Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[Hardway]

Great work Charlie!  I love your DIY blast cabinet made from the Rubbermaid tote.  On your question about the rear hubs, if the bearings are quiet and feel good and no grease is seeping out of the seals I would say leave them be.  You can clean up everything pretty good with a wire rotary brush.  If you do have to take the hubs apart its best to use a press as to not damage anything.  Others have done the job without one but since they are off the car and if they really need attention then do it now and do it right.  Check out the link to the resto thread of my '72 240z in my signature.  I did this on my car and you can get an idea of what is involved along with checking out search results on the topic.

[charliekwin]

Thanks for the comments!  For a grand total of $0 + a disapproving look from the wife when I pilfered the glass from a picture frame, the Rubbermaid rig more than paid for itself.

 

The bearings and seals in the rear hub all seem fine, so I'm pretty reluctant to try and break in there, but I might take the same route you did and hit everything I can with the wire wheel.  I remember going through your thread a few months back and yours came out looking quite nice.  Anything would be an improvement over the mess it is now, and I know it'll bug me if I leave them alone after going through the effort to clean up everything else.

[charliekwin]

Long weekend of prep work is finally over.  Got around to knocking out the bushings from the rear control arm, which a ball joint press made decently-quick (though not easy: I broke a ratchet when the impact wrench was going too slow) work of.  I'm considering myself fortunate that these were the only original bushings I needed to remove.

 

 

After being inspired by Hardway, I took the wire wheel to the rear strut assembly, which cleaned up pretty well.  Then bagged the front and stuffed some foam in the back of the rear hub and masked it off so I could media blast it without -- hopefully! -- getting any of that crud in the inner works.

 

 

A few hours later, I looked like this, but I was finally done with blasting and wouldn't have to go through this again for a while.  Parts were cleaned with acetone and hung up so I could spray with a bit of rust-converting paint, which is where things went sideways.

 

 

I have a non-glorious history of finding ways to make a stupid mistake on my projects.  Previous highlights include cutting holes on the wrong side of a subwoofer box and tapping the wrong sides of hard-to-reach wires under a dashboard.  Anyway, it was getting late in the day and I was tired, but determined to get the paint on, so I grabbed the can. Rustoleum, by the way, has some similar art on some of their cans.  So you can guess where this is going.

 

 

Yup, I shot everything except for the struts with engine paint.  So, Sunday, I did it all again.  My pile of parts, ready for blasting.

 

 

But at least I'm really, really done with that now.  I've got the right paint on there now (better believe I checked that can multiple times) and will be shooting a couple coats each of Eastwood extreme chassis black primer and satin over the next few days.

 

[siteunseen]

That's too funny!  I do some goofy stuff late in the day myself, but it's usually the beer I've been drinking all day.  

 

I just received a quart of Eastwood's chassis black satin and will be watching for your results.  Thanks for posting the pictures. 

[charliekwin]

Ha, I can't even blame it on beer!

 

I used the same Eastwood paint on the fuel tank and the vent tank cover.  Limited experience, but a few things I learned about it:

 

- It's brushable, but won't come out very well.  MUCH better results when sprayed.

- Recoating with a brush will cause lifting.

- Keep any solvents away for a while.  I could lift the finish coat off in a sheet after using some 3M90 on it a couple days after I sprayed the finish.

- The fuel tank DID come out looking really nice and hasn't chipped or flaked off yet.  I'm not inclined to test the finish, but it seems pretty durable now.  I think Eastwood gives a 48-72 hour cure time, but I'm not sure if that's enough.  I'm going to let the suspension parts cure for a week.

[charliekwin]

Time for an update.  Last weekend was all about painting, which meant I had to set up my spray booth again.  This time, with upgrades!  I had some 1x1s in the garage that worked better than tree branches for hanging parts.  Shot two coats of primer:

 

 

Then two finish coats, the last of which went on last Sunday.  Parts came out looking good.  Looks can be deceiving, but we'll get to that.

 

 

Also shot the brake drums with some rattle can high temp paint.  Double checked I had the right one this time.

 

 

I was hoping to get everything reinstalled this weekend, but hit a couple speed bumps along the way.  The biggest came on Saturday trying to remove the old bushing sleeves from the rear control arms.  I tried a ball joint press after my hacksaw wasn't getting the job done; didn't work.  Accepted that I was just going to have to sweat and be sore, and went back to the hacksaw.  3 hours later, they were all out.

 

By the end of Saturday, I had the mustache bar and control arms back in place.

 

 

But Eastwood's paint disappointed yet again.  One shot with an air compressor did this to one of the control arms.  Not what I want to see.  I blew off anything else that came loose and brushed on another coat.  I don't know what you need to do to make this paint stick, but I'm almost out of it and not buying it again.  Hopefully the rest of it stays on.

 

 

On to Sunday!  Ordered new wheel cylinders and brake hardware, which I installed with only a mild amount of cursing.  First time ever doing drum brakes, so that's off the list.

 

 

Moving on to the shocks and springs.  Here's the stock springs next to the Vogtlands.  I put some silicone tubing on the ends of the springs thinking it might help quiet things down and protect the paint on the struts.  And one of the Stagg struts.  We'll see about longevity on these things.  The included gland nut for the fronts looked oxidized; the rears were shiny.  All four installed and the tubes filled with ATF.

 

 

Speedbump number two: the KYB strut boots are too big by about 1/4" all around, so there's no way to tie the bottom of these things.  I'm debating between trying to exchange them at Rockauto or just going down to the hardware store to find something I can wrap around the struts to fill the gap.  Anyone have suggestions?

 

 

That's where I called it a day.  Now it's time for that beer!

 

 

[rossiz]

looks like great work - congrats!

i ran into the same problem with boots too big to clamp. i wound up re-using 3 of my oems, but the 4th oem was split so i had to use the new one - i cut out a v-notch to allow it to wrap tightly with a band clamp. just cut a little at a time and keep testing until the ends meet - too much and you'll wind up with a hole. not perfect, but much better than the split one...

[Hardway]

Good work Charlie!  You have been busy my friend.  Sorry to hear about the issues with the Eastwood paint.  There stuff is usually top notch.  I used satin black Rustoleum rattle can paint when I did my suspension and to my knowledge it is still holding up.  It never flaked off or anything while I was reinstalling the components.  Hopefully the rest of yours holds up.

 

On the strut gator boot, if possible, get the dimensions of what you need and then Google them.  I had the same problem with the steering rack boots for our cars.  The companies make them too big and I ended up using a pair made by EMPI for a VW.  I had to do enlarge the outer hole on each boot but the fit was 5x better than the stuff that is labeled to work on our cars.  The auto parts store might have something that works but if not the Internet is your friend.

[Zed Head]

A good paint job is 90% surface preparation.  If the paint doesn't stick, but has fully cured/hardened, it's most likely not the paint but something on the surface that was painted.  It could be something as simple as the fabric softener on that freshly washed rag you wiped the surface down with to be sure it was super-clean.  Or the lubricating oil from your air compressor if you used an air hose to blow the dust off.  Or residue from that carb cleaner that looks like it all evaporated.  You should follow the instructions to the T and don't add anything more.  No cleaning solvents of your own, no extra wipes with a rag, no tweaking the formulation for a faster cure.  There are chemists out there who spent years developing those formulations and procedures to make it all seem so easy.

[charliekwin]

I made every effort to follow Eastwood's instructions as closely as I could, but between my space/equipment (i.e. outdoors next to the garage) and almost complete lack of experience spraying paint, I'm well aware of my limitations.  I've read about other people having the same problem, so I suppose it's possible that that paint just has a smaller margin of error than my (meager, I'm sure) abilities allow for.  Hopefully the rest of the job holds up alright -- it looks good, at least! -- and for future jobs I can go back to the rattle can...not sexy, but I've had good results with it.

[Captain Obvious]

charliekwin,

 

The progress looks great. One thing though... I don't like the positioning of the lower spring on one of your rear brake setups. Looks like the spring is bent around the adjuster mechanism and that shouldn't need to be the case. I can't tell what the problem is, but if it's together correctly, everything should fit comfortably. I'm not sure why the one side looks weird:

 

One side looks fine, but the other looks questionable.

[charliekwin]

Oy, yeah... that spring put up a surprising amount of resistance.  I ended up bending it a little to get it in place.  Those new springs are a lot springier than the old ones!  It doesn't seem to be interfering with the adjuster and I figure it'll probably get pulled back into shape during normal use, but you're right -- it's probably a good idea to tweak it anyway.

 

Happily though, I think I solved my strut boot problem with a $5 roll of weatherstripping.