Chuck Gongloff

Here are some pictures of the aftermath of my general contracting work this weekend. Several are of the car, one is the pile of trailing arms and A Frames that I'm taking to be rebuilt/restored, and one picture is of my powder coating pile...stuff I'm taking to be coated while the suspension is being redone. Enjoy! :) Chuck









[Modified by Chuck Gongloff, 8:02 AM 10/28/2001]

GaryS

Chuck, I get a blank screen on those URL's. :confused:

Gary

Chuck Gongloff

Now fixed, Gary. Forgot that my page address is now "temp.corvetteforum, etc. Chuck

67's

Looking good Chuck, I never realized that the '69 had sidepipes untill I viewed this post.

Tom

Chuck Gongloff

Thanks Patrick. Your picture looks MUCH better than mine. Don't know how to do what you did :) Anyhow...no, I'm no doing anything else with the parts. I'm bringing everything to Tony as you see it. The parts aren't real greasy anyway. All 4 ball joints have been replaced with "bolt in" joints too, so they'll be easy to remove.

I used the "old boiler plate on a threaded rod" home made spring compressor. These have been used around for years. Borrowed this one from a friend, who had borrowed it from another friend. They get passed around. It simply a 5x5 inch piece of 5/16 boiler plate with a hole in the center. A 1/2 inch "allthread" goes through the hole. Slip the plate steel between a coil, place a bolt and washer below. The allthread goes up through the shock hole. Washer and nut...tighten it up...pulls the spring up into the shock tower somewhat, then take off the lower A frame and drop it...loosen the allthread bolts and remove the spring. Really pretty simple, and far superior to the internal compressors.

Tom. Yes, this is a factory side exhaust car.

Chuck

PHulst

Chuck,

Why have the new ball joints bolted in? There are so many places now that will rivet them for not a lot of money.

Patrick

Chuck Gongloff

What I meant to say was that currently, all 4 ball joints are bolted in. They all were replaced sometime in the past. No rivets to grind out to get them out. I will have the new ones riveted in, as they were originally. Chuck

PHulst

Chuck,

How did you get the upper arms out with the radiator still in? Or better yet, how does one reinstall them and then torque the front A-arm bushing to spec? The front of the arms are so close I couldn't get back in there to torque the bushings adequately once they were reinstalled and the car was back at ride height.

Any clues? Did you ask Tony if he has any clues?

Patrick

Chuck Gongloff

Hi Patrick. I removed all 4 upper A arm studs. I was then able to remove the A arms. Could not have done it with the studs in place. My studs had a 5/8 inch head. Hit them with an impact gun a few minutes each. Then placed a short 5/8 socket over the stud head, and used a 3 inch "C" clamp to push/pull the studs out. Sort of like a mini version of removing U joints in a vise. How am I going to torque the front bushings? I can't get a torque wrench in there. I'll probably torque the rears to spec. Then I'll get a long box wrench and get a "feel" by messing with the rears. After I get "the feel", I'll tighten the fronts. Not scientific, but I AM NOT pulling that radiator to torque 2 bolts. Chuck :)

PHulst

Chuck,

I couldn't see even loosening the radiator mounts enough to tip it forward to access the front bushing bolts.

If you get a tip from Tony on how to torque them while in place, feel free to contact me off line.

Thanks,

Patrick