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1970 1800E Driver Restoration

Got the backing plates and cross member back from the shop; I'll be doing my own blasting from now on, regardless of how messy and annoying it is.....total cost was $310.00.

Blasting revealed three more small stress cracks that needed sorting:

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After welding and grinding:

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And after the first coat of finish paint:

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Here's the cross member with the first coat of finish paint:

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Also got the patch to the back of the front section of the passenger frame rail fixed. The welds were ugly (my first-ever welding attempt) so I intentionally didn't take any photos. Yes, there's metal underneath the filler. Sprayed it with Rustoleum semi gloss black after the filler cured.

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Backing plates had a couple of small pin-holes but are good enough for my purposes. Primed them with SEM acid etch primer and then shot them with rattle can wheel paint:

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Blasted and then painted a few small front (and one rear) suspension components:

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Second coat of cross member paint will go on tomorrow. hope to start putting the front suspension back together evenings starting next week, then it will be time to roll the car into the basement/garage so things can begin in earnest.
 
Spent a couple hours this morning getting small bits and pieces ready for the front suspension rebuild.

Removed the undercoating and polished up the brake junction and lines that run across the engine cross member.

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Blasted the upper wishbone shafts, the u-bolts, two of the bushing shells that were really crusted out on the inside, and some other small bits and shot them with semi-gloss black.

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Also harvested some parts off an 1800 front cross member that I got in a parts haul last year. Thanks to a MAP gas torch I was able to get the two upper wishbone shaft bolts that I need along with some more shims. Also salvaged the lower wishbone bolts off that piece; they are a lot straighter than what came off my 1970. How common is it for those bolts to be bent/saddled anyway???

With slow paint drying times due to the cool temps I'm now aiming to start putting the front suspension/brakes back together Thursday after work.
 
A little bit of progress but I'm on hold until a swap for some vintage IPD springs comes through. Hope to have them within the next week. Also trying to determine if I need to replace one of the new lower control arm bushings that I hosed up a bit so that it doesn't seat as deeply as it ought to....

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New lower control arm bushing ordered from FCP. Planetman's advice greatly appreciated. It should be here by Monday so I can hopefully get it pressed in using my Jawhorse 1T vice on Tuesday after work.

Should have the vintage IPD springs (that I traded to Volvoracer for last year and am now trading to get back :)) next week at which point I'll need to blast and paint them.

Looking like it will be the first week in December or so before I can get this on four wheels and roll it into the garage.
 
You might want to turn the lower A arm pivot bolts around. You won't be able to remove the passenger side bolt without removing the exhaust down pipe if you install them that way (the bolt should go in from the front).
 
You might want to turn the lower A arm pivot bolts around. You won't be able to remove the passenger side bolt without removing the exhaust down pipe if you install them that way (the bolt should go in from the front).

Thanks! I thought I had it right as I looked at my ES before I put the bolts in....either I mis-looked or the ES is done up wrong

Appreciate the lookout!
 
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Got the replacement lower control arm bushing from FCP and pressed it in using my handy-dandy Jawhorse 1 ton vice followed by some kinetic "persuasion." Both control arms now loosely mounted (and thanks again to Hiperfauto for alerting me to the bolt issue....it was even worse than that. I was rushing to make some progress after work and actually had both of the lower control arms mounted on the wrong side because I lost track of the orientation of the cross member...duh! All sorted now).

Also completed the trade of my OE springs for a set of vintage IPD sport springs. Hope to get the springs blasted and maybe even a coat of paint on tomorrow after work. Photos tomorrow....and some questions about differences between the two front springs.
 
Finally got time to work on this again. Made a lot of progress. Since last post I blasted, primed, and painted the IPD springs. Shots below are in primer. Top coated them later with Rustoleum semi-gloss black.

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Getting ready to fit the front cross member assembly. I ended up pulling the upper wishbone and shaft on the driver's side because it was conflicting with the hard line for the fuel return:

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Got the cross member bolted up and "re-populated" the front suspension:

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" title="Passenger Side Suspension


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You'll note that there are no calipers. The ones that I bought at the local parts place (of course) don't fit. Will be returning them tomorrow and commencing a search for proper ones.

Despite having zero brakes (hand brake is also out) I decided to go for it and with some help I rolled it from the upstairs of the barn into the basement garage. Was pretty exciting since the initial part of the trip is on a decent grade. I found out that even without an engine it's kind of hard to resist the momentum of a couple of tons of steel rolling on rubber. Thanks to a handy snowbank and some nifty footwork it all worked out just fine.

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" title="In the Garage


Not 100% I'm going to like the ride height with the IPD springs. Time will tell. The rear should sit a bit higher after I rebuild that end of the suspension; as pictured here it's got the IPD springs and no shocks (they're in the budget for next month, probably).

This is where it will sit for a while. Going to get it up off the ground, start pulling apart the rear end, drop the gas tank, and get started on the underbody welding. Already have the radiator cross member from Eric (Planetman) and it is a great quality piece and looks like it will be an excellent fit. Definitely time to figure out how to weld!
 
Single digits outside. Nor'easter. Hovering around 34 degrees in my unheated basement garage; seemed like a good time to make some progress.

Since the last post I got the car up on jack stands and have been pecking away at prepping for and fitting the front radiator cross member support. Don't have photos of all of this work but I've cut out the rotted sections of the front frame rail sections on both sides and they are more or less ready to be patched. I'll be putting in about 1" to 1.5" patches here (details to be determined by better understanding of the repair panel fitting.

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I also have sanded/blasted the underside of the front cowl (bottom side of where all the spot welds were drilled out to remove the rotted out cross member) and put on a coat of zinc cold galvanizing paint to give it some protection.

I've got all of the old junk and rot out and have dry fit the repair section a couple of times and it seems to be a very good fit. My big concern at this point is my ability to pull of the plug welds without making a huge mess (see below).

I had a bit of rot through at the forward edge of the inner fender on the passenger side where it goes down to meet the frame rail and also ties into the inner cowl. There are a tremendous number of factory spot welds in this area and I decided to simply patch over the section, put in a couple of plug welds towards the forward edge, and then seam seal and undercoat it when done.

Here's the area more or less prepped for welding:

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I did sand it down to bare metal and shoot it with zinc before welding. Here's the patch panel in place awaiting grinding (which will some tomorrow):

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Obviously I'm not proud of the result. I can live with and make it work but my skills need to improve before I try the radiator cross section plug welds. You can see on the right side of the patch that I attempted a few plug welds. They are ugly. I tried to move around in a circle ending toward the middle of the pre-drilled hole but it looks like I just blasted molten crap into portions of the hole. I think part of the problem might have been that I didn't have the patch tight up against the backing I was trying to weld it to.

What bugs me more is the weld that's detailed in the last photo (bottom of the panel). I'm just trying to weld the frigging patch to the structure beneath it but even after adjusting the voltage and wire feed speed downards twice it seems like I'm getting adhesion to the structure underneath but more or less blasting through the patch material (which here is from leftovers of a 240 floor pan patch piece). If anyone can give me advice here I'd appreciate it....I'm going to attack it again tomorrow.
 
Obviously, my abilities are less than yours, but let me pose the following questions:

Is the zinc coating intended to be under a surface that will be welded? I ask because I always hear guys talking about using specific "weld-through" primers.

Where is your ground clamp for the welder being placed? Is it on clean steel, and as close to the weld as possible? Also, just keep the battery disconnected while you are welding on the car.

The shielding gas would make the welds noticeably cleaner. But, if you are using good flux-core wire of the correct size and have the heat/speed settings dialed in, then you shouldn't be getting the pigeon poop effect. I'll ask around a bit.

Also, when I think about how easily and cheaply you could take that downstairs area from 34 to 54, I have to laugh and reflect on where you got your stubbornness from. :rofl:
 
Zinc on the back of the patch.

Ground clamp was on clean metal about 6" from the patch. Getting an arc wasn't a problem....getting it to do something useful was.

34 is balmy.
 
Does that particular area need a patch over it? Is the patch intended to strengthen or conceal? It looks like minor "rot" there.

Here is the advice that I received from the garagejournal guys:

Stop welding over zinc. The fumes are toxic.

The pigeon poop appearance suggests that the weld is cold. Turn the heat/power on the machine UP.

Many of the guys believe that flux core wire and thin sheet metal will yield poor results, especially for a novice. They recommend using solid core wire and shielding gas. I do have a gas regulator for that welder.

Stop trying to run a bead and just do individual spot welds, one at a time, spaced apart to avoid warping the metal. Gradually fill them in.

Actually, instead of me retyping all of what they said, why don't I just link you to the thread? Just put your flame suit on because the fellas sure got some laughs from this, as did I. That being said, I sure as heck couldn't do any better at this time! There is advice, not just jokes.

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230620
 
Does that particular area need a patch over it? Is the patch intended to strengthen or conceal? It looks like minor "rot" there.

Many of the guys believe that flux core wire and thin sheet metal will yield poor results, especially for a novice. They recommend using solid core wire and shielding gas. I do have a gas regulator for that welder.

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230620

I checked the GarageDicks thread....humbling. I guess everyone who already has achieved automotive ninja status must hang there.

I think I will snag your gas regulator and make another attempt with solid core. And I guess I should find a bunch of scrap and do some serious practice on that before I attempt more on the car.....you know how that goes against my very nature.

Thinking maybe that I will start working on the rear suspension and brake rebuild and spend some time during those intervals to figure out the welding part. That or just give up on it and pay someone to do it for me (though that would still leave me clueless, feeling defeated, and way over my budget).

Was -10 here this morning so it's too frigging cold to do anything right now. Will cogitate for a while and determine my next move.
 
Still licking my wounds from my abortive effort at welding. Decided to make some progress where I could while I decide whether to tackle the welding myself or not.

Bought rebuilt front calipers from Eric (Planetman) at High Performance (http://hiperformanceautoservice.com). With a set of OEM pads and shipping they were about $230.00 and shipped really quickly. They arrived yesterday and are really nicely refinished and all of the casting marks (the "G" etc.) are very crisp. Much better than your average aftermarket rebuild jobs; very happy with them.

I got the caliper and lines all sorted out on the passenger's side and have the caliper and pads mounted on the driver's side. If I get motivated I'll get the lines on the driver's side done tomorrow.

You may notice that the pins holding the pads are in backwards in the photos (at least I believe they're supposed to be inserted from the back of the caliper); fixed them after the photos were taken and I noticed what I'd done.

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Thanks for the kudos,

FYI, you have the brake hoses routed incorrectly. Here is a picture of the correct hose routing.


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Also, your brake hoses look old and they may even have undercoating on them. If they do have undercoating on them that means they are the original hoses!!

In case you need them, I have braided steel brake hose kits and in a variety of colors.
 
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