Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

The eye was a bit better today so I sneaked downstairs and started preassembling the frame. Once all the x-members are in and it's been leveled front to back and side to side as well as squared up laterally and vertically, I'll slowly torque all the fasteners while making sure nothing moves. Hopefully it won't fight back too much.

The silver powder coating by Sure Coat turned out very nice (as is usual for them) and should brighten up the underside considerably compared to the black paint. I'm going to have Mike at Precision paint the trailing arms and rear axle housing to match. That will allow me to assemble the suspension... to hopefully coincide with the arrival of the wheel/tire package.

All I can say Vic is WOW!!!!... Fricking AWESOME!!!! Great Choice on the Chassis...

Might I suggest going with a little darker shade of silver/grey for a great contrast and to make it all pop real good... just a thought...

[jeh]

Awesome work as usual Vic. Glad your eye is doing good

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Might I suggest going with a little darker shade of silver/grey for a great contrast and to make it all pop real good... just a thought...

I may just do that, Dan. Always good to have some definition between the parts. Plus the darker color won't stick out like a sore thumb.

Doc put in some numbing drops and took the four stitches out of my eye today. Man does it feel great after those drops go in. Unfortunately, I can tell they're wearing off and it won't be long before I'm back doing the spastic itchy dance. Took advantage of the feel good time and did some more assembly. With everything loose, the front to back X measurement is only off 3/8" and I haven't even tried to move it yet. I'm confident when I get back on it tomorrow I'll be snugging down fasteners before you know it.

[Jason7121]

Looks awesome great job!

[snipescastle2]

Wow! Looks great Vic!
Ben

[sduckworth13]

Very nice work Vic! Looks great, glad your able get some things done with the limited vision.

[Low Elco]

Glad to see you're improving and back in the saddle. Frame looks great!

[Bennett68C10]

Wow Vic, that frame looks great I really like the silver powdercoat. Glad to hear your recovering from the eye issue too!

[knomadd]

Glad to see your eye is healing and you're back on CRLS. Looks good!

[mcbassin]

Powdercoat looks great!

[tune_1]

Glad to hear that your eye is doing better. Great work on the frame.

Dwight

[sduckworth13]

The frame looks beautiful Vic! Nice work!

[Low Elco]

Looks mucho bueno!

[7dee2]

Wow look at that, beauty!

[jlsanborn]

I've been away for a bit and just catching up here. Glad to hear your well into your recovery and have been able to get some done in the shop. The powder is fantastic. This is going to be a jaw dropping roller here in no time! I'm probably as anxious as you are to see more

[Vic1947]

Thanks, everyone. I've been puttering around a bit more in the shop hanging parts on the frame and getting subassemblies ready. I installed the new posi unit with a 3.73 gear into the rearend. I also upgraded the cover to a TA with the preload bolts. The rear disc brake setup from CPP has been giving me fits though. The pads are a bit too thick to fit over the rotors. The piston in the caliper was retracted as far as it would go, so I called their tech line to see what they had to say. The tech wearily explained that the e-brake required adjusting and pointed me to a tech bulletin online. Problem is, to get the piston to retract enough, you have to remove the retainer clip that holds the inside pad. Even then, the fit is still too tight. I'm of the opinion the pads are the main culprit, so I may have to cruise the auto parts to see if I can find a set that's thinner.

The next problem was the spacer for the disc brake bracket. It's also too thick which means the caliper won't go onto the bracket. The spacer is .400" thick and needs to be more like .250" but CPP only offers the one version. The tech said the flanges on the axle tubes are not consistent and they see this from time to time. He suggested cutting the spacers down... which I can do since I have a mill, but you have to wonder why they don't offer spacers in various widths. Besides, what's a person supposed to do if they don't have a mill? Paying a shop to do it can be expensive. And water jet cutting them out of thinner material probably wouldn't be very cost effective either. I really hate spending good money on parts then having to hack them up to get them to fit.

I ended up deciding to keep the suspension parts black instead of painting them a dark grey metallic color. So much of the stuff was already powder coated black I figured it was easier. No one will know the difference except us chickens.

[swamp rat]

Wow Vic, what a shame on that CCP stuff, I think the least they could do is offer different thickness spacers and even shims, it would be even better if it was all in the kit! I have been super interested in this brake kit too see how it works out with the E brake.

Glad to see your making strides again!

[Xeen]

This is gonna be the nicest DD pickup around.

[bevis1]

Tough to tell from the pic, but those housing flanges don't appear to be over .150" thicker than "normal"

[Low Elco]

Geez. What a PITA.

[Boog]

I had a similar issue with my dropped spindles and stock disc brakes. The caliper wouldn't open up far enough to put in new disc pads. For now I put the worn pads back in. Do aftermarket disc pads possibly vary in thickness?

[jlsanborn]

Same here on the fronts. I had to take the little thin plates off the back of my new pads to get the calipers on?

Nice work on the rear end Vic! I'll have to investigate that diff cover you used.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Wow Vic, what a shame on that CCP stuff, I think the least they could do is offer different thickness spacers and even shims, it would be even better if it was all in the kit! I have been super interested in this brake kit too see how it works out with the E brake.

Glad to see your making strides again!

I agree it would make sense to include or at least offer different spacers, Mike, especially since they know about the problem. Overall the kit's good quality and should do the job without breaking a sweat. The calipers are 80-85 Cadillac Seville with optional e-brake setup.

Originally Posted by Xeen

This is gonna be the nicest DD pickup around.

Thanks, Brian, we hope so!

Originally Posted by bevis1

Tough to tell from the pic, but those housing flanges don't appear to be over .150" thicker than "normal"

Hey Rickster, you're correct that the flanges are the same thickness side to side. However, the guy at CPP said the problem was related to where the flanges were installed on the axle tube, not the flange thickness. In the end, I milled .125" off the spacer on the driver side to make it fit. The passenger side fell into place with no mods to the spacer or pads. I also removed .050" from both brake pads on the driver side, but once I got the caliper piston retracted all the way, it turns out that wouldn't have been necessary. So that side will wear out first and when it's time to replace the pads, the off the shelf pieces should be fine.

One other thing that could have been a factor is the differential. Differences in gear sets and where the C-clip pocket ends up after setting backlash could cause the axles to be biased toward one side or the other. The rotors would follow along and you'd possibly have caliper fitment issues. I don't see that accounting for 1/8" of offset but who knows?

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Geez. What a PITA.

No kidding!

Originally Posted by Boog

I had a similar issue with my dropped spindles and stock disc brakes. The caliper wouldn't open up far enough to put in new disc pads. For now I put the worn pads back in. Do aftermarket disc pads possibly vary in thickness?

OK, confession time... After milling the new inner and outer pads .050" and discovering it wasn't needed, I was wringing my hands about having one side slightly thinner than the other so I went to the store and bought a new set of pads. They were about .030" thinner than the pads that came with the kit, so based on that I'd say, yes, aftermarket could very well be different thicknesses. The pads I got, however, were for a non e-brake caliper and weren't usable so I returned them and stuck with what I had. Gaaaaaaak!!!

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Same here on the fronts. I had to take the little thin plates off the back of my new pads to get the calipers on?

Nice work on the rear end Vic! I'll have to investigate that diff cover you used.

I haven't setup the fronts yet, so I'll post how it goes in a day or two.

It's a nice cover but it doesn't quite clear the "stock" panhard bar with the suspension all the way down. I either need to modify my bar or get one of those relocation kits with the longer bar. Stay tuned.

[Vic1947]

New rolling stock arrived today. PVD coated AR TT2's, 18x8 fronts, 18x10 rears, with Sumitomo Z rated tires. Now I really gotta get the rest of the suspension assembled.

[Bennett68C10]

Nice looking wheels Vic!