Inner & Outter Tie Rods!

Put together the new MOOG inner and outter tie rods. As you can see below, these will look much nicer than the originals that were on there. No more rust!

Drums & Steering Arms Painted

Steering components have been primed and painted. All steering components are new, except the main steering link which was easily cleaned up with sandblasting. Below are the primed tie rod sleeves.
Primed the insides & ousides of the front and rear drums. The front drums were nearly brand new. The rear drums were very rusty and left out in the rain. I sandblasted the insides and had them turned to remove all rust.

Front and rear drums final painted Stirling Silver to match the frame.

Steering link and steering arms painted to match frame as well.

Next I will be re-assembling the new Power Steering gear box and all steering components. I should then be able to get the entire frame back down on 4 tires! Major mile marker coming up soon!

Steering Arms...In Progress...

It's been a while... I've been slacking off working on the car for a bit. Feels as though it's done nothing but RAIN all summer.

I blasted the steering components in the blasting cabinet.
A before and after pic of what sandblasting can do to cleanup the steering arms.

The steering parts ready to be primed.

Steering parts primed with KBS. Next will be 2 coats of POR-15 Stirling Silver to match the frame.

Front Suspension Almost Done!

Finally got the front control arms / springs installed! I just have to tighten up the bolts holding the control arms to the frame. I also have to insert the new front shocks which have now been painted silver to match the rest of the color scheme.

I needed to use a spring compressor to compress the new springs down, in preperation to be installed. This is kind of a scary job being that I am compressing a 16.5" long spring meant for holding nearly 2000lbs down to roughly 12.5". The amount of tension on the compressor is enormous and I don't even want to think about what could happen if that broke while under tension!
The driver's side took a little fanagling........ but once we figured out HOW its supposed to be correctly installed it went better. Passenger side went much faster now that we had the technique down.

I also have the rear leaf springs in place, but it was getting too dark to take pictures. I'll post those tomorrow.

Control Arms Finished!

Thanks to the help of Glenn Lever who showed me the proper way to press in the ball joints and bushings in the upper and lower control arms. He did a great job and I really learned a lot during the process.

Control Arms & Leaf Springs Primed!

Sandblasted the lower control arms.... cleaned them up nicely.
Primed the leaf springs with KBS Satin Black primer.
Upper control arms primed.

Lower control arms primed.

Next these will get 2 coats of the Stirling Silver paint.......... and then the rebuilding begins!

Upper Control Arms Blasted!

I finally sand blasted and etched the upper control arms. Before and after pic: Tops of control arms sand blasted and ready for metal etching:

Underneith upper control arms all sand blasted and ready for metal etching: