well, i started an awesome project. NOT. my arms are bruised and torn and so are my hands. this is a day by day update on the overhauling of the rear subframe.

this, is day one:

well, i need to undercoat my car. right? wrong. i need to do alot more. the frame is in good shape, but i think it could use a better job. i will probably also replace the engine cradle and steering rack with one i refurbished. soon. not now though. but, first things first. your day one, isnt going to get you much. just do this. order poly urethane bushings and if your lucky like me, get the parts you want to fix so you can take your time on them and do it right. this is what i have to work with, my canvas if you will. you will also need to drop the axle back section of your exhaust. mine actually came off very easily. if only my axles were as stubborn as the exhaust. aka easy! dont forget to take all nuts and bolts and clearly label them in a plastic baggy or by sticking them in a piece of cardboard, OR by butting them back into their original spot with out obviously the piece the held mounted in place attatched.





not pretty i know. day one you can drop soem stuff, but if your life lieks to kick you in the ***** like me, you'll bust your sway bar endlinks! hurray!!! you also my axle nuts are frozen in place. remove your wheels and all other pieces you can easily unbolt. your best bet then is to blast everything with PB blaster let if sit till morning. blast them again, and try to work on it when your back from your day at work or school, or w/e you do. (mike) this is as far as i was able to get



however i am very resourceful. i picked up low mileage parts, and did them up right. sandblasted and painted and my poly bushings. this is what i have to work with once i drop the 90k rust bucket ****.





ohhh yeah... this is going to look sweet. tune in next time for hopefully, an empty rear end with a nice coat of sealer on it all.

 

holy rust batman!

 

lol, yeah its wierd, its only the rear subframe diff and oil pan. the tranny, tranny hull, fenders, wheel wells, framing, floor pans etc. are all in perfect condition. not a blemish on them.

 

i would like to see that car sand blasted if i get my way..

 

looks good Snwy. I'm gonna do that to the Fairlady... but all black.

 

i hope you do more then that bleach..

 

I'll put some NISMO stickers on the diff too

 

haha ^^^ good accent, well im not going to be like your brother and make my underneath glow red but it will be sandblasted. and i intended to also replace those swing arms. but the pin holding them to the stub axle is near inpossible to remove. so ill have to sand blast it and paint it while its on the car. but thats all the red im using. im thinking of polishing the diff cover as well. and ill clean up the axles prolly paint them black as well. i want it to look nice not tacky, so its only some red, teh rest will blend. i hope to get the rest of that **** out though tommorrow. assuming the axles cooperate. i can believe how frozen those bolts are.

 

DAY 2:

well i couldnt get quite as far as i wanted. but still. good progress. my nuts (lol) connecting the drive shaft to diff were siezed. so i droped everything around it and am working on them. turns out i had shock towers with the pins already removed. so the only original part going back up will be the short cross member and drive shaft. but today i dropped everything but the strut towers (since the brake line is also siezed to the brakes) and cleaned and prepped my other parts for paint. this is how everything stands now

prepped for paint strut tower and all:




prepped for paint swing arms, one already in primer:



this one only ground down and sprayed to with the GREAT rust converter stuff that also preps for paint at teh same time:


Junk parts, GOOD RIDDENS:




and how the rear sits as of this moment, not to bad once all those parts have been removed:

 

Moving along pretty good. I have seen worse rust...I am sure that all will be fine.

 

Day 3

soo, today i was able to drop the rest. and got jsut about all my parts painted and teh half shafts and drive shaft off teh diff. it was one hellofa project. im beat to ****. but i have ALL new bushings except for the sway bars, but that will be a B-day or X-mas present since they are 21 days apart lol. but its all looking good. and im gonna get me sum SS brake lines since my rubber ones are seperating


just like before, out with the old:





and.... in with, nothing? thats right its just stripped only brake lines and fuel lines left up there:





and since all of you RAVE over rustoleum paint jobs, i did a rustoleum paint job..... here:







got rustoleum reduced it and sprayed. tommorow i sand blast and paint... well, maybe... i forgot its a friday. lol. man, i cant WAIT to drive this thing, all new rear bushings. soo nice. then ima pull the motor, power wash it paint the engine bay replace the engine cradle with my "new" one and steering rack. ahhh, all this stuff has only 60k. soo nice

 

looks good...congrats on the spindle pin remove

 

lol, they were already removed. however for the hell of it we did remove one from the original set our selves. it was stubborn but came out faily simply some how. the other one though seems to be pretty much frozen. but no matter, dont need tehm any ways.

 

day 4

this day was full of sand blasting followed by power washing the underneath. then i went to undercoating.

i seemed to have lost my day 3 pictures though.... well, most of themthis is how the under neath stands now





now for th etricky part, even thoguh you dont have to, i wanted polyurethane bushings ALL around. even where the A arms meet the strut towers. to do this you need to remove teh pins. very very hard to do right. there is a pin in the middle that you take the nut off of and then tap it out. TAP. then loosin the nuts on both ends of the rods holding the A arms to the towers. then tap those out, use a punch if you have one in the center cause you dont want to ruin the threads my hitting directly on the ends of the rods. they should come out far enough to get a vice grip on and tist it and pull or tap the vice. it will come out, eventually. now press in your bushing, i was able to get them in with C clamps. now for the hard part. getting the rods back in. if you notice (which i didnt) the rods NEED to go in a certain way, the notches in them for the pins are off center. illustrated in this picture:

where the pin goes



wrong way to put the pin in. notice how if held evenly at both ends the notche and pin hole doesnt line up


the right way


now grease up EVERYTHING. the rod inside the hole for the rod and bushing. now for a little trick. stick the rod in the freezer. and let it sit in there for at least 20 mins. mean while, slowly heat with a torch (move it around so dont just heat one spot) around the casting the rods goes in



do this for 10 mins it should get pretty damn hot but not hot enough to melt the bushing. now take the rod out of the freezer, stick multiple washers on one end and twist the nut on, not you have a secure surface you can hit on to pound the pin in without fear of ruining the threads. it will take some good hitting (dont slam them just be forgive yet stern) and they will go right in. i vouched for not using those pins to hold the rods in cause quite frankly, they dont really do squat. the nuts will never back off cause they go on tight, and even if they did, that pin isnt going to just work its way out. they are reletivly pointless.

hopefully tommorow i assemble the rear and drop her back down

 

I approve of the rustoleum paint job. I'm surprised you didnt' paint the fuel pump red.

 

well as long as you approve thats all that matters. lol, i didnt want to paint teh fuel pump, but i was to lazy to take it out and wanted to get teh bracket, so i got overspray. thats the only thing i skimped on, was removing the fuel and bake lines. but tehy are all metal tubing under teh car anyways so i figured, they should get rust proofed as well. i REALLY want to do this to the front end to and paint my engine bay, but its so much work going around the wiring and i dont have a engine hoist.

 

final day! ( still need to toss up the way bar and change a stud on the hub, no biggie )

well, ill explaine first then post the finishing picks. this last part is best done with a buddy. because its a bitch. now that you have your A arms assembled take them out and stick them back up. (also go buy all new nuts and bolts) this is done with a buddy up top to put teh nuts on and you down lifting the heavy *** things up into the well and holding them there till he can get 2 nuts on. then tighten them up. now you can stick up your mustache bar. 2 nuts no big. then the rear carrage that goes under it. it can be done by yourself but since its kinda bulky and will move around its best with a partner. 4 bolts there and use lock washers or at least loctite. tighten those all up evenly though dont just tighten one all the way then the other. make a patern. now your ready for the rear diff. bolt the axles and front cross member to the diff. stick it on a jack and slide it under the car. now have a buddy jack it up while you hold teh nose of it. once its in place you might have to rotat it to get the studs to line up with the holes with the moustache bar. then have you buddy pull the diff and jack back until in the holes and just start teh nuts on them. now you can slip the A arm bushing into that cross member on the diff and bolt those up. use lock washers people.you can now tighten those up and remember you do them evenly not one at a time. then get the rear A arms bolted up with the bottom bracket piece that holds tehm to the carrage. now you should be able to finish up teh rest. new nuts and bolts on the axles to the stub axles. and then slide the drive shaft on and bolt. vvuwala!! your finished. now admire.

i still have yet to finish the undercoating. next time we do the front end so its poly bushings all around and a show car under carrage.

 

dont post in this. im deleting this and making a new thread so its all step by step not broken up. and is titled better