Saturday, March 12, 2011

Almost Have A Front Suspension




A little motivation, a little help from my friend Greg, and the kids distracted in the house, and the front suspension is almost done. The rusty, grimy, 47 year past has been refurbished and reinvigorated. All new ball joints, tie rods, shocks (GM NOS Pleasureriders), coil springs from Eaton Spring, bushings, centerlink, and rebuilt steering gearbox from Lares make for something looking almost new. The coil springs were a challenge, but with the right spring compressor, and a lot of trial and error, finally got those puppies in.
The wheel wells and radiator support, after being acid dipped, are getting black chassis paint at the body shop--as is the dash and steering column in gloss black. Once the front end is wrapped up, I'll move to the rear end and swap out the pumkin. The 3.64 Posi should be a nice improvement over the 3.08 open. In the process I'll have to pull the axles and replace the bearings and seals. Also have to weld the gussets for the rear sway bar so that I can get that thing on. Going to be making a road trip to the Boston area to pick up the complete 4-speed (Borg Warner T-10) setup I purchased out of a low mileage '63 Grand Prix donor car (embarassingly) over 2 years ago.