Author Topic: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild  (Read 8783 times)

Offline Aracer

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2009 - 07:24:51 PM »
Those pictures are without the motor in. Suspension was not adjusted at all at that point.
Oh, my mistake.
The 1974 Ham/factory fender tar undercoating was sprayed after assembly, cause it's found only on top of the screws that hold the fender splash shield, and on the left rear wheel well brake line bracket. They only did the wheel wells for sound deadening.
   That's a nice original look to the gray primer dip underneath the floor. It didn't last more than a year back east, before  it powdered off in tiny spots. Then the Rustolium (epoxy) is needed, and too bad for the factory paint splotches and stenciled numbers not to mention the wear on the rotors, OMG wear :smilielol:. Maybe someone plastic bagged a whole car and stuck it in the garage in Arizona. But, then that's what gold and photos are for. 
     What are those square things under the caliper bolts, and why are they so long? (1/2" too long and look like replacements, they won't work well and will cause a clunk, chatter or a rocking feel, I know because I had to put the originals back to solve that problem. I think the square clips are to stop the chatter. I answered my own Q.)
     You did say details! My 1974 rotor splash shields are galvanized and convoluted for strength without the outer flair. Your ball joints look bigger, what brand are they?




Alaskan_TA

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #16 on: June 14, 2009 - 07:29:57 PM »
Comparing a '70 to a '74 in a resto thread is just going to confuse things some. A lot of 1970 parts were only used the one year. By '74 lots of changes had been made. Just for whatever it is worth.  ;)

Offline Aracer

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #17 on: June 14, 2009 - 07:47:45 PM »
OK

Offline resq302

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #18 on: June 14, 2009 - 10:43:57 PM »
Barry,

The previous owner restored the body of the car and never documented anything.  Luckily, when he "redid" the front suspension, he painted everything black and with aircraft stipper/remover, I have been able to find some original paint inspection and ID markings.

I guess I will just reassemble the front suspension components and get all of the lights and such back in and "mask" off the necesary things that were supposedly blocked or covered when the undercoating was applied.  Should be fun, getting my nice and freshly detailed WHITE car all dirty and black with yucky undercoating.....but hey... thats how the factory did it and thats how I want to restore it.

Alaskan_TA

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #19 on: June 14, 2009 - 10:54:13 PM »
I have had guys ask me what is what on their cars -after they had them dipped. Anyone doing that should do some research first, nothing like losing ALL the details in one step.  :eek4:

I do not remember, do you have the photo disc of the low mile T/A? It is a non-undercoat car but there are some wheel well shots & overspray shots as well.

Offline autoxcuda

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #20 on: June 15, 2009 - 03:59:07 AM »
I have had guys ask me what is what on their cars -after they had them dipped. Anyone doing that should do some research first, nothing like losing ALL the details in one step.  :eek4; ...

 :iagree: But I think many times it's because they don't want to invest the time to do the proper research before head. It's just easier to ask someone what to do than do it for yourself.

Bummer that resq302 previous owner lost all of that info when he restored it prior. I took lots of still pictures of my Challenger in 1991 when I took it apart. But I know I missed a lot. Mostly because the cost of 1000's of pictures in film and developing would have killed me. A 2000 pictures back then would have cost me over $650.
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Offline resq302

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #21 on: June 17, 2009 - 08:03:02 AM »
Well, the front suspension is back together and all of the inspection marks that I found while removing the black paint that the prev. owner put on everything are back on like it would have been when it left the factory.  I can't believe how much nicer the undercarriage of the car looks now that it is not just that one black color.  Maybe it is just that I am happy to be done with it or maybe it just turned out that good.  Who knows?  I'll let you be the judge of it when everyone sees it out at Carlisle in a month. :woohoo:  Next thing on the agenda is to get an allignment since the wheels are facing every which direction from taking everything apart.  One thing to note is if anyone should rebuild their front end, be SURE to set your ride height PRIOR to getting an allignment done otherwise if you crank up on the torsion bars, your allignment will be off afterwards.

Offline Aracer

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2009 - 12:54:53 PM »
What brand of ball joints are in there?

Offline resq302

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #23 on: July 07, 2009 - 03:46:57 PM »
Pretty sure the ball joints were replaced by the prev. owner with NOS pieces since they seem to be dead on to original.  The downfall was that when I was removing the driver side lower ball joint, the removal tool ended up bending the threaded shaft.  I had to get a new one and it is the Moog brand.  Looks slightly different then the original piece.

Offline Aracer

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2009 - 05:35:54 PM »

     Your car looks great, and you'll notice mines got black paint where ever there was bare steel. Preservation is the goal for me, not show. When I replace the original ball joints I will use cast iron gray Duplicolor Engine on them. Most everything else gets low gloss black now a days. I always disliked the way the factory splotched paint, and used an orange rust coat that washed off in months. For example, the big yellow zero on the back of the 8 3/4" housings and random color dots.
      Just my preference for customizing and I 'll never enter a car show. Let the future owner fuss over unseen details, after I'm dead. I drag race them or cruse around. Good luck impressing those ass picking judges. 

Offline 422STROKER

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #25 on: July 11, 2009 - 07:11:18 PM »
I think the car looks great in person! :grinyes:

Tom :bananasmi
Tom
12.77 @ 108.87 15" Street Drag radial tires 3.23 gear

Offline resq302

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #26 on: July 12, 2009 - 06:56:12 AM »
I guess the details made for a great all around wow factor of the car.  Dave Ferro from Totally Auto picked our chally as his celebrity pick for the show.  How cool is that?  Not bad for a debut for the car.

Offline 422STROKER

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #27 on: July 12, 2009 - 08:53:56 PM »
Not too bad.

Tom
Tom
12.77 @ 108.87 15" Street Drag radial tires 3.23 gear

Offline Chryco Psycho

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #28 on: July 12, 2009 - 10:38:34 PM »
the Chall is awesome , great job on it , I never did get to see your Charger unfortunatly

Challenger - You`ll wish You Hadn`t

Offline resq302

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Re: Its all about the details....front suspension rebuild
« Reply #29 on: July 13, 2009 - 09:56:07 AM »
the Chall is awesome , great job on it , I never did get to see your Charger unfortunatly

Always next year (if the wife lets me go) and then hopefully you could tweak it like you did the chally.  The charger just does not seem to have the power that it should.

Glad we didn't disappoint anyone with the chally. :2thumbs: