Gerahead's 71 Dart
I didn't get the last of the sealer applied as fast as I thought I would. When I got into it, I still had some seam sealer to apply before I could spray the paint sealer. It's all done now! Every square inch of metal that I could get at has been stripped to bare steel, covered with epoxy, wet sanded to 400 and sealed. All surfaces that are hidden have had POR applied to them.
Since I have the engine compartment all masked off, I'd really like to paint it the final color so I don't have to go through that again. If I was to do that, I want to make absolutely sure that I have as much paint as I need. Don't want to end up having to get some more because it is guaranteed not to match. I still want to go over everything one last time to make sure I fix any boo boos that I didn't catch before. Now I gotta start building a paint booth in the garage!
After I got the K-frame back from the welder, I cleaned all the accumulated grime from it and found that the holes where the front end of the strut rods go through had egged out.
At some point, the bushings must have really worn out and weren't addressed! I fired up the welder and built up the worn area of the holes and ground it back to its original shape. I dragged out a ball joint press that I have had for an eternity with little use to take out the upper control arm bushings. It worked like a champ, but you need to be an octopus to hold everything in place until there is enough pressure on the set up to hold it in place. When I got the first one out, I was surprised to find an "extra" ring on the inside of the bushing. I looked at it closely and it didn't appear to be a piece that broke off the control arm. This was a great time to have a service manual! As it turns out, this spacer is not part of the control arm, but is only used on models with 10" brakes. Whew! L8r!
Jim
I didn't get the last of the sealer applied as fast as I thought I would. When I got into it, I still had some seam sealer to apply before I could spray the paint sealer. It's all done now! Every square inch of metal that I could get at has been stripped to bare steel, covered with epoxy, wet sanded to 400 and sealed. All surfaces that are hidden have had POR applied to them.
Since I have the engine compartment all masked off, I'd really like to paint it the final color so I don't have to go through that again. If I was to do that, I want to make absolutely sure that I have as much paint as I need. Don't want to end up having to get some more because it is guaranteed not to match. I still want to go over everything one last time to make sure I fix any boo boos that I didn't catch before. Now I gotta start building a paint booth in the garage!
After I got the K-frame back from the welder, I cleaned all the accumulated grime from it and found that the holes where the front end of the strut rods go through had egged out.
At some point, the bushings must have really worn out and weren't addressed! I fired up the welder and built up the worn area of the holes and ground it back to its original shape. I dragged out a ball joint press that I have had for an eternity with little use to take out the upper control arm bushings. It worked like a champ, but you need to be an octopus to hold everything in place until there is enough pressure on the set up to hold it in place. When I got the first one out, I was surprised to find an "extra" ring on the inside of the bushing. I looked at it closely and it didn't appear to be a piece that broke off the control arm. This was a great time to have a service manual! As it turns out, this spacer is not part of the control arm, but is only used on models with 10" brakes. Whew! L8r!
Jim
