Underneath, installment #5
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation. And more preparation. The
past week has meant more groundwork, none of the "fun" stuff of
assembling the "bits" into a complete suspension; and it won't be so for
a couple more weeks.
The underside of the car is cleaning up OK, so I'm concentrating
on all of the processes that the re-useable suspension components need.
The parts being dipped were ready late Wednesday, so I drove down
Thursday on my lunch break to pick them up. All looked pretty good, a
few parts still had a _little_ paint or surface rust, most of it was
picked clean. I had forgotten to pull out the coil spring insulators
from the crossmember, and now they're _gone_, no trace.
An hour later I called a place 15 or so miles from here about
Magnafluxing, and I was quoted 24-hour turnaround. So, with the truck
still loaded (A load of Sunbeam part in the passenger seat of a Toyota
short-bed truck leaves little room, I was reduced to 3-5 shifts,
skipping 4th gear), I made another Banzai run after work, in the snow no
less. The quotation for doing the crossmember, the lower control arms
and the spindles was $65.00. Seemed OK to me, I never had any
Magnafluxing done before for comparison. Didn't have the rest done as
these seem the most likely to fail. Friday afternoon, a phone call
before I went back up gave me the bad news. The fellow who was going to
do the actual work never showed, I won't get them back until Monday. Oh,
well.
Saturday morning meant running a few errands. First stop was the
local paint store for some Metal Prep for the bare metal parts; this
took a bit longer because they had moved. When I got there, they fellow
behind the counter did not inspire confidence. I asked for a bottle of
Metal Prep; he said "what?". So I explained what it was for. He
disappeared in the back for 15 minutes, came back with a small flat box
of Velcro. My turn to say "what?". A few more explanations from myself,
and the fellow in line behind me, got it straightened out. After he
familiarized himself with the credit card machine, I was out the door;
elapsed time: 45 minutes. Ugh!
Next stop; Larry Paulick's. He let be try out his sandblasting
cabinet. I had only used my total-loss system in the back yard before.
This was much less messy. It cleaned up the Panhard rod beautifully, but
the accrued layers of Rustoleum Industrial coating I had put on the hubs
was just too tough. Perhaps chemicals...
Back home, the day was as warm as could be hoped for here in
February, so I dragged out the rear axle assembly for clean-up. A hint I
hadn't thought of, but was assured would work, was to use oven cleaner.
OK, says I, out comes the axle onto two jackstands in the driveway over
an old shower curtain, and I spray away. Two cans and four applications
later, almost all of the "gunk" is gone, it only clung to the surface
facing down (once installed this would be "forward", the pinion and all
made that part hang straight down). It's back in the garage now, waiting
for some sucker to show up that I can coerce into helping me drag it
into my basement workshop. Volunteers?
Sunday is more detail work. The smaller parts that aren't at the
shop being Magnafluxed were just sitting there, about to develop "flash"
rust. I decided to treat them to the wire wheel on my underpowered bench
grinder. Most cleaned up really nice, even the rough-finished steering
arms have a nice sheen. Not sure about hitting parts that won't get a
finish coat for a while with the Metal Prep, so the bigger smaller bits
(!) sit until just before They go to get powder coated.
Some of the really small stuff won't get powder coated so I
Metal-Prepped them. The local 'dollar store' yielded some buckets,
sponges and brushes I won't mind throwing out, so I then mixed up some
M-P. A bath in that, then in clear water, then rigorous wiping dry;
you're not supposed to let this stuff dry on the surface. Then on to the
POR-15; read these direction first and you might be tempted not to buy
the stuff, there are so many caveats. Oh, well, too late now. Coating
all surfaces of a small part, like a washer, without making a mess,
coating your fingers (a no-no with this stuff) or effectively gluing the
parts to the paper you've laid down is just plain difficult. Sadly, I
must've been less than 100% effective cleaning up after the M-P as I got
a few fisheyes. Bummer.
One additional part I was still disassembling was that darn
Panhard rod. For one thing, the bracket is still bolted to the frame;
even with the nuts off the bolts are seized in place. For another, the
adjuster at the end of the rod has been giving me fits. There are no
wrench flats on it, so I used the jam nut threaded on it by backing it
off until it stuck, then kept heaving. No progress despite several
applications of WD-40. So I tried something I had read about but never
done myself; I used heat. I don't have a big blowtorch, but I do have a
small propane unit for household plumbing. 5 minutes later the
adjuster/nut assembly broke loose and came out. The bad news? The nut is
now really jammed on the adjuster, and heat just won't help.
Furthermore, the only surface to put in the vise other than the threads
is the smooth surface where the bushing goes, and it's not a mess. I
wonder if this part is available separately anywhere? Anyhow, the nut
will only come off with a nut splitter or a grinder now.
Lawrence R. Wright
Purchasing Analyst
Andrews Office Products Div. of USOP
lrw@aop.com
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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