78 Grand Prix project

[pontiacgp]

Piece of cake :wink:
I've never pulled these before and it went pretty easy.

beginners luck...

you made them look better than new, did you media blast them?

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Piece of cake :wink:
I've never pulled these before and it went pretty easy.

beginners luck...

you made them look better than new, did you media blast them?

Actually I didn't. All I had was soda for the blast cabinet (little tight on funds at the moment) and it doesn't cut deep rust as well as other media. I chipped away the flaky stuff, did a little sanding in the more noticeable areas, used rust converter, then coated them.

 

[deanlemans81]

They look really good!! Nice job.
Dean

 

[youngdeezy]

those arms came out nice

 

[G-Body_Vet]

those arms came out nice

Thanks. The KBS Coating I'm using is supposed to be satin black. I didn't think the uppers looked good enough so I smoothed them out some more, resprayed them in gloss black and added some clear. Here's what it looks like now. I just focused on the flat areas, not so much anywhere else.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I coated my drop spindles, one of the new springs and made more progress on the frame. It's kind of an unorthodox way of doing it, but ya gotta make due with limited space and time. Once I get the front suspension done, I plan to lift the body off the frame to finish it up.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

They also sell some nice spacers that prevent the "ears" from collapsing when removing/installing the bushings. Being a cheap-*ss I just made some by cutting some sections of black iron pipe to fit between the "ears" for support.

I went and bought a foot length section of 2" black pipe today. If I have time tomorrow I'm going to install my new bushings in the a-arms. I have some cutting to do with the pipe but that's no prob with the sawzall.

 

[mebe007]

and what plans do you have for said pipe?

 

[G-Body_Vet]

and what plans do you have for said pipe?

As Bonnewagon said, "spacers that prevent the "ears" (see pic of bottom of lower control arm) from collapsing when removing/installing the bushings". If you tweak the arm too much trying to install them, you're gambling with binding issues once the arm is installed.

I'm going to cut the pipe to length and just use it as a brace between "ears" when I press the new bushings into the lower arms. I was thinking of just cutting the home made spacer into 2 halves and holding them together with a worm clamp just to keep them in place. Is this necessary? Not sure, never tried it. I'd rather do it right the first time then have to unf*ck something for being careless.

 

[pontiacgp]

take the bushings and stick them in a freezer overnite so they'll shrink a little and they should slide in easier....dry ice is even better if you can get some...and if need be you can persuade them in and then just straighten up the ears...

and you might want to fix the hole for the sway bar, it seems a little larger than it should be