Saturday February 24th 2007
With the engine at the shop, I removed the rear leaf springs to have them re-arced and strengthened. The
rear end dropped two inches after fitting two 55 litre LPG tanks in the trunk. The
stance wasn't right before that & now the car can't even take the weight of
passengers (bottoming out). With the engine out of the car the weight shifted to the rear and I couldn't even get the floor jack under the differential.
Removing the leaf springs was
the toughest job yet.... laying on a cold concrete floor,
wrestling with nuts & bolts that haven't been loosened in 43 years.
The rear axle and leaf springs aren't exactly light weight items
either.
Saturday March 24th 2007
Everything that bolts to the rear leaf springs has been cleaned and painted with POR15. This will last. Overkill surely, but I can't stand the thought of dirty & rusty parts going back on my car when I had a chance to clean em up.
Everything that bolts to the rear leaf springs has been cleaned and painted with POR15. This will last. Overkill surely, but I can't stand the thought of dirty & rusty parts going back on my car when I had a chance to clean em up.
Friday April 27th 2007
New bushings arrived from Eaton Detroit Spring Eaton Detroit Spring. I had them pressed into the re-arced & strengthened rear leaf springs. I'm very pleased with the springs. The shop Eeltink Veertechniek put in an extra leaf to take the weight of two 55 liter LPG tanks in the trunk and to compensate for forty years of gravity. Nylon discs were inserted in between the leafs because the square (plastic?) originals were dried up and brittle. They also made the sturdier clamps you can see in the picture because they weren't impressed at all with the originals. They also made new U-bolts because the old ones are now too short.
New bushings arrived from Eaton Detroit Spring Eaton Detroit Spring. I had them pressed into the re-arced & strengthened rear leaf springs. I'm very pleased with the springs. The shop Eeltink Veertechniek put in an extra leaf to take the weight of two 55 liter LPG tanks in the trunk and to compensate for forty years of gravity. Nylon discs were inserted in between the leafs because the square (plastic?) originals were dried up and brittle. They also made the sturdier clamps you can see in the picture because they weren't impressed at all with the originals. They also made new U-bolts because the old ones are now too short.
It was a lot of hard (and dirty) work but it paid off. The rear end is sitting much higher than it was before I had the rear leaf springs re-arced and strengthened. It's a bit too high at present but of course the leaf springs will settle a little and the engine is still out so I think the stance will look correct.
Before:
After:
I also installed four new shock absorbers. They're made by Gabriel, cost only $15 and are better than the Monroe Sensa Track which are three times as expensive and supposedly suck. The Gabriel PNs are: 82067 for the rear, 82615 for the front.
Front end work
Saturday June 7th 2008
A month ago my '64 developed a clanging - metal to metal - sound at the front when I drove over speed bumps, through small potholes or when breaking hard at low speed. As it turned out the left front strut rod bushing had broken into pieces:
I ordered a set of polyurethane strut rod bushings by Energy Suspension (#4.7118G) from Suspension Restoration Parts Co. $20 for a set that does both sides. They were great to deal with & were the only supplier on the internet that had them in stock. All the others would have to special order them from energy suspension which would take weeks. I could find none on eBay. Lincoln Land and Baker's Auto sell OEM rubber strut rod bushings by the way.
The MOOG sway bar/stabilizer bar link kit (MOOG # K6678) only does one side of the vehicle. So order two sets! I had to use the old metal sleeve because the one that came with the set was too long (couldn't get the nut on).
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