Front suspension rebuild

[kenz240z]

I am almost finished with the front suspension rebuild on my '73 240Z. I have refinished all of the hardware with Eastwood's Chassis Black paint. It's got about an 80% gloss and seems to be pretty close to the original black. I used Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator as the primer, since I couldn't get into all the nooks and crannies. It's like POR15, and can be thinned for spraying. I've got a few pics of the progress in my photo gallery.

So far everything has gone smoothly, I've managed to take the springs off the struts without injury (spring compressors are a must). My hands are turning black, though, from all the repainting!

Once I get the front end put back together I can put the engine back in. The cylinder head went bad and was leaking coolant into a couple of cylinders, so I had the engine rebuilt. Then I will tackle rebuilding the rear suspension. :hurt:

Hopefully I'll have my Z back on the road by the end of June, I miss driving it!

Kenny P.

[dogma420]

keep us informed, and congrats on getting it about done.

[mlc240z]

kenz,

how did you treat the rust, if any, before the primer on the front suspension parts?

i can't afford the bead blasting and am looking into trying the electrolytic method. seems cheap and easy but i don't know how effective it will be.

thanks,

bart

[george71z]

Make sure you search past posts for advice and tips on the notorious spindle pin replacement job at the rear suspension. Don't tackle this, or replacing the rear wheel bearings, without getting some forewarning and hints. The FSM and even Wick Humble's book don't do these projects justice.

[mdbrandy]

I did almost exactly what you've done on your suspension. Front end is done and back in the car, and the rear is in a million pieces, and about half of it is repainted. I was just out in the garage cleaning the old grease out of one of the rear stub axles. I hope to have everything painted by the end of this weekend, and then next weekend put it back together!

I also used Eastwood's rust encapsulator and chasis black. Did you get their "new" chassis black, or the original? The new stuff says it is tougher and easier to recoat, but I had two cans of the original so I used it.

I don't know how many hours I spent in front of wire wheels and with my little harbor freight sandblaster. I found that sandblasting is really slow, but the only way to get to some of the areas. I probably got rid of 98% of the old paint and rust, but I used the rust encapsulator because of that other 2%. 8" wire wheel in the bench grinder and a twisted wire cup brush on the hand grinder took care of a lot of the paint and rust.

Looks awesome! Wish my frame and engine bay looked as good as yours!

[AChev]

hey mlc240z, superdave did a great write up on the electrolytic process a short while ago, here is the thread. Electrolytic Rust Removal It should take care of any questions you had about the process

[mlc240z]

thanks schevets,

already read it, that's where i got the original idea from and then did some more research.

that's one of the reasons i like this site, so much info and prior experiences to learn from.

it seems like an cheap and easy way, just haven't done it yet. the results posted look amazing.

[kenz240z]

Getting the parts clean enough for the rust encapsulator took a couple weeks of cleaning. First I used a scraper to remove the heavy deposits of dirt, grease and grime. Then I used a small pick to get the gunk out of tight spots.

One trick I found that really helps is to soak the parts in a hot water detergent bath. I used a product called Super Heavy Duty Degreaser that I bought at a local Harbor Freight store. I mixed it with very hot tap water in a 5 gallon bucket. That allowed me to clean the larger items, like the front struts. I would mix up a bucket of hot water & cleaner and soak the parts over night. What grime that was left was a lot easier to scrape off.

Once I had the parts nice & clean I used a wire brush to remove the old paint & surface rust. For large areas I used a cup brush on my hand grinder, for tight areas I used a hand brush. I also got a couple of small, toothbrush sized brushes with brass bristles for cleaning tight areas.

For treating rust in hard to get areas I have used a product called Rust Mort that I bought at a paint supply shop. I use a small acid brush (also from the paint supply shop) to apply the Rust Mort to seams, joints & other hard to get areas. I used it extensively in the battery tray area of my Z, since it was hard to get in the tight spots to sand the rust off.

I was able to get most of the rust off the suspension parts with the wire brush, fortunately the parts were mostly dirty, not too rusty. I am hoping that the Rust Encapsulator will prevent future problems with any bits of rust I didn't remove. I bought the original Chassis Black. I got the new Eastwood catalog recently and saw that they now have a new, improved version. I'll try that when I refinish the rear suspension parts.

As for the hard to disassemble items like removing the gland nut from the strut housing and removing the original bushings from the front transverse links, I decided to pay a shop to do the work. I figured it was money well spent, since I don't have the proper tools to do that kind of work (not yet, anway...someday, when I set up my dream shop!). I also figured it saved me a ton of effort and frustration!

Tonight I finished putting the front suspension back together. I still have a few bolts to torque, I should get that done tomorrow night. This weekend I plan to start on the rear suspension rebuild... I'm dreading the removal of the spindle pins, control arm bushings and axle stub nuts. There's a great shop nearby that specializes in Z cars, I plan to check with them about tackling these parts!

Kenny P.

[jmanz6]

To remove my spindle pins I took it to the local machine shop and just had them press them out. It was $25 for the pair. I cut them with a hack saw to remove the control arm, then took them over to be pressed out. The rear control arm bushings are removed the same as the fronts. Cut the outer housing and drive it out.

I bead blasted my suspension parts and powder coated them, but you can sometimes take them to a machine shop and have them hot tank them for you pretty cheap. It's faster and less work than doing it all manually. Plus it gets all the rust. The electrolytic method will only get the rust that the plate can "see". There are ways to get into the areas that are hidden, but they don't work to get ALL the rust out. Bead blasting won't get all the rust from the hidden areas either. But I figured since there was a lot of undercoating in there, and it has lasted 30+ years already, it should be fine.

Good luck getting it back together, sounds like you are making good progress.

[AChev]

Hey, I was thinking about hot tanking, but i wasn't sure about how much it would cost. Maybe you wouldn't mind sharing how much you paid for your suspension to be hot tanked?

[jmanz6]

It really depends on the shop. Some will do it cheap, others won't. I have some suspension parts for my truck project done last year and it was about $25. I called around this year for the lower control arms (front and rear) and it seemed everyone wanted about $25 each. I went with bead blasting since I have a blaster big enough to do my suspension parts. It's not as thorough as dipping, but it will do for my car. I would call around to the machine shops and see if they will do it for you. I've heard of some doing it for free (pretty unlikely though). If you were closer, I would bead blast them for you for cheap - kind of a side business of mine.

[AChev]

Well I have an air compressor, so I thought about getting the equiptment to do bead blasting myself. In the long run it looked like it would be a strong investment. I don't know if you've seen where I am with my car,but I'll be starting frame up, so I think buying stuff for a bead blaster would be worth my while. I haven't started the suspension yet though.