With the whole front end stripped down to the bare frames, the party moved to the back of the car. I already propped up the rear of the body on the 2x6 (not 2x8) board and masonry blocks so all I had to do is break free the spring shackles at the front and rear, which would drop the whole works down, and cut the parking brake cables and brake line, which would completely free the rear end from the body. There isn't as much discretion that needs to be exercised here since most of the stuff that needs to be disconnected is either rusted to hell or not needed either way so for all intents, I can just have fun chopping and cutting. Starting at the rear, I removed the nuts on the right rear spring shackle. This was a pretty new install, as I had replaced this unit a few years back when I was just trying to fix the car up under normal circumstances. The old shackle was rusted to hell and needed replacing. The left side wasn't bad, so it was left alone. Unfortunately, the left side at this point was rusted all to hell. Removing that shackle involved cutting the studs within the shackles in order to remove the outer plate, then be able to remove the inner one that would originally hold the studs. Ironically the studs broke free from the inner plate so if I really wanted to, I could reuse the shackles, but they are so rusted out I wouldn't even trust trying to reuse them. The right side on the other hand, was able to be pried and tapped out intact so it can be reused. I should still have the other shackle as I bought these in a pair, so now the pair is reunited and able to be used later on in another car. With the rear shackles cut free and the parking brake cables, and brake line cut free, I moved on to the front shackles. Ironically the left torque box was rusted out more than enough that it was already freed up from the body. With that said and done, I moved to the right side. I had to cut a little extra metal out of the way and cut the stud on the inside and the one spot on the metal mount that held the spring to the torque box. After some grinding and sawing, I finally got the metal cut free, and a little hammering finished it off, making the whole works fall to the ground, free of the body. I dragged the rear end free from under the body and out of the way. With the rear end and leaf springs removed from under the car, the body is completely void of anything that is not needed at this point. The body is completely supported by the ramps and the makeshift sketchy stand setup. Even the rear is pretty light without the weight of the rear end in place. I'm still not going to attempt to just muscle the body up high enough to get it on the boards and drums, so the next order of business is to get the engine crane in position, along with some chain to lift up the back of the body as evenly as possible, enough so to get the board under the body at the right point to hold it up on the drums. I'll probably have to find some way to hold things together so when i jack up the front end, I don't have the body slide off the board and/or the drums. We'll get it done.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|