72 Front suspension after

[mocwon]

Same suspension after sandblasting, painting, new wear parts and partial assembly.

[DanoDMano]

That looks awesome, good work. So that is what they can look like when the rust is removed!!! Mine looks like the before.

How much time and money did that cost you? Sure looks worth while...

[mocwon]

One day it get it all apart, $35 for the sand blasting, $20 for paint and materials, a couple of hours to paint (BASF epoxy primer with Rustoleum oil based enamel #7777 sprayed over the primer, wet on wet) and half a day to get it all back together.

[Smooth68]

What type/brand of paint did you use? Looks great, I'm going to be doing the same soon. Any helpful tips you can pass along about the dismantle?

[mocwon]

BASF black epoxy primer with Rustoleum oil based enamel #7777 sprayed wet-on-wet was the paint combination. I chose the Rustoleum oil based enamel, rather than the expensive two-stage chassis black automotive paint, since I used a very good epoxy primer on the bare metal. This combination has worked out well for a couple of friends that did the same on their truck suspensions and a boat trailer. The worst part was getting the lower control arm shafts out. I locked one side down in a big vise. Since I didn’t have a socket big enough, an oxygen/acetylene torch was used to heat around where the cap contacts the control arm. With a 15" adjustable wrench on the cap, I pounded the crap out of it with a 3# ball peen hammer until it broke loose. I used an impact hammer to remove the upper control arm caps. A pickle fork with an impact hammer was used to get the ball joints and tie rod ends loose. A pneumatic chisel was used to remove the rivets holding the original upper ball joints. The lower ball joints were removed by centering the lower control arm over an open vise and pounding on the treaded stem until in fell out. I borrowed a ball joint press from Auto-Zone ($100 deposit) to install the new lower ball joints.

[Smooth68]

So the hex looking cap with grease zerk on the end of the a-arms is just a cover? or is it threaded?

[mocwon]

Yes, the hex cap with the zerk threads into the upper and lower control arm housings as well as onto the cross shafts. Oil up the ouside threads on one of the caps, fully install it on the control arm housing then thread the cross shaft into that cap. Install the other cap fully and simply turn the shaft one way or the other to center the cross shaft in the control arm opening. By the way don't forget the damn rubber seals like I did on the first one I did because believe me, you only want to do this once.