Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Still Stripping!

So the last few days I stripped down the rear end.  It was a late nighter and I wasn't tired.  I started by removing the rear shackles.  The bushings made removal a bit tough.  I ended up having to use a 12" pc of rebar as a "punch" to drive the back side of the shackle off the frame.  While driving it, I would use my floor jack to lift and lower the rear end to change the angle of the shackle pin/bolt.  I finally got each side to where I could wiggle the shackle loose.  The shackles are now in my "sand blast" pile of brackets and other small parts.


The front was a little trickier because the angle was hard to get to from the side with the lower weld seam hanging in the way.  My solution was to use a socket on the bolt head, but it in a bind and rotate the bolt to the left, as though I was removing it while with the other hand pressing and releasing the leaf spring.  By this point, I had lowered the wheels into the car dollies, so not much weight was on the spring.This worked amazingly well.  I am sure that there are some other ways to do this, especially with the right tools.  All told, it took me about 45 minutes to get the rear end completely out.  Not too bad.

 

I also spent some time finishing painting my front seat frames.  I still have the back seat cushion left to paint and then just wait for the covers to show up.  I will try to document the process on this to share the tips and tricks I learned from other mustangers.

I should have taken a before photo of the fuel line.  It was pretty rough in a couple of spots, but all in all it cleaned up pretty well.  I used a fine wire wheel brush to do the heavy lifting and then finished with a 00 steel wool.  The steel wool removed the wire wheel marks.  Once I get the rear section finished, I will treat these and the new brake lines with Rust Prevention Magic that I picked up from NPD.  Based on the reported salt spray test results, I am pretty confident that these will not rust for many years to come.



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