Tear down complete - rebuild begins

[gchemist]

I finished the front end tear down this week. The suspension is completely off. Now the rebuild process begins. The suspension is getting rebuilt first. The new engine and tranmission will be put in after I bolt up the suspension and paint the entire front end.

I'll post pictures of the suspension rebuild on this photo album.

[Eyegore]

Pretty cool photo album, nice job on the front end. Also like the plastic and kitty litter brings the whole project to life.

[ocbaud]

what did you use to paint everything?

[BaddBusa2005]

it looks like por15, i love how glossy that stuff turns out. I am not usually one to like glossy but it looks good. Good job man

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Looks great. Have fun with the rebuild.

[N2TRUX]

This don't look good...

[gchemist]

POR-15 was used on the a-arms. I had to reuse the original shafts. The shafts I prepared with the suburban arms won't work. The POR is too thick to slide the new bushing over. The picture above displays how I removed the original shafts. I drilled out the rubber bushing on both sides, then slid the shaft out.
So WARNING...use only POR15 on the inner portion of the shaft and nothing else. If you use POR15 on anything like threads or the anthing you need to press, you will have a hard time using the part again. The frame, fenders, firewall, and everything else will have Zero-Rust instead of POR15. ZeroRust is basically the same but it lasts longer.
I'll post a picture of the damaged a-arm. The a-arm was damaged going 70 MPH on some back road. The groves were very deep from semitrucks.

I taped plastic sheets on the concrete floor. The entire truck is sitting over plastic. The kitty litter has helped reduce the mess on the floor. The litter has collected oil, coolant, trasmission oil and even all the water from pressure washing. There is almost no runout of contaminates from the garage. Good thing because the street drain directly in front of my house has a no dumping sign. All the water goes into a pond on the backside of my neighborhood. You can catch small fish and see an occasional turtle.

[Malo83]

Nice job G-man but that Por15 looks like some messy sheet, what actually is that stuff, never used it
John

[gchemist]

John,
POR-15 is messy. I used a brush on the a-arms, parts, and transmission crossmember. If you use it, it's better to hang parts then coat them. You want any excess to run off.
I'm using ZeroRust in a paint gun. The stuff also comes in aerosol cans. The cans are easier to use in hard to reach places. Especially the door jams. I'll post pictures after I use ZeroRust on the fender wheels and fenders.

[chevysnbuicks]

Where did you get that tranny crossmember?

[gchemist]

The crossmember was made by a member of this board. A long time ago. My truck has the one bolt type trans mount. I had the crossmember drilled for two. The trans mount that comes with the front end kit is a polygraphite mount that can be used as a two or one bolt mount. I have yet to mount the brackets for the frame rails. I'm going to have to drill the bolt up brackets.