79 Malibu wagon fuel line

[Longroof79]

Nick's right. There should be a few good threads on doing body mounts and what you can expect.

 

[Bonnewagon]

When I replaced my fuel line I just bought a roll of tubing and bent my own. At the rear where you found the headache spot I just made a break in the line. I fished it around the obstructions and used a double flare union to re-connect it all. There was no way I was lifting the body off just to route a fuel line. Pre-bent or not, it is just so much easier to cut the line at that point and work around the problem instead of making more work for yourself.

 

[CopperNick]

The thread is titled "El Camino Body Bolts". it can be found by scrolling down to the bottom of the main page to the community section and then below it is the G-Body Tech Forums site. Included in it is the subheading, "frames/suspension/steering". if you open that site, and scroll the page you should find the reference that I mentioned.


Nick

 

[Mighty]

Found it. Actually when I first racked the car up a few weeks ago the front bumper on the passenger side dropped down a couple of inches. I found that the screw that holds the bushing on didn’t have a nut or washer on it. Bushing was in good shape though.

 

[CopperNick]

Might be that you could find yourself in a position to save the budget some money if you survey the entire system of bushings and it turns out they are all in good shape. As others on this board have pointed out in the past, moving from the stock bushings to ones that are stiffer, .eg. polyurethane or delrin, will help the overall feel of the car and eliminate some of the mushiness that comes with the factory rubber but if you are not building a serious go-faster then you might want to ask yourself, "Is the benefit worth the cost?".


Nick

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Keep in mind that a body bushing can look fine on the outside but be totally rotted out hollow inside.

 

[CopperNick]

Do have to agree with Clone TIE Pilot on that, first impressions can be deceiving. Thing to watch for if you suspect the biscuit is rotten internally is if it appears to be abnormally squashed. At that point the only thing keeping the body up is the internal spacer.


Nick

 

[Mighty]

I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do yet. I could probably do without but lifting the body off would give me a chance to clean up the frame and paint it. Back when we started working on in in the 90’s we removed the entire front end and painted that portion of the frame and it still looks pretty good. I don’t see any reason not to at this point. Steering column is out and trans is out……might as well bite the bullet and just do it.

 

[Mighty]

Well I guess this thread has changed from a fuel line discussion to body bushings. I sprayed some kroil on all the bolts that I could get to without lowering the car down to move the front rack arms. That’s all I have left is the the first bolt back on the drivers and passenger side both (the first bolts AFTER the front bumper bushings). The front bumper is done and I removed the rear bumper as well. Looking at the bottom picture inside of the frame rails I now understand why I’ve read so much about this section of the frame rusting out on these cars. Packed full of dirt. After seeing that I’m glad I decided to tackle the bushings so I can clean the frame up some. I’ve got one problem bolt and was going to ask for any tips or tricks from you guys. The third bolt back on the drivers side underneath the drivers side door is spinning. I took the chrome trim piece up from the door jam and lifted the carpet up to look around. Apparently the nut is inside of the rocker panel?? Any tips on getting this out or am I just going to have to cut a hole in my rust free rocker? I’m kind of a picky about my rocker panels after owning a few GM trucks in Ohio with the snow and salt. Also out of curiousity if you look at the bushing picture you’ll see the 2 bolts that had rotted away to just about nothing. Same location on each side of the car. Not the very last bolt but the one right before that. I thought it was interesting how both of them were almost completely rotten/gone and the others weren’t? A bunch of rust/dust fell all over me when I was working on them. The frame didn’t look any worse in that specific area so I was just curious why the heck only those 2 bolts were so corroded? Hopefully tomorrow I can undo the brake lines and unhook the clutch fork and raise the body up to start cleaning this thing.

 

[CopperNick]

Your spinning bolt is due to the piece of sheet metal that usually is present to trap the diamond shaped plate into which the bolt is screwed has either rotted out or torn away, leaving the plate to spin in the wind. The only cure I can think of is to get a sawzall in there and cut the bolt wherever you can find free access to the mount and then when you lift the body you can deal with the rest of the corpse.



Nick