Thanks for taking the time to reply on this, I wish I had thought of bluing the bj shaft on the mock up, or trial run, I did. I'm sure it would have showed exactly what you described. Hopefully someone will pick this up and run with it again, and maybe finally find a ball joint we don't have to worry about. If not, then I guess I'll still have to readdress them once the car is ready for alignment. Still a couple years away yet. ( Funny, spell check keeps telling me that "months" is spelled "years". Maybe someone will look into that too?)

 

Back to the build, Over the fourth of July weekend, I had a couple extra days off, so I tried to visit as many corvette specialty shops in Las Vegas as I could. My goal was to find someone who was expert on rebuilding trailing arms, and would work with me doing it in sections. I am committed to cleaning, and painting all the parts and pieces myself. It's not that I don't trust someone else to do it, well,, ok, I guess I just don't. I'm sure whoever did it would do a great job, but I "KNOW" the process I'm doing. Also, theres that whole I built this car thing. So what I wanted someone do to was to break down the spindles, then let me take all the parts home. Then when I'm done with them, rebuild them. I had my mind set to pay extra for this, they save time and material by not needing to clean and paint parts, but it turns it into a second go, come rebuild time. I was figuring to pay normal price for a total TA job in the end. With me doing all the dirty grunt work for them. What I discovered was a surprise to me. Out of 12 shops I had picked online, reading tons of reviews, only four where actually open for business. All the others had a name plate on a wharehouse door, but nobody would answer a phone call, or open the door.
The very first shop on my list was a popular shop ran by an older guy, with his son. Anyone in the Vegas valley area with a corvette probably know who I'm talking about. Unfortunately for me, the day I showed up, only the father was there. He's deafer than I am, so we both spent alot of time with our hand cupped behind our ear trying to talk. I got what I thought was a good price for him to rebuild the whole things, but I couldn't get it thru that I wanted to do it in two stages. He kept saying that he Would clean and paint them. In the end, he got tired of wasting time on me, and said he had to get back to work. So my number one pick didn't turn out so well. My number two pick was a very nice, clean, large shop that has been in business for a long time as well. Turns out tho, that they have only one guy that specializes in vettes, and of course he was on vacation for the fourth holiday. They gave me his cell number, and told me to call him. I've been called every bad name anyone ever thought of, except, knowingly calling a guy on vacation for a price quote. So I'll get back to him if I need too. The rest of the list,,,they all referred me back to the old guy and son shop. Seems they do everybody's else's critical, precision work. Being hardheaded like I am, and pretty lucky, I found a 10 ton 8" bearing puller that worked to split the spindle from the knuckle. I had to partially disassemble everything, to make room for the jaws to fit, but it worked. Pics to come of the process. Still gotta get them but back together tho, hopefully the son is at work next time.

 

 

 

So the Drivers side T/A had the original flared insert bushing. The Pass. side had a newer, rubber bushing, minus the flared insert. I remember one of the t/a's was really loose, must have been the one missing the insert.

 

Cleaning up one of the T/A's

 

More evidence of the speed welding done at GM. They never stopped, just drag the gun with wire spitting out from the end of one weld, to the start of the next. I used a flapper wheel to sand off the weld spatter that was above the surface, but the gouges will forever remain. Only thing they're hurting is my feeling. ( I only have the one )

 

some good pics there of the arm in pieces .

so its a wide spread problem with those top ball joints , I ended up getting some MOOG ones that so far just look a better fit .

lots of fun getting some hired help , seems to be the norm these days.

 

It is really sad for me to read yet another bad review of VBP. When I did my build they were very good to me, things shipped on time and I have been very happy with the components. Sounds like things have really gone downhill of late. Hope they get their ducks in a row before it is too late.
Looks like you are coming along well on your build. I have enjoyed following your progress.

 

So it occurs to me that I really haven't explained my cleaning/rustproofing method yet, so I'll try to cover it all here. First step I take is, after parts are broke down, soak them in engine degreaser. I don't have a parts washer, maybe I need one, but I don't want to give up the space it would take. So I improvise, after the parts have soaked in the degreaser, and when the wife is in another room, if small enough, I take them to the kitchen sink and wash them with dish soap and a scotch brite pad. This does wonders for cutting the old road grime off. The rear trailing arms needed a couple repeats of this process, but most everything else came pretty clean first time. Next step is spray can paint remover. I use Kleen Strip from Walmart. It's cheap, and seems to work well. The can says it works in fifteen minutes, but that's just against paint. What I'm dealing with here is paint that is still hidden underneath who knows what. So I let it work for a lot longer. I just make sure it stays wet, with repeat applications. If I let it work long enough, it seems like it will finally make its way past any left over road grime, and eat the paint loose, which when washed off, takes away all the grime with it. Then it's time for the wire brush, grinder where you can, drill motor with a cup brush, or cut off pipe fitting brushes, and hand held. So far, every part was pretty easy to clean and prep, except the trailing arms, they have been a major chore. I think I have about 5 weeks work time in the T/A's alone, but that's just working a few hours a week cause it's so dang hot right now. After the parts have been cleaned with the wire brush, I treat them to the Phosphoric acid. The acid eats rust, but not much else. It does however leave a phosphoric coating on the metal that's a rust inhibitor, and binder for most paint. What I've found tho, is that it's best used in steps. So after the first heavy dose of acid, I re wet the whole thing, and go over it with a scotchbrite pad. It seems like there is always leftover grime that shows up at this point. After the part has dried, there will be residual, sticky, spots. I think this is still more dirt/grease that the acid has lifted from the base metal. So again, I retreat with the acid, but this time, I only let it set for about a hour, then I wash it off with water, and scrub brush. After the water drys, I give the part a thorough wash down with carb cleaner, or acetone, before paint. Seems to work well.

 

T/A arm being cleaned







First cleaning



second time for acid treatment



After last acid wash, but before acetone wipe down prior to paint

 

Yes...they put just enough weld on those trailing arms to make them passable/not sturdy.....I filled in all the unwelded areas with my wire welder before I painted the arms....it doesn't have that "tin can sound" when you tap the arm with a hammer now.

 

Heavy sigh, I Really had the urge to weld out the arms, but I was afraid of warping them, I knew the frame could take the heat, but, oh well,,, they are ready for rebuild now, so they are what they are. Lesson learned, pay more attention to what others have already done, and gone thru. I spent a year reading every post i could find prepping myself for this build, but then I found the car, started on it, and forgot that I'm not an expert on everything. This build is going too slow, but that's on me, You have reminded me to step back, and research before being committed. Hope your build is going well, I haven't looked at it in prolly 8 months. But I promise to check it out again soon.

 

Been awhile it feels like. The T/A's have been sitting in boxes all shined up and ready to be put back together for a couple weeks now. Silly me didn't anticipate a back order on the parking brakes, so I've been waiting on them. I'm not positive, but it looks like the new brake parts are required to go in as the trailing arm is rebuilt. If not required, then certainly would be easier I think. They shipped yesterday!! Woo Hoo!! My new mono spring is also backordered, no ship date yet. I have been putting off the cleaning of the rear end because, I'm just plain tired of cleaning the 40 year old road grime. I'll be alot happier once I get this thing sitting on wheels again. So I finally pulled all the u-joints, and broke down the entire differential to begin cleaning process. My plan is to pre clean the diff before removing the cover. There is no sign of anything leaking to date, but I'm curious about the vent tube. Is there a check valve built into it? When I flip the diff over to work on it, I expected fluid to come out of the vent, but none does. The gears feel good by hand when spinning, with only the slightest bit of play at the side yokes. I hope to just clean and replace the fluid, and cover gasket and be done, but I'm wondering if I'm in for a big rust surprise when I open the cover. Anyone have any advise before I go any farther? BTW. It's 2017. Can't we make a better u-joint system?
Also, in order to save a little money on the build, I'm reusing the existing parts that seem to be easy to get to after the car is complete. For example the rear strut rods, I'm sure I'll prolly need new adjustable ones for alignment, but for the build out I'll use these. I do have new bushings for all. Also, the brake rotors, pretty sure they will have to be replaced too. But those things can be done on a finished car later. Anything someone see's that I haven't replaced, that is hard to get to or do later,, please let me know.

 

Sweet! After last post, I cont. cleaning, only this time, the vent does start leaking a little fluid. So maybe it hasn't been clogged for the last 40 yrs. The oil actually looks pretty good, although it's hard to see against the dirty plywood table I'm working on.


It doesn't even stink too bad.

 

All the trash, and debris you see is because this is my cleaning table. Occasionally I wipe it off and cover it with a heavy base of spray paint to try to hold down the filth. But it's built up pretty high.

 

I got the diff pretty well cleaned up this afternoon and then split the cover off




Kinda hard to see, but it's 12 37. Base package 3:08 gears.







All in all I'm pretty happy with the shape it's in. Speedo says 60,000 miles, but I don't know if it was always hooked up, from the sharp teeth, I'm now convinced that the mileage is correct.

 

copper fitting brush cut off and put in a drill for cleaning up inside of sleeves prior to new bushing install.





I didn't get a good pic of the direction this bracket needs to be installed in. One side has the sheet metal screw vertical,



The other end has a sheet metal screw horizontal. Anyone know if I have it in the correct position?

 

if it went on no trouble then you got it right , if you look closer one of the bolt holes is out of square with the other three .

Or , only one way it will go on

I like that colour as well , coming along nicely

 

I mounted the Diff. over the weekend, and found another partial bushing in the complete bushing kit I bought. The diff carrier bushing did not come with the needed inner sleeve for the upper half. This kit came with all kinds of metal sleeves for bushings that fit other models, which I don't need, but the ones I do need in the kit I bought for this particular model car are not supplied? Ok, I'll just buy the sleeves I need right? Nope, can't buy em that way, gotta buy the whole new single bushing kit to get the sleeve. Are you kidding me??? While I don't think I lost money buying the kit, I certainly lost time, and gained alot of frustration trying to figure out which bushings were for what application. And when I went to the Prothane website for info on part numbers like the vbandp vendor said I should, because they are only a parts distributor, what happens? Yep,, I got a timely reply back from some company I have never heard of saying they can't help, they only distribute the parts. So at the very least, I'm paying third party vendors for custom made parts. No wonder this craps so expensive. And alot of it won't even work as delivered!! Gotta buy it again.
On a positive note, I finally dropped off the trailing arms for rebuild, and they should be ready by the weekend. While talking to Jim from Tucker GM Collision shop, I mentioned the bushing issue, he gave me a part number for just the upper half of the bushing including the metal sleeve from Ecklers Corvette. Thanks Jim, got one coming. As an afterthought, I searched Ecklers website for the same part I just ordered, without the part number, I was unable to find just that part, all that came up in searches were full kits. If he hadn't given me that part number, I would have had to pay 3 times as much, and only used one part out of another kit. Alot of venting here, sorry, but maybe the next guys can save some money, or at least be forewarned that all is not included when you buy a "Complete" kit.

The new stainless park brake kit did show up, and is with the trailing arms. I'm still waiting on the new Mono rear spring. Been 6 weeks now, with no ship date yet. When all this is done, it's steering, and engine time. Hmm, might be time to think about some wheels too, that frame is starting to look pretty heavy