Crossmember tomfoolery

Well!  Finally got the crossmember out.  There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth... drilling out of spot-welds, air hammering.  I had to raise the car a few inches more on the jackstands in order to fit under it well enough to angle the air hammer the right way.  Also had to cut out more of the floor... which is fine.  So there it is.



I pounded the rusted out side down about 1/4 inch to be even with the passenger side... trimmed a piece of 1/8x2-inch length of steel to weld in as the new 'keel' for that side of the crossmember. It's so filthy (the crossmember), I know that I need to clean it all up and blast it and prime and paint it and all but I want to patch it up first, I've been looking forward to cutting and welding to fix it for so long. 



The 'gone girl' side shown is the 'front'... will be where the frame rail welds in.  So... it's about four inches wide.  I couldn't find any 4-inch wide 1/8 inch steel for the sides, so I welded two 2-inch pieces together. Had my stepson try it first... he's taking welding in high school. He finally gave up, said my welder is crappy and the stick isn't big enough (kinda personal but whatever). So I tried... got them to hold together with a bunch of crappy little tack welds. 

I ground it all down and tapped it with a hammer to bend something straight and they just came apart... so I ground all of that crap off and beveled the connecting edges a little and had the most amazing welding experience of my life... I was actually holding an arc long enough to drag it across the seam and held it while pushing the stick closer while it melted off... went through three sticks. It's really ugly but it should hold. (see below) It's also welded on both sides. 



Now I need to clean it up and fit it to the crossmember and tack it in... and plan my attack on the other side. Also need to figure out what holes are supposed to be in it for snaking lines through... like I think just the brakes (this is the driver's side crossmember). 

I also need to clean up the metal still in the car... sheet metal on the sides which the rockers also attach to, etc.  I think I might want to find some 14 gauge steel for that...  and I'm probably going to need to cut more of the floor out in order to have room to sit there while I work.  It's all good times.  I think I'll need a bigger welder for the k-member ears fabrication, too, but we'll see.  

Well!  Been a while hasn't it???  This winter has sucked, it's been too cold to do anything in the garage.  :-(

Okay, I've gotten the whole front end apart and broke pretty much everything down.  I have the k-member all stripped down and lying on the floor for now.  The passenger side strut gave me a hard time, I needed a lot of liquid wrench and finally my breaker bar did it... with my vise clamped to the other end as I was standing on it to keep it from turning.  I got it cleaned up a bit too.  It's waiting for the ear repairs... the rear bolt on the passenger side was pretty tough to get out, it was rusted in there bad.  Suffice to say, all four bolts will need to be replaced when I put it back in.  The driver's side rear is still attached, when my spot weld bit comes in the mail, I'll drill the spot welds out that are holding that mount in there so I can pull that whole thing off... have to do that anyway to put the repair cap on the frame rail.

I cut into the floor to get at the passenger side mounting of the torsion bar mount crossmember and took it on out.  I've been having fun sandblasting the crossmember so I can paint it all purty... I set my old tent up in the garage so I don't blow sand all over the place.  Not the best system, but I don't have a blasting cabinet yet.   Anyway, once that spot weld bit comes, I'll cut out the driver's side bracket for the torsion bar crossmember so I can weld the repair cap over the frame piece that it's attached to.  I've been practicing welding a little... it isn't pretty, my stick-welding... but it should be solid and functional at least.  Once I get that piece in (and some primer thrown on it to stop any rusting), I'll turn my attention to the front frame rail (I don't have that piece yet)... once that's in (or maybe before), I'll repair the k-member.  Even the passenger side ear needs repair, it's kind of rusted out on the inner diameter where the bushing sits... so I'll weld a repair in there at least... and build a new ear for the driver's side.  Once I get those on there, I want to get the whole thing cleaned up (might pay someone to blast it) and then get it painted clean.  THEN... the process of cleaning up (sandblasting and painting) all of the front end components and replacing bushings and ball joints begins/continues.  Once I get the whole front end back together, THEN I'll rebuild the motor... since then I'll have somewhere to put it.  ;-)   Oh, before I put the k-member back in, I need to get the whole engine bay all cleaned up.  The inner fender on the driver's side needs repair where the battery tray was (or replace the inner fender) and there are other rusted spots here and there that I want to cut out and weld repairs on.  Once I get the metal all cleaned up, I want to paint the engine bay the cobalt color.  Suspension components I'm going to paint glossy black, k-member too.  I'll probably rig a tarp like a tent over the front end in order to sandblast that area without blowing it all over the garage.

Also, I took the spindle off of the driver's side upper control arm today.  Step by step, moving the ball forward... :-)

Beautiful fall day in MN

Actually the whole weekend was awesome.  :-)

I started breaking down the driver's side suspension.... got the caliper and hub off, loosened some more bolts and nuts and sprayed liquid wrench on everything.  I kind of didn't realize I was going to need one of those prong tools to pry the ball joints apart to get the steering linkage all out, that's a task for another day.  I also need to figure out how to get the torsion bar dust boot out of the torsion bar mount so I can finish taking it out... it's just sitting there pushed back right now.  I also realized I kind of need to take out another cross-piece back there that goes from one side of the car to another and is bolted to the body with the doughnut bushing in place.  The bushing's of course all cracked and old... so sprayed some more liquid wrench.  I hate working on the passenger side, it's the side by the wall so I only have a couple of feet between the car and the wall to work.

I also wrestled the front bumper up into the loft in my garage, up where the seats are.  What an awkward, heavy mother that thing is.  I would love to break down the rear bumper more so I could de-rust it and store it better but I'm going to need to cut bolts out and I was working while watching the twins run around (3-1/2 yr old boys) so I didn't want to start cutting metal and throwing sparks when they were running around.

Some updates

I've knocked apart more and more of the front suspension.  Got the driver's side spindle and upper control arm out, took out the upper control arm mount and the shock absorber (had to cut the shock out).  Also removed the front bumper and the bracket that the hood latch/spring goes on... I don't know what that's called.  I've been soaking the ball joint between the spindle and upper control arm with liquid wrench but still can't unscrew it... frustrating.

I think I'm going to pick up a sand/media blasting setup for around 130 bucks rather than paying someone 10-20 bucks a shot to clean up individual parts.  I need to buy frame sections and get them welded in before I invest that kind of money, but I think that's the best path forward... then I can blast sections of the body as I go, too.  Sure, it'll make a mess but I'm used to that.

Whoa, it's been a while.

So... winter.  It was cold and long this year in MN, I really had no desire to spend any time in the garage from about Thanksgiving till Easter.  I know, I know... excuses.  At one point, I rolled the car out of the garage and turned it around so I could give some attention to the rear end.  I removed the tail-lights and bumper (the bumper nuts came off pretty easily) and gave a lot of the exposed sheet metal some attention with my drill/wire brushes.  I also pried out the epoxy repair stuff that my brother had used on the passenger's side of the trunk, so that's all opened up now and exposed.

I removed the gas tank... what a joy that was.  The tank straps are held in place by these bolts that are like four inches long with a nut on them to unscrew... on my back, under the car, arms wrapped up in there, headlamp angled up there to shine on the nut... awkward.  I think it took four sessions of me wrenching on those nuts to get them all out.  Anyway, the straps are out, the tank is out... then I started cleaning it up.  It looks 'okay'... I'm going to sand/scrape off the surface rust, spray it with the rust converter, prime and paint it (have the paint and all already) and get the POR-15 kit to clean and seal the interior (about 70 bucks). I just got the sending unit out of it this week.

I still  haven't been able to get the actual bumper off of the bumper braces... impact doesn't move them, I'm probably going to have to cut those bolts off.  The chrome bumper itself has some rust-through... I'm not sure where I'm going to go there.  They need to be repaired at least and rechromed if I want to do that... or I could paint them the body color, too.... which would mean I could use filler to smooth them, I suppose.  Stuff to think about.

Through all of this I noticed that the frame is getting worse and worse... probably from moving it around, I guess.  It's to the point where the frame rail HAS to be repaired, so I turned the car back around (so the front-end is pointing out) and got serious... I removed the driver's door and the driver's fender and took the wheel and hub off.  I need some new sockets and/or wrenches to take the rest of the steering knuckle and suspension apart, the goal being at this point to get the k-member out and all of the suspension so I can repair the frame and clean everything up... not to mention cleaning and repairing the k-member.  I still can't get the torsion bars out though because the adjusting bolt in the front end will NOT move.  More work.  :-(

While I was at it, I took the crank and pistons out of the block.  Crank looks generally fine, but the bearings looked pretty bad... more evidence of running low on oil, I suppose.  Buddy of mine gave me a wooden cranshaft crate/cradle to store it in.  Also, one of the cylinders had a groove dug into the cylinder wall (longitudinal)... prolly from a chunk of bearing material stuck in the rings?  I think it's guaranteed the cylinders will need to be bored as well as honed.  I've researched some pistons... my buddy insists that I get hypereutectic pistons, but that's at least another 100 bucks on my budget... we'll see.  I'm looking for pistons with a higher than stock pin height to increase the compression ratio (along with a thin head gasket)... there are cast aluminums available that with a thin head gasket would give me 9.5:1 CR with everything else stock... could be good.  We'll see, I'm not rebuilding the motor until I have someplace to put it... in other words, AFTER the frame and front end are fixed and back together and the engine compartment is clean, repaired and painted.  I'm hoping to rebuild the motor next winter-ish... shooting for getting the car running in spring '15.

Update 'before' winter

Well, it's after Thanksgiving and there's snow on the ground.  Oh, goody.

I've done some cleaning items lately, waiting till after the holidays to get the torsion mount repair metal to start welding.  I did cut out part of the driver's floor, though, so I could clean up the metal down there better with my wire brush attachments on my drill.

I continue to struggle with my 'free' air compressor.  I finally figured out a way to use it, just having the regulator closed off and putting a port on the side of the regulator body rather than the plug on there.  Problem is I've screwed up the little plastic fitting screw to close off the regulator so that won't stop air pouring out anymore.  So now I need to try to find a screw that will fit in there to close that off.  So... still no air tools fun.

I figured I'd break down the heads and get them cleaned up.  It has to happen sometime anyway and they're a filthy eyesore on my shelf, so what the hell.

It took some work to break them down.  The air tool to compress the springs would have been great, but of course, my air compressor's not useable.  So I picked up this cheap lever thing at OReilly.  When I used it, though, I just succeeded in lifting the head.  I gave up for a couple of days and then had a thought... I screwed an extension onto my workbench and c-clamped the head down... THEN it worked... especially after breaking the 'seal' on the keepers with my dead-blow.

A tedious process but it worked.  Also had to have the valve blocked in the combustion chamber... which I did with the brass end-cap that I hoped would fix my air compressor but didn't.  It's underneath the green brillo pad there.

The exhaust valves are all really filthy... intakes aren't as bad.  Also most of the exhaust valves are really loose... I think I'll need to sleeve the valves guides on the exhaust side.  There were no valve seals on the exhaust, just the intake side.

Here's an exhaust valve... AFTER I cleaned it for a while... I think they need to be replaced:

 Here's an intake valve... not nearly as bad... do I need to replace them??  Would save me like 80 bucks... 

Took the heads to get tanked and pressure tested... no leaks!  Got them home and went to town with my wire brushes... got them pretty clean:

Compare the cleaned-up head to the other one that is back from just getting tanked:

I cleaned up that second head, too.  I'd like to paint them, but... that's probably premature since I am going to need to have the exhaust guides sleeved anyway <shrug>.

So the tanking and inspection was 90 bucks... 8 new exhaust valves is probably 70 bucks, sleeving the exhaust guides should be about 80 bucks... new springs and keepers will set me back about another 70 bucks... and I want to get the home port and polish stones and whatnot to help with the flow (100 bucks)... which sets me back $410 total.  OR.... replacement higher-performance iron heads can be had for $1000.  <sigh>  Building on a budget... besides, those heads might make it TOO powerful.  ;-)

Taking a break, I poked around on the block a bit more, looked more closely at the cam bearings... they're pretty bad.  The below shot is the 'worst' one, I think, but the rest (except the one in the back) were varying levels of burnt out also.  I was planning on replacing them anyway when I get the block cleaned, inspected and machined (if necessary) anyway, but still... not good.

Finally, I took some brake cleaner and rags to the distributor last night to clean it up.  Again, nice just to see clean parts on the shelf.  The dist cap looks fine, but it's only like $20 anyway so maybe I'll replace it... hard to say at this point.  It's electronic, not a points distributor.

That's all for now... hopefully back again before New Years... ;-)

Not too much new to report.  I was going to do something with the rear brakes, examined them for a while and then put the wheel back on and jacked the front back up.  The torsion mount needs to be the focus.  I finally got the rusted-to-hell brake front brake cable off of the torsion mount clip by cutting the cable and wrestling it with a vice grip.  My 4-inch grinder/cutter is not going to work for cutting out rusted metal in there, it's too clumsy, I need to find some other tool for that.  The rod holding the intermediate cable in place for the parking brake would not let me loosen the nut so I just cut it out and mentally added it to my parts list.  Tried to remove the front cable from the brake lever in the cockpit but I think I have another rusted nut to loosen from an awkward position, so I just coated it with liquid wrench for now... along with every other exposed nut/bolt I could see under the steering column.

Unbolted some clips holding the brake and fuel lines on the right side of the engine compartment... took the rear clip out of the left torsion bar and tried to loosen the adjusting bolt on the front... no budge at all, even with the breaking bar.  I coated everything I could see on the left side up there with liquid wrench and inspected the further-mangled frame rail.  There really isn't much good metal left in a lot of those sections, I hope that slip-on (and weld) frame rail is strong enough without any real structural support from the underlying original frame.

I am considering just dropping the whole front end... I need to make some kind of support for the front end before I do that, rather than propping it up with an immobile frame of some sort.  May be some metal fabrication and casters in my future for that, I dunno.  I need the car farther off the ground to be able to work on that torsion mount, it's very awkward under there.

I got a free air compressor... just 20 gallons and it needs a replacement regulator valve.  I ordered a $20 replacement and it didn't fit of course.  I may just cap off the regulator, but I need a 1-inch end cap for it and I haven't been able to locate one.

Looking more closely at the torsion bar mount, I think I need to remove both torsion bars and the crossmember so I can remove/replace a falling-apart doughnut bushing/mount dealio in order to clean it up enough to cleanly get the repair piece in there and weld it in properly.  I wish I had a rotisserie.