Last of the Hidden Surprises

Started tearing down the front clip to easily remove the engine and transmission. Here's the little grease & grime monkey.

This is where I noticed the frame had corrosion problems.

This is passenger side radiator support mount location. It was pretty well eaten away. But the worst is yet to come.

I removed the frame from under the car and flipped it over to discover that there was a bulge in the metal from where the lift raised the car. At first glance on the frame it looks in really good shape with only minor surface corrosion. Upon using the hammer test, albeit crude, a decent tap revealed no problems. However a full swing and it went right through.

A small biopsy revealed the extent of the damage from inside out. These 3rd gen gals are notorious for rotted frames. This one is no exception. Except this is hidden damage which would have only spread if left untreated. Not to mention making the car structurally unsound and increasing the possibility for catastrophic failure under heavy acceleration or braking.

I ended up slicing off the bottom section of the rails to solid metal and treated the inside with POR 15.

Then welded in new sections of structural steel.

Same to the other side.

Sand blasted the entire frame and used Eastwoods internal frame coat and soaked the insides of the entire frame.

Then POR15'd the entire thing inside and out.

Whilst working on the frame I started working on the other chassis components. I stripped and painted the 9". I replaced the outer wheel bearings and seals, along with a new pinion seal. I set the factory 3.00:1 gears for a better tooth pattern as the coast side was really far off nominal and filled it with Royal Purple lube.

Powder coated the control arms and installed all new rubber.

New ball joints and bump stops too.

Installed all new brakes, even powder coated the wheel cylinders, fabbed new stainless lines, new shocks, new parking brake cables, new tyres, stripped and painted the rims and powder coated the springs

Pretty much the same treatment for the front.

A roller once more. More importantly with all new parts.

Next post I'll focus on the engine tear down, and build up.

Cheers.