The first step in the suspension modification was to strip out all the old parts, for cleaning and inspection and painting with Por-15.
Now comes the cleaning process. Boy, I really like the metal cleaning products from Por-15, they work great, and if you have a cut on your hands, it doesn't burn like... well you know.
I sure am glad I decided to rebuild the front end. If I hadn't I wouldn't have found this crack in the lower control arm. That is a major accident waiting to happen. Another search begins...
Another set back, but concidering the alternative circumstances, I don't mind. It is time to convert to front disk brakes also. I decided to use steel braided flex lines front & rear.
Alright, I get to try out my new sandblaster!!! Lets get everything laid out here, and get blasting.
Now, that's some nice clean parts. Where did I put that Por-15. Lets get painting!!
Can you tell the used parts for the new ones??? Well, the springs are new 2" lowered coils front & rear. The front sway bar is a new 1 1/4 , and the rear is a new 1" bar. Other suspension parts not pictured: New Poly graphite bushings, all new ball joints, tie rod ends, idler arm, sway bar links & bushings, and out back new Hotchkiss Boxed upper & lower control arms. Last but not least new Bilstein shocks all around.
These two pix are just to show that the front mounts were in the original locations.
These two pix are to show the modification to the crossmember. The tang the tranny mounts to was cut off and then re-mounted 1/2" lower, and 1/2" forward. This allowed the tranny to sit at the proper pinion angle since the tranny is longer than the 350 Turbo, and no modification or pounding on the tranny tunnel was needed for clearance. Notice in the first picture, the mounting bolts are perfectly centered in the slotted mount holes, in case of later mishaps. Some minor modification was needed for the shifter linkage to use the column shifter, but it works fine now.
