With the painting it done, its time to figure out where all this stuff goes -
In the upper right part of the table, you can see the steering box - same one I used before, just cleaned up and painted. Its a manual box, but I'll be damned if I can remember from what. Here is a better shot.
Its done in a metallic oil rubbed bronze. (happy trees! Prussian Blue, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Yellow etc) I thought it would be a nice accent against the boring black. Did the tie rods, center link, and idler arm in the same color, but used these to tie the rods together. (see what I did there - tie the rods?)
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I wanted to replace the bushings this time around too. The polys had a good run of 23 years, but I figured its time to give the Global West Del-a-Lums a shot. That blue sure is pretty.
Man, this internet thing makes things go together real fast!!
Rumor has it these calipers get sticky. I guess ill find out.
The reason there are so few words to go with these pictures is because there wasn't much to tell. The passenger side was uneventful. Nothing we all haven't done a 1000 times. The problem, along with a 2 month delay, came when I tried to put the drivers side together. Grab a coffee - this might take a while.
I was the one to assemble the front end when I made the switch to polyurethane bushings all those years ago. I recall the passenger side lower control arm being slightly easier to assemble than the drivers, but it all went together in the normal way - brute force and ignorance. (drift pins, some persuasion tools, and BAM, when stuff lines up, send the bolt) I remember the drivers side LCA being slightly more stubborn, but it dropped in and moved freely - it just took a bit more time to install.
Fast forward to now - er, last February - and I have a problem. The LCA wont go in. Its too wide. You heard me - its not fitting in the hole. Lots of banging, lots of swearing, and it still ain't going in. Lots of paint removed, lots of scuffing to the nylon bushing, but still no dice. Its almost as if something had moved. Check it out -
I've got a ton of pictures showing how far off the arm is from the pocket - not sure which ones to choose, so I'll go with these from the "I'm Sending This Car Over a Cliff" collection. Rear bracket bobs
Well, that's a bit odd, wouldn't you say? Its seems I cant even draw line through the holes in the rear frame bracket. Not sure why since the same arm came out of this slot. It an easy enough fix, I just don't understand why I have to make it.
Did the bracket get tweaked when I welded it? I was very careful to control the heat. Remember, I only took off as little paint as possible. so if heat was high, melted or bubbled paint would have been a clue. There was none.
Did the arm get tweaked at the powder coater? Possible, but unlikely.
Regardless, moving this bracket back to where it belongs ought to make it all better, right? Yeah, no.
Front bolt hole - I can get the extension through the cross member, but if you can look closely enough (pic sucks for it tho) I'm centered on the rear hole, but hitting the bottom of front hole. Translation - no bolt fitty.
If I wanted to drive around with a punch acting as my LCA bolt, I can make this work! (I wouldn't recommend it though). And while I have no alignment shims present in this pic, this doesn't seem like the right ball joint path either-
There was no way of getting front bolt to drop in.
Focusing on the arm, I took a lot of measurements and everything seemed to be in factory spec. (ear angle, spacing between the bushings, center of joint to bushing etc) Maybe if I changed the angle on the ears ever so slightly, I could get it to work? Tried that in a buddy's press. No pics and worse, still no dice.
May be If I change the angle of only the front ear? You can see how little it needs to go in this pic -
Gotta be careful though - too much angle and the hole centers will never line up. And if I'm going to apply heat (and I am) I have to be concerned about losing the taper on the bushing cup. I know this because I lost the taper on the bushing cup.
Plan B - New control arm! Same problem.(at least now I knew it wasn't the arm)
I had some drastic Ideas - cut, move, weld?
Ok, ok, coffee is running low, so gotta wrap this up.
In full disclosure, this car had a hard life. Its been hit in this corner 5 times and in the picture below, you can see how hard the cross member on this side hit a set of railroad tracks way back in 78. My welder welded this plate on there about 10 years ago.
This has been like this for the entire time I've had the car - why would this now be a problem? The frame is straight. I know this because it was a on a rack 12 years ago, and as soon as it went up on stands for this past makeover, I bobbed and lasered all the factory frame points. This frame is within a 1/4" of factory specs. Its good.
In all likelihood, this cross member certainly wasn't helping the situation, but I'm finding to hard to believe its the sole source of my problem. Regardless, on the consultation of folks with far more experience than me, the idea they had was a solution with which I was not happy -
That was the result of a lot of heat and a bolt with two thick giant washers on either end drawing the cross member closer. After all this, the the arm still didn't fit 100% (albeit closer). It was only after I swapped out the ZERO deflection Del-a-Lum bushing for something softer (poly) that I could work the arm into position.
Then I got to experience the joy of masking off the car for paint. Again.
Then I got to experience the joy of applying sealer to the cross member. Again.
Then I got to experience the joy applying color to the cross member. Again.
Then I got to experience the joy of being able wet sand (400) the cross member. Again.
Then I got to experience the joy applying color to the cross member. Again
On the plus side - I only lost the taper for the Del bushing. The poly bushing I put in its place went in nicely and is sitting tight. We'll see what future issues that brings. AND my powder coater redid the LCA for nothing.
Its the little things.
Man, this internet thing makes things go together real fast!!
