Today I started the process by stripping the front end out of my 84 tintop parts van. The parts van is in remarkably great condition, without a hint of seam rust. Too bad it does not have a title.
The van was bought from a woman who stated that it was her daughters, but when I asked why she was selling it the woman stated that her daughter has been dead for 12 years and it was time to let it go. She herself had a burgundy tintop, 88 I think.
Anyway, tearing out the front end was easier than expected. I figured everything would be rusted together, but I was pleasantly surprised how easy that it all came apart.
Started by loosening the lug bolts, lifting van and putting on jack stands. Always use the jack stands, do not ever trust a jack to hold up a vehicle that you will be working on.
After removing the wheels, I removed the brake caliper and set aside without putting pressure on the brake line. I then placed a jack under the passenger lower control arm (away from hole the provides access to the shock) and took the pressure off the shock absorber. Remove the top 17mm nut, and the lower through bolt and the shock and the shock sleeve will drop out the bottom. then i jacked it up some more taking the pressure off the upper ball joint. Removed the two hex bolts, and the large nut on the end of the radius arm, and lowered the jack and the lower arm. That opens up the spring for easier removal. I use an internally actuated spring compressor that I have from my old S420, works great.
At this point, you may find it easier to remove the nut on the bottom of the sway bar link as well.
After removing the spring, I removed the upper control arm - 19mm nut, and large ass (don't remember size) hex wrench does it. When removing bolt, make sure to get cam washers too. You will want to reuse this bolt if possible, a replacement is in the neighborhood of $70 each.
Remove the cotter pin on the tie rod end, and 19mm wrench to remove nut. Few taps on the sides of the knuckle it attaches to and a few more on the threaded portion of the tie rod should knock it loose.
Now you can tilt the spindle assembly forward and get to that lower ball joint nut. Loosen that up, give a few taps on the sides of the knuckle and then tap the end of the ball joint threaded portion and the spindle assembly drops. Without a caliper line, or a tie rod connected you should be able to pull that out and put aside. On the drivers side,you will have the speedo cable going through the spindle and attaching (via a circlip) to the rotor cap. Undo the clip and you can pull the speedo cable through the back of the spindle.
Now you are left with the lower control arm and the attached radius arm. Don't you think you are going to get the radius rod detached from the control arm in the van. That sucker won't budge. It has to be taken out in one connected piece. Do this by removing the lower control arm bolt, which if its like my van will not be easy (at all). Once that bolt is out though, the radius arm can be slid out of its little hole too. I needed to cut the head off the bolt, and part of the tail in order to slide it through the mount point. Hopefully the press and some heat will allow it to come out easier.
Repeat on other side.
If doing the rack as well, there are 4 bolts holding the rack to the van, and two bolts holding the steering column to the rack. Also with the sway bar, there are 4 bolts holding that bar in place, through two u clamps at each frame rail.
I did not take pictures as I was on a time crunch, but will take some and augment my descriptives at a later point after removing the same pieces from the Thingamajigger.
Time to go home and get cleaned up.
That's paint under the dirt!
Update: started taking the lower control arm apart. Those three bolts holding the radius arm and ball joint knuckle are a b*tch. One came out with 5pound sledge and a punch, the second with heat, but the third - ooh that one really put me through the ringer.
28 July - started disassembly again this morning. Started with something easy - the upper control arms. These each have two tack welds on the arm to bushing connection.
These obviously need to be ground off completely, otherwise it will not slide out.
I put one of the arms into my 12 ton press ($100 at Harbor Freight) and thought to use the through bolt and washer to push out the bushing. Sprayed with some PB Blaster to add some lubrication.
Here was my setup. Worked well until I found two plastic bushings in the other control arm. Those just blew apart in the press, and I needed to shift gears. I used one of the removed bushings as a proper diameter push rod. I pushed just enough to get it started and not to get the push bushing stuck. Then a hammer and drift to get it the rest of the way out.Once those were complete, I brought them to the sandblast cabinet.
Now these are ready for some paint.
The sandblasting was interrupted with two hose blow outs, one moisture blockage and an incident with a shop vac.
The blow outs were due to the cheap hose that comes with the unit. Some air hose will take care of this. The moisture issue was rectified by my adding my water filter from before the supply line to cabinet to after (attached directly to cabinet). Worked fine after that. Humid day, compressor getting worked creates water. It condensates in the hose. I think I will get another to permanently mount on blast cabinet.
The shop vac incident was the last straw today - I packed it up after that. I described in an earlier post how I sealed up the cabinet nice and tight. Well, with all the blasting I was doing, I was becoming aggravated with the dust cloud and not being able to see inside the cabinet. The cabinet comes with a port to connect a dust eliminator, so why not the shop vac?
I removed the air cover on the back of the unit, connected the shop vac and turned it on. I watched the dust go away, then the gloves rise up and inflate, and before I could turn it off, the glass imploded. Too much suction, even with the vent hole opened! So much for extra sealing.
My shop vac is a standard Ridgid with a dust collection filter for those wanting to try this on your own.
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