, the only part that was stuck was the very top where it was pressed into the steel unibody. So I successfully snapped the aluminum at the body and will have to find some way of chipping the rest of it out. Of course if I hadn't pressed the new bushing in I could have thrown it on the lathe and turned it to eliminate the interference with the left over aluminum.
The 1/4-1/2" of aluminum that is still stuck in the body, hopefully I don't end up with the same result on the passenger side bushing.
One actual success that I had was the subframe and differential got a couple coats of primer and paint to stop the rust buildup. This will never be anything close to a show car so only the loose rust was knocked off, no need to get the surface smooth.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Bushing replacement in the rear end
Dropped the rear end to replace the bushings for the subframe, trailing arms and diff mount. What is not visible are the internals to the original subframe bushings that are still stuck on the body mount studs.
Separated the diff from the subframe to make it a little more managable to move around a clean up. Probably scraped off 2 pounds worth of dirt and other crap that was stuck to the outside.
Disassembled the rest of the rear suspension so that pieces can be brought into the basement to be worked on where the temperature is above freezing.
Everything ready to be worked on in the comfort of the basement. Poly bushings just waiting to be pressed in.
Original differential mount came out fairly easily, not sure the subframe bushings will be quite as nice.
Separated the diff from the subframe to make it a little more managable to move around a clean up. Probably scraped off 2 pounds worth of dirt and other crap that was stuck to the outside.
Disassembled the rest of the rear suspension so that pieces can be brought into the basement to be worked on where the temperature is above freezing.
Everything ready to be worked on in the comfort of the basement. Poly bushings just waiting to be pressed in.
Original differential mount came out fairly easily, not sure the subframe bushings will be quite as nice. 
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