Vetteman Jack

Awesome project you are undertaking. Best of luck as you continue the restoration.

alconk

You my friend have the perfect set-up for your resto. Tons of rooms and equipment. Very nice.

SuperBuickGuy

All you need is a shop helper, say an English Mastiff

SB64

Looks like everything is moving along. Just started removing things from my 69, lift off I hope for the weekend. Hope it goes as well as yours. Thanks for the pics
Regards R

RBrid

Thanks everyone! No doubt I'll need a shop helper, say an American Welder
As for the English Mastiff, it's a sweet idea but for now I have to content myself with seeing my friend's occasionally (below).

Next phase: build more storage shelves. I ran out of room...

SuperBuickGuy

Hmmm... that dog looks familiar - a bit smaller than mine, but quite familiar

RBrid

After a two week hiatus because of freezing temperatures and a bronchitis, I am back at it. Removed all gas and brake lines, steering system and front suspension.






That big bolt on the top left was real seized. 24 hours after PB-Blasting it, it came off easily.




Naked front:


Still need to take out those 4 arm shafts:


More pictures under December Teardown.

Next step: dismantle the rear end.

With all that physical exercise I have lost 5% of my weight since the beginning of the project. I'm so thin you can see through me now. Need to increase my calories intake...

Thanks for taking a peek.

RBrid

Made some progress in the last week, trying to tear down the rear suspension. I'm facing a bunch of seized bolts, real nasty ones. Got my first impact wrench to help out (580 ft-lbs) - my garage sounds more like a pro shop now :


This is how I compressed the rear spring:


And voila:


Got the differential+spring off as a whole, on a transmission jack:

I bet separating them will be a challenge (4 bolts).



The remaining bolts (not the nuts) are as frozen as can be, including the infamous trailing arm bolts:

May the force be with me.

Thanks for taking a peek.

SuperBuickGuy

I'd say gravity is already on your side

RBrid

Indeed and so is apparently an employee at our local O'Reilly store. He recommended that I use my dinky propane torch from Harbor Freight, heat up a seized bolt as much as possible, and while hot spray it with penetrating oil and bang it. It will suck in the penetrating oil while cooling down. I'll give this a shot.

SuperBuickGuy

candle wax works too - be sure to have a fire extinguisher nearby.

RBrid

How to combat a frozen shock absorber mount: (Heat + Spray + Bang) x N, N > 3

Two battles won this afternoon:




I might try one of my wife's many candles on my garage mistress one of these nights.

SuperBuickGuy

trust me on this, it's best not to tell your wife why you're borrowing her stuff

RBrid

Today's my birthday and SBG came over and said now that my vette is quasi-dismantled I need to practice rebuilding. So he challenged me with this birthday gift:


I'm happy to declare that I passed the test:


I feel more confident about my project now, although I'm a little concerned because this model is a '78 and my vette is a '77

Happy New Year to everyone.

RBrid

A little update: I was expecting trouble with the 4 bolts connecting the rear spring leaves to the differential but luckily they came off immediately with the impact wrench:






No such luck with the trailing arms! I had to buy a sawzall and cut through the bolts. Took a total of 17 blades:


As you can tell I tried to get the shims out first - it just would not happen:


On the passenger side too:







Next challenge: remove the differential crossmember with the 'sombrero' bushings.

Thanks for taking a peek!

jr73

Happy belated birthday R-Bird (new years baby?)

RBrid

Thanks jr! Yep, new year's baby from Strasbourg, the 'capital of Europe'.

SuperBuickGuy

disassembly and reassembly... nice

so how long did it take to go through 17 sawzall blades?

RBrid

Probably around three hours. It's such an enjoyable task though that time flies by quickly. I only used the two inches at the tip of the 9" blades. Cheers.

SuperBuickGuy

So basically, it'd have taken me less time to totally disassemble the car to cut those bolts out than try to cut them out with the body on... good to know