My 1969 Corvette Project

The Saga Continues

July 16, 2000

I got the exterior of the frame painted. It turned out pretty good. Some of the areas were a little pitted.

Now I have to paint the inside of the frame.

July 24, 2000

I also started painting the cross-member and half shafts. I used a combination of POR15 on the completely rusted parts, and Rust Reformer with a paint top coat for the partially rusted parts. Here are the finished half shafts and mating flanges. One of the U-joint ends was discolored from overheating. One of the grease passages had become blocked.

	Here is the differential support crossmember before.
	The finished crossmember and tank support are shown here. To get the inside of the crossmember, I taped up most of the holes, poured some rust converter in , taped up the remaining holes, and sloshed it around. Too bad I can't do this with the frame.

	I started on the disassembly of the trailing arms. I am still debating the level of rebuilding I will do myself. I wanted to see if the parts were even good enough to use as core exchanges for new parts.
	There was nothing left of the rivet heads. I just touched the ends of the rivets with a 5/16 drill, and the rotor came off. The parking brake was another story. One of the spring ends had broken loose and had been riding around between the rotor and one of the brake shoes. The parking brakes were a mess. Without the spring one of the shoes had been rubbing. The cable link was locked up, so only one shoe was being moved.
	With the rotor and brakes off, the spindle looks in good shape on the outside. I spoke to one company about buying a rebuilt bearing assembly. They would not take my order until they could see the core. They said they had been getting junk cores so often, that they needed to see mine first. I still may attempt to rebuild one of the trailing arms myself. I may also get offset arms.
	I could not get one of the shock mounts out. I had already ruined the threads, so I cut it out. There is a removal tool which may have worked, which costs $15. The new shock mount will cost me $45. If you do the math correctly, you will buy the removal tool.
	This is what the parking brake parts looked like. What a mess.

I ordered a performance suspension package which will replace a lot of the old parts. I will post a list of available parts if anyone is interested.

August 5, 2000

I received the majority of my suspension parts. I'll post a picture if I get a moment to catch my breath. Some items were backordered. I am also working on a separate page for the differential rebuild I did.

August 13, 2000

The rest of my suspensions parts have shipped except for the front anti-sway bar. It will not be in until the end of the month. It's a part that can wait. I spent most of the weekend cleaning parts which I intend to reuse. It is amazing how much gook car parts can accumulate over years of use. I had to clean each part several times to insure they were clean and free from grease. I will begin painting them this week. I installed the ball joints into the A-arms. If all goes well I should be able to put the front suspension together next weekend. Most of the rear will have to wait until I resolve my T-arm dilemma.

August 23, 2000

I now have all of my suspension components. The reassembly has begun. More pictures will follow. I could not do a decent job of coating the inside of the frame, so I took it to Ziebart. I wasn't crazy about the waxy/greasy stuff they sprayed inside, but it may hold up better than something that hardens. Time will tell. I used a Rustoleum paint called Hammered on the steering knuckle. This stuff looks great dried fast, and appears to be very tough. I sprayed it over light rust. Again time will tell.

This is a shot of the new upper A-arm , from Vette Brakes and Products, next to one of the old ones.

Here is a shot of the lower A-arms, also from Vette Brakes and Products.

August 31, 2000

I spent a vacation day working on the trailing arms. I first removed the spindle flange. There was a lot of old grease under the flange. Some of it was dry.

I had to use a chisel to separate some of the parts. The spindles looked good, but the outside bearing came off of one of the spindle too easily. It may have been spinning on the spindle.

Most of the engine is on its way to performance school. It will be getting roller lifters and cam kit, an oversized pan, gapless rings, and fresh paint. The crankshaft will also be reground. Fortunately the cylinders will only need a light honing. The heads will be going in for work soon.

September 3, 2000

I spent a lot of time cleaning parts, and painting. Here are some of the completed front steering parts.

Here are some shots of the new front suspension. The whole front and rear suspension are redone with performance parts from Vette Brakes and Products. These parts appear to be very rugged, with polyurethane bushings. Installation was easy with a minimal amount of modification. The only modification required drilling 8 holes in the differential crossmember to mount the rear spring. I went to fiberglass leaf springs, front and rear. I also went with oversized anti-sway bars.