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| Joined: | 04-07-2022 |
| Location: | Oregon USA |
| Posts: | 54 |
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I have completed the tear down of the front suspension, and disassembled the hubs. I am planning on new wheel bearings and seals.
I ended up pressing the centers out of all the bushings. The metal inserts and the shells are all vulcanized together, which means that you cannot just press out the rubber (upper control arms are an exception). This left rubber sticking to the inside of the shells. From there I used a hacksaw to cut the shell from the inside, then a hammer and a drift to drive out the shells. Pretty crude, but it got the job done.
I have stripped the front calipers, but the pistons seem to be rusted into place despite the rubber dust seals being intact. This is pretty common if the brake fluid does not get changed as it is hygroscopic and absorbs water. From there the water rusts everything from the inside out. After the brakes get rebuilt, DOT5 fluid will be used as it does not absorb water and rust things. Plus, it does not damage paint if things leak.
Many people claim that seals fail when DOT5 is used, but I have used it on my last 3 restorations without a problem. I suspect that people convert an existing system to DOT5 and their old seals give up the ghost, so they blame the fluid.
I will probably need to replace the pistons (when I manage to get them out) as they are likely to be pitted, but we shall see.
Oh yeah, the car is off for paint. I had to delay painting as when I refitted the bonnet the panel gaps were horriffic. The PO had sectioned the nose, and was not watching the dimension between the outer fenders. He got it about 1/2" too wide, so he used filler to build up the inner fender lips to get the panel gaps reasonable. Arrgh! So I ended up slicing out a ribbon of steel from the left inner fender, then used ratcheting straps to pull the outer fenders closer together. I then welded the inner fender to lock the outer fender in place. The panel gaps are now fixed. Anyway, that took me a couple of weekends of fiddling, so paint got delayed a bit.
Stay tuned for more news.
Vance
Last edited on 04-08-2024 06:52 pm by vnavaret