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.