Dismantling Session #9 - 9-27-13 - Big Decisions...

Got her rear end up in the air now. One reason is I need to get the car in this position (frankly a bit higher than this) to remove the engine. The engine removal angle on these cars is odd in order that you can avoid crushing the nose on the front. Nonetheless after some local research and discussion and discovering that my floor boards and hidden metal was essentially free of rust, I have decided to forego a complete strip down and repaint and instead redo the underside and suspension. I will still be removing the engine obviously. I will then be cleaning and stripping the under carriage and painting the underside with POR-15 in a black semi-gloss. I will also remove the interior except for the dash, and POR-15 the entire floor board and interior well and install Hush Mat.

Once that is complete I will reinstall the suspension after grinding and repainting the axle, subframe, rear trailing and radius arms and prop shaft in the same semi gloss black. I will be reinstalling new shocks, struts, springs, uprated stiffer front and rear anti roll bars, poly bushings throughout, and steel braided flexible brake lines.  At that point I will have a rolling frame in damn good shape to deliver to the paint shop. A lot to do before then and below is the start of that process...

I needed to remove the interior carpeted panels behind the seats to access the top of the shocks. This is the before/during...

This is the after to expose the top of the rear shocks...

Close up of the right rear shock top... Little bit of rust through on the opening where that third screw clip goes (about 11 o clock in the pic) I will sand it down and see what it looks like but easy fix with a new clip or a quick little weld of a washer or metal strip if things turn out worse that they look.

Left side with the shock already removed. Much of what looks like surface rust here is the glue for the carpet panels and sound deadening foam.