Wyatt convinced me to destroy my 71...

[live4theking]

Ditch the alarm.

 

[sixpkrt]

Last Friday I started to work on removing the rear, to replace the worn springs with the new 7 leaf springs from ESPO, replace the bushings, shocks with KYB's and have the axel bearings pressed in, and then the new 3.23 sure grip purchased last year will replace the old open 3.23.
After 8 hours at the office I started plugging away, disconnected the e-brake cable, dropped the drive shaft, and disconnected the soft and hard brake lines. It was late so I turned off the lights and went home.

The next morning when the shocks were being removed, Wyatt stopped over to pitch in, and helped with removing the rear end. Saved a bunch of time...Thanks.

 

[sixpkrt]

After the rear end was out, the next hurdle was to remove the old bushings. The fire wrench made this go a bit easier once the old bushings on the spring connectors/shackles were heated enough to start smoking. Tried doing it on the floor at first, but that was a PITA. So placed one end of the spring in the vice with the other end resting on the floor. Doing this gave the leverage needed to move the connectors. The shackle's needed to have the same job done to them, but these were easier to get out once they were heated up.

The shackles and spring connectors were dropped off yesterday at the power coating company I use to get sandblasted and and the powder coated to matching with the same black as on the stub frame.
This morning I removed the seals in the axel housing, took a depth measurement where the new ones should to, then after wrapping in plastic, loaded it in my trunk and off to have it hot dipped to remove the crud and any surface rust. Sandblasting is great for parts with non-moving components, but is not an option for the rear housing.

Once they've done the job with the hop tank, probably by Monday, it'll also go to the powder coater. I should be able to have everything back together and installed by next weekend.

 

[sixpkrt]

Bit by bit over the past couple weeks, the parts were getting finished up by the powder coating company. Had a little delay in the turn around time with the company that chemically stripped the 8.75 housing before getting it over to have powder coater, and after having the bearings pressed in earlier this week, and finishing up cleaning the parts, its time to begin the reassembly.
Using a large socket placed on the seal was the tool of choice to set the L/R seals.

Earlier in the week while waiting for the machine shop to press in the new bearings, I took some time to change out the center caps and trim rings to the correct style, using the parts from the Hurst wheels that were picked up last year at Carlisle.

Once the axels were picked up, cleaning up the hardware, nuts/bolts etc., and the rear drums, them sprayed everything with some WD-40 to help protect the parts from any elements that may cause rust. Everything was laid out to reassemble the rear end.
More pics to follow as everything goes together.

 

[tallhair]

Everything looks purty.

Thanks for the update

 

[sixpkrt]

Ran into a little snag with my spring pads being too wide.
So with the motto of "work with what ya got" out came the Sawzall.

....3 more to go

 

[sixpkrt]

 

[sixpkrt]

I set up a jig on the work bench to drop in the pumpkin, using the homemade stand I used last year for the crank during the engine build. The housing was then clamped to the vise to keep it from turning. Can't take any credit for the stand, as it was Xenon's invention, but he may not have known it at the time that it would be used as a multi-purpose tool for a rear end job too.

My wife called earlier today to let me know our local movie theater just reopened with limited seating and that she purchased 2 tickets to see The Marksman with Liam Neeson.
It'll be nice to do something normal again, so after the case is torqued to 45' lbs, it'll be time to call it a day and go home early.

 

[saforwardlook]

Were the springs on your car originally 7 leafs Tim? Others have ordered new leaf springs from ESPO in the past - have they had the same problem with the pad being too wide?

Did you order springs with the stock height or did you specify 1" higher or .........................?

 

[sixpkrt]

Yes, the old springs were 7 leaf. IIRC all TNT cars came with 7 leafs.
ESPO sells 6 & 7 leaf springs for our C bodies, so I bought the same as my old springs. When speaking with them while placing the order, there was no mention of a 1" difference.
They also have the hardware and pads needed to do this job too, but I had bought the leaf spring pads last year, thinkin I would have time to do the rear end then before Carlisle, but I ran out of time.
The pads I bought last year came from Dynamax. The pads ESPO may be completely different than the ones Dynamax sells, but since I already had the Dynamax pads, I didn't buy any from ESPO, so I can't comment on them or would know how they fit.

While we're speaking on the springs, the ESPO brand is very good quality as far as I can tell. They come already painted too, but I sprayed mine with some clear coat to protect the finish.

 

[Sport Fury 67]

Keep going Tim, we really enjoy your posts and the progress on the car. I am seriously jealous of those Hurst wheels. The photos are great as we can see how the components all go together in these assemblies. No trouble keeping the beer cold this time of the year.

 

[3175375]

I set up a jig on the work bench to drop in the pumpkin, using the homemade stand I used last year for the crank during the engine build. The housing was then clamped to the vise to keep it from turning. Can't take any credit for the stand, as it was Xenon's invention, but he may not have known it at the time that it would be used as a multi-purpose tool for a rear end job too.

My wife called earlier today to let me know our local movie theater just reopened with limited seating and that she purchased 2 tickets to see The Marksman with Liam Neeson.
It'll be nice to do something normal again, so after the case is torqued to 45' lbs, it'll be time to call it a day and go home early.
View attachment 433075 View attachment 433076 View attachment 433077 View attachment 433078

Excellent work!

My girlfriend and I watched The Marksman this past Friday and we both enjoyed it.

 

[sixpkrt]

My girlfriend and I watched The Marksman this past Friday and we both enjoyed it.

Don't tell how it ends....We wound up leaving the theater without seeing the movie. When we get there, we couldn't walk up to the concession stand to buy popcorn or soda. Your order had to be placed from your smart phone, and then they'd call your name when it was ready. (We were standing 20' away from the concession stand, and even though they had the whole section protected with plexiglass, we couldn't just walk up and buy what we wanted. It took 15 minutes before our order was ready.
Next, we get our assigned "covid safe seats"....right in the front row of the movie theater. We thought the whole episode was so ridiculous in a funny way, we grabbed our bucket of pop corn and sodas, got our money back and left.
We think it will be some time before we venture to the movie theater again with these new covid rules.

 

[sixpkrt]

Back to the car... got more work done with getting the rear end finished and back onto the car.
Since the dolly's worked best when Wyatt and I removed the rear end, we used them to roll the assembled housing & springs back under the car, once they were back together, then bolted up the front brackets to the frame, raising everything to the needed height with the floor jack.

Next were the rear shackels....

The brake lines, e-brake and final adjustments were done yesterday, and the old bias ply tires were put back on, with the intent of taking to get another estimate, but this happened last night....

At least the rear end is back in.

Only thing left to do is put the driveshaft back in.
Knowing the plan for this car is to get the body work done and repainted before the 2021 Carlisle show, but with this sudden change with the weather, that'll have to wait for another day.

 

[tallhair]

You are a master at posting build thread updates.

Thank you

 

[Sport Fury 67]

You should get Milwaukee Tools to sponsor your re-build, there is a power tool in every set of photos

 

[sixpkrt]

Now that's not a bad idea.
A bigger Sawzall was recently added to my Milwaukee tool rack for a job needed on this car.

 

[sixpkrt]

Yesterday I got another bid on having the NYer's body work repaired and to have the car painted so I can get the car out of the shop to work on other projects. Next weekend the rollback will come to pic it up.
I started to take some of the body trim molding off the car today, to get it prepped for the body shop.
After looking at the car for a moment, I decided to start with the left door.
Once the door panel was off, the remote mirror was the next part to be removed.

The remote cable is secured inside the door with the cable running through 2 small clips. The clips are visible on the front of the door. To remove them took a little finagling, but eventually they both came out unbroken.

Once the mirror was out, it was time to try my hand on removing the trim.

 

[furious70]

Were you on the body shop list for a long time or did you just call up and in? We finally got my brother's rt/se charger in after being on the list for 3 years back in Iowa. It's a good full service resto shop without a big name so worth the wait but still..

 

[sixpkrt]

The biggest concern I had with removing the trim was breaking the plastic clips. From what I've seen and read posted on these forums is that they are not reproduced.
Last July I found someone selling all the trim and a bunch of clips for a 2 door 71 NYer, and after having some pics that were sent to me, I decided make the purchase seeing that the sellers trim parts were in much better shape that what mine looked like, from when the previous owner was banging around the streets in Detroit 30+ years ago.

After removing the 2 nuts on the back side of the door where the trim is fastened, the rest was removed using a small trim tool. The trim pieces came off pretty easily, and no broken clips during the process. Taking your time pays off.

Then the next area moved to was the front fender moldings and wheel lip molding.
Pulled the fender turn signal and removed the C-H-R-Y-S-L-E-R letters off the hood, slowly working my way to the other side of the car.