[73LeMans]

Like the rest of us, Ive lost track of how many sets of headers Ive gone through over the years. To name a few -> Blackjack, Hedman, Hooker, Maddog 2x (don't even get me started on that guy). The time had come where I was finally tired of seeing very expensive pieces just crumble to rot in short order. This time around they had to be stainless.

I debated the idea, as I'm sure most of us have; make them myself or send them out? This battle raged for months in my head.

- Pro - I get to buy a TIG welder
- Pro - it will be cheaper to build them myself, even after buying the stainless and the welder
- Pro - I learn something new. Even if its that I don't want to make my own headers

- Con - drastic TIG learning curve
- Con - Time
- Con - dport heads
- Con - expensive mistake if they suck
- Con - If I fail, I still need stainless headers


You know its kinda hard to get good at anything if you're not doing any of the work, so this wasn't an easy decision. The car had been down for so long at this point though, did I want to delay it another 2-3 months finding out what everyone was already telling me, that headers suck to build?

Well, ultimately I listened to "those people" and leaned on a guy in CT to do the work. A few guys near me could do this, but I didn't like any of their attitudes. Those were just the ones who would actually respond. Most never bothered to return a message or pick up the phone. Strange how that is, but all too common with me and contractors it seems. Must be me.

Enough about them, lets get to the good stuff.

Getting headers first means the engine had to go in -



and then I had to load it up -



And drop it off here, at JW Racing & Fabrication, 2hours and 45 minutes from home.



And through the magic of the interweb, and the fact that all of this was completed a long time ago - I can show you the finished product -















Couldn't be happier with Joe @JW and his work. Hes a kickass artist and great guy to deal with. These should last a long time.

The only drawback to all of this awesomeness was a remote oil filter was most definitely going to be needed.

[73LeMans]

So I've been to this blasting show once before as you know.....didn't like it. I certainly wasn't looking forward to it again, but it had to be done. The purple was real automotive paint and it wasn't coming off without a lot of mess. Either media mess, or stripper mess. Media mess is a faster route to paint, so I chose media mess. And man, does this story sound familiar.....

It starts with an undersized portable baster that a friend of mine was storing here for oh, 8 years. Its a Cyclone PT 40. Crappy thing doesn't even have wheels.



How undersized you ask? (you didn't really ask, just work with me here)
• 40 lb. Capacity (smaller than the one I used in 96!!)
• 8 ft. Hose
• Blast hose 3/8" ID
• 1/8" Ceramic nozzle

Not a lot happening fast here but I wasn't about to buy my own blaster only to have it sit also around for years, so I was determined to make this work. It'll do the job, it'll just be slow. After learning a few lessons last time, here is why it will be ever so slightly better:

- The compressor should handle it this time around



- I was going to use aluminum oxide instead of sand
- I bought a blasting gun that you could actually turn on and off

So besides the goggles constantly fogging up because of the respirator type mask I was wearing, which was every 15 effin minutes (insert Covid-19 preparedness joke here), it didn't go too badly.




The plan was to keep the front end together to keep the car portable and then wire wheel/brush with a drill what I couldn't blast once in the garage and disassembled. The suspension and steering components (minus the box/pitman arm) were all going to get powder coated or replaced, so I didn't have to worry about those and the core support would be blasted separately.

This physical blasting took about 12 hours. covering both a Saturday and Sunday. I was constantly stopping with goggle issues, filling up the hopper or just taking a break. Factor in time to get the car up/down/back in the garage and clean up the driveway so I'm not "that guy" in the neighborhood, and they were pretty long days.

Here is the car once back in the garage with the moving parts, removed.(ha!) You can see the areas where steering and suspension parts kept me from reaching.



Life kinda got in the way that week. I came back to the car after work on Tuesday and started the cleanup process. Looking at the cross member however, one of the earliest of the basted pieces, it had looked like some tiny spots had been missed. So I got them with the wire wheel and the drill.



Then I noticed the same type of spot on the on the firewall......and the frame rails. Then it hit me, like ah, a two ton heavy thing... (what song guys. cmon?) These were not places I missed, this was rust starting to form. Well #$@, @#$^&#$#&%#* mother%$&$**$@@#

So here's the thing....New England weather, unless its 20 degrees outside, is pretty humid all the friggin time apparently. So lets start off with a tip.

Tip#8 - When media blasting, be prepared to protect any exposed metal as soon as you are done blasting.

I may have cried here, I may have blacked out, I really don't recall. All I remember was thinking there was no way I could keep up with this. With work and other commitments, there was no way I could get this cleaned up and epoxied any time soon. It was going to take me days if I was going to do it with a drill and my drill wasn't sounding too good after the last pass with this stuff. This would all have to be blasted again. I had blasted too much area and the rust was coming in faster than I could keep up.

Tip#9 - Don't take the suspension off until you are sure you don't need to move the car again

#%^.

OK, so not only do I get to live the blasting hell all over again, but now I need to figure a way to get this thing back outside? Hold my beer....

Solution (minus one tow strap to keep it all together):



No I didn't steal it. A friend of mine gave it to me. (really!) It worked like a charm believe it or not. It rolled smoothly and the big casters allowed it to easily make back over the 1 inch lip to get back in the garage. And if I'm thinking positively about all of this, at least now I could take out the engine mounts that I left in place for some reason.

Blasting was considerably quicker this time around, so it allowed time the next day to clean up any rust formations, make the booth and get to painting.

Before:


After:


All dressed in Nason 491-35 DTM Primer/Sealer

I must be getting better at something...this shot was NOT at 3am, (just before midnight on a Sunday) I might actually be rested for work in the morning. Wonder what that's like?

I wet sanded and painted all of this two more times (320 / 400) in the coming days just because I love pain. (and to make sure I had proper coverage and enough base to stand up over time). I guess we'll see.

In an effort to actually help someone, let me say I do believe sealer can go over those tiny rust formations and stop it from getting worse or ever coming through. It bonds with and seals the metal, much like the zinc chromate of yore. So yeah, I probably freaked out over nothing, but I wasn't gathering crystal clear information so in the wake of not being sure, I opted to play it safe. Probably should have asked a question here. I'm so stubborn sometimes.

[73LeMans]

The core support was blasted the following weekend. (no pics) and I epoxied it same as the car. (no pics) Came out fine, buts that's when I noticed the additional cracks I had mentioned in a previous post. (no pics) Small cracks, but they need to be addressed. Those are highlighted in the yellow weld-through primer shown here, but you cant really see them:





I hate weld-through primer. It never works. This time was no exception, so I cleaned it down to metal for a good weld. And yes, ya gotta grind away some of the sealer to get a good ground. I have no pics of that mess thankfully. Once complete, I wet sanded (400) the core all over again to get a good second coat of sealer on it to cover up all I took off. I'm only doing this once, and I'm not taking any shortcuts. Once dry, I wet sand it again (400) to get it ready for the color coat.

Lets just focus on the positive.



Looks good, but the first time I painted it, I has some issues with the finish. I was using something different this time around (Martin Senour - 7243 - Chassis Black) and it came out rather rough feeling (but not looking) in many places when dry. I just chocked it up to not applying enough paint as I knew my conditions were pretty decent. (75 degrees, and humidity less than 30%)

So I wet sanded it (400) and hit again with color the next night. Same thing, but less texture this time. Hmmm...maybe it was the paint? Conditions similar, and the coats were going on wet, but by the time I completed a pass, some of the finish looked like it had already dried.

The core support finally got smooth after wet sanding it again and painting it a third time with more overlap and more speed. It seemed to work.









If any of sounds familiar, that's because I documented it in a previous post but with the frame rails. "OK fellow Michelangelos, what do you think is going wrong" SPOILER ALERT - painted frame rails in that post!

[Brian Baker]

Keep it coming. Enjoying the story line and pictures.

[73LeMans]

This is where any idea of a schedule just starts to fade out of sight. Not necessarily due to the nature of the fix but more from my indecision on how far I want to go with it all. We all suffer from it to some degree I'm sure.


For years now, I could lean on the drivers side front fender and get a very audible squeak from the front end. Through the course of time, I had replaced shocks and springs, but the squeak was still there. I just assumed it was a poly bushing I hadn't lubed enough. I was told they were noisier that stock, so I was resigned to live with it.

Amazing what you discover when removing 20 years of history. This is the inside frame rail, behind the engine cross member, drivers side. I think I just found the source of my squeak:



Well, %^^/ . Add another setback to the list.

So in cleaning this up, I couldn't help but be astounded how shoddy the factory weld was in such a critical location. Take a look. Do these edges have any evidence of good weld penetration? No wonder it cracked. As a matter of fact, I cant believe its not worse considering what I put this car through.



Don't worry, I got the angle and die grinder in there to fully dig out the crack before welding it up.


A little too much splatter, but this ought to hold it together. This is pass 2, over a narrower bead in pass 1.



Trying to control the heat so I didn't melt the paint and still get a solid weld was a balancing act.

The passenger side of the cross member was almost as bad - here is the fix for that:



Now I wish I could say I thought to check the rest of the welded joints after this discovery, but I was so angry about being further behind schedule and scraping off sealer now in TWO friggin spots, I couldn't really see straight. The focus was getting these locations sanded, blended and resealed as quickly as possible, which I did, so I could move on to color.

Then it kept gnawing at me over the week. Eating, digging and grinding away in my head - check those other welded joints. Eating breakfast; check those other welded joints... Brushing my teeth: check those other welded joints... In a meeting at work: Check those other welded joints!

ME: Do I really need to? They're probably fine. They were on there for almost 50 years!
ALSO ME: Just take a look at them......
ME:But setting up to weld and repaint is a royal PITA...masking, sanding, cleaning....
ALSO ME: You only want to do this once, right?
ME: Maybe??

Friggin ME.


Fine, I'll look at them.


You tell me - good decision? Passenger side, rear lower control arm bracket:



I understand for a passenger car in the 70s, this was probably fine. Heck, it stood this long, so it cant be all that bad. Did I really need to "fix" it though? Considering the hard hits on the pavement the front end may see going forward, I thought it best to put a full bead both inside and out on every suspension bracket that didn't have one, which was pretty much all of them.

After -




BTW, don't be concerned about that washer welded to the backside of the bracket or all that metal on the inside. That is finely crafted, precision work done by me to clean up an elongated hole in the mount from a previous transgression. Remember, this car went though the entire family before it got to me~!

I don't have pictures of the other locations but they were all pretty bad. The only suspension locations that didn't need reinforcement were the upper control arm mounts, and the engine cross member to frame on the radiator side of the car.

[Grand73Am]

Glad you mentioned that. It's something I'll look for when I do mine. Thanks!

[73LeMans]

The real problem with any of these issues was only having 2 days a week to address them. Even then, those would never be full days - too much other stuff to do when you're the only one on the job. Painting issues are the worst because as anyone who ever picked up a spray can knows, they require a process each and every time to ensure a decent outcome. If you skimp, it'll show.

When it came to painting the sealer for instance, each time I could only bite off what I could complete in a reasonable time frame, and then I'd use that time to strip, clean, weld, clean again, sand, mask, clean yet again, and finally, reseal. This is why a couple of pictures could easily be the result of two weeks in time. When I look back and ask myself 'why did it take me so long', its easy to forget. Seeing these pictures brings it all back.

With the sealer finally complete, I knew all of these painting issues would just fade away. <<little paint joke there for ya. Fade? If I only knew what lie ahead...
================================================== ================================================== ====================================


My goal for the front end was to look more factory 'type' in appearance. I researched this board almost exclusively for what folks were using for chassis and firewall paint and I looked at a ton of pictures. The effect I was going for wasn't necessarily what GM did in 73, just something in general to mimic the factory contrast between a shiny frame rail and a semi gloss firewall. I didn't want flat paint, and I didn't want multiple shades/sheens of black. All I needed was something that looked good, was tough, and would clean up easily. (without fender wells, dust happens just looking at it)

There is a lot of paint out there for restoration and many places claim to have the correct GM sheen for any piece you may want to color up. Of course they will gladly charge you a premium for such correctness, so I decided on something a little less extravagant.

Ta-dah!!!


Yup. Same stuff I used on the core support.

I wasn't convinced a spray can could get me the consistent results I needed for this large area, but the core did come out pretty good, so I was willing to give it another shot.

I guess its nice not having a good memory sometimes, right? The pain fades, the results stay and you eventually say to yourself, "yeah, Id love to do that again!" Why does that happen? Is it a coping mechanism? I suppose without it, we'd never fall in love, trust, build another car or get back up on that proverbial horse, right?

I hope you like these pictures. Took me 3 rounds of paint and wet sanding (400) to get the finish to feel smooth.









Danny LaRusso never did this much sanding, I can guarantee you that.

This time around, I think it was more a lack of proper lighting than anything paint or condition related. There isn't a ton of room to get lights up and under along with me, and most of the issues I had were either on the inside, or under the rail.


On to the firewall!



The firewall only took two rounds of paint with a wet sand (400) in between to get good. I guess that's progress??






In retrospect, I wont say I wont use the MS paint again, but lets say I was fully appreciating the Rustoleum in these shots. Don't get me wrong - I love the way it came out, but over a wide range of conditions that I never gave any mind to, Rustoleum came out exactly as I planned. This stuff? I guess I need to be more of an expert to figure it out, or at least commit the proper technique to memory.

OK, what technique was that again? You mean TECnique paint? Ooohhh, frame rails you say? Sure! Let me get my tools....

[73LeMans]

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?)

.

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!!