You may be wondering where I went. Don't worry, I've been in the garage. Doing lots of stuff without taking any pictures to post, which leaves me without motivation to blog. But I'm trying to catch up. I'll do better in the future.
August weekends ended up being pretty busy, so most of what I got done was after work. I continued cleaning and painting parts, working toward finishing up the frame and suspension.
I got the rear brakes done. Actually, the right side got done twice. The first time I put the e-brake shoes and stuff together wrong, so after I figured out how it was supposed to look I was able to get it right. Ordinarily I would have done one side before taking the other apart - so I could still have an example of how to put it together, as you're supposed to do - but in this case the rearend came into my possession disassembled. I figured it only went together one way, but I was wrong. After a little head scratching and google image searching it made sense.
One thing I don't have a picture of is my wounded knee, which I punctured with pliers while trying to put on the motherf'ing spring that holds the brake shoes together. I think that might be the hardest job I've encountered on this whole damn car, brute-force-effort-wise. I stabbed myself in the knee so hard that it was one of those times when at first, it doesn't bleed, so you think you're maybe going to be okay, pain notwithstanding. Then all of a sudden you have a gusher on your hands, and no amount of wiping it with a rag or putting electrical tape on it so you can keep working is going to help. Man, that sucked. But the brakes are done.
Calipers are just painted with VHT rattle can caliper paint. I was going to do something fancier but decided to save money. No one's ever going to see them anyway. You can see that they fit inside 15" wheels just fine.
I did have a good experience with Advance Auto, though. I've been buying parts from them for a few months now, every time I see their "spend $125, save $50" deal advertised. But the calipers were the first thing that had a core charge involved. We don't have any AA stores on the west coast, so I was a little hesitant to buy these, but I went for it and it worked out well. They sent a shipping label and instructions on how to box things up. I sent them back and got my core refund a few days later. Easy peasy.
Here's the rearend all geared up and ready to go. The rearend cover was mangled by Ford, who punched a hole in it at the factory before plugging it with a huge rubber grommet - poor man's drain plug, I guess. Sometimes I can't believe what the bean counters come up with. Anyway, I was going to buy a new cover with a vent and drain but they're so expensive. In the meantime I decided to try welding up the hole and painting it, which I did and which turned out pretty damn good. Someday I might get a different cover but for now I'm all set.
As for the front end, I finally started installing some of the freshly painted parts that were piling up in the garage. First picture is a typical example of my "paint booth."
At that point, all of the hardware holding the front end together is factory original, extensively wire-brushed before reinstallation. I guess that's another benefit of living away from oceans and snow. Hardware doesn't get unusably rusty. However, as you'll see later, I had to change a few things around.
Finally, here's my steering box, which I disassembled and cleaned, and my dad pressed old bearings out of and new bearings into. Almost too pretty to paint, right? Well, I painted it.
Pretty excited about this little guy. I've driven this car for almost 20 years and it has never had good steering. Looking forward to feeling the difference.
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