Page Forty-Seven - Suspended Progress

 

This is how it goes when resurrecting dead cars; you spend 95% of your time restoring individual parts, only 5% actually building the car.  

I painted the car, true, but it’s too damn cold to wet sand anything, so I decided to install the wiring harness.  I positioned the harness in the body but found that the dash locates it, which means I needed to complete the dash, so I did.  But installing the dash would be stupid because all the sanding and polishing threatens my lovely burl walnut dash.

So, I figured I would install the rear suspensions.  Which means I needed to measure and bend the hard brake lines on the rear axle.  Which means I needed to prep and paint all the rear brake hardware.  Then I found that I couldn’t finish the brake lines until I ordered new wheel cylinders…  I think you see how this is going. 

Since I’m restoring the rear suspension, may as well do the front suspension at the same time, right?  Only logical...

Prepping and Painting Suspension Parts - the axle housing took a lot of elbow grease, putty knives, scrapers, and thinner soaked rags to cleave 60 years of oil-caked dirt before I could unleash the sand blaster on it, not the indoor bead blaster, mind you, but the outdoor, siphon fed one that blows grit into places you don’t know you have.

Where we started

After scraping, cleaning and sand blasting

After painting with Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black
(It looks better than my photo shows, I promise.)

The rest of the hardware, including the front suspension A-arms and assorted hardware took TIME and much compressed air.  Each piece required a minimum of two sessions in the bead blaster, most took four or more.

The pivot arms of the front upper and lower A-arms had to spend several hours in rust dissolver, then several sessions in the bead blaster.  The air compressor is tired!

Half cleaned: pic shows the blasting sessions to bare metal
(The backing plate is powder coated.)

All but the A-arm is powder coated
The A-arm is Extreme Chassis Black rattle canned (needs another coat)

The powder didn't stick well to the upper A-arms
Should have blown off the powder and spray painted it

I first applied the powder coat primer (grey).  The black powder
didn't stick to the primer - I think because the primer insulated the metal

The leaf springs only sucked a little.  The hardest part was pushing the old bushings out, actually holding the spring while holding the “pushing parts” (sockets and whatnot) in place and pumping the press jack.  Rust requires persuasion!  Yeah, the rubber part pushed out easily, but the steel outer sleeves were tough.  I finally found the right combination of ½” sockets, metal plates and hunks of steel and pipe to break rust’s formidable grip.  Cleaning them was easy enough.  I clamped them down, slapped a wire cup to my 4” grinder and had a time with them.  Some lacquer thinner finished the job.

The bushings before I started pressing them
It doesn't show in the pic, but I marked where the bushing offset goes

The rubber parts press out easily
The bushing's outer sleeve? Not so much

Bushings, post-pressing

As it turns out, pushing out the A-arm bushings was a bigger pain, requiring all my ingenuity, my entire collection of sockets, and some yoga moves to press them out.  I had to press around the pivot bars without bending or marring the A-arms themselves.  That took a sentence to write but an entire day to execute.  AND I’ll have to press the new ones in (should be easier though, no rust, clean and slick).

Paint - I painted the big pieces with Eastwood’s Extreme Chassis (gloss) Black primer and paint.  I used the spray gun for the axle housing, front crossmember and leaf springs, but either powder coated or Extreme Chassis Black rattle canned the remaining pieces.

Eastwood’s Extreme Chassis paint is brilliant stuff, creates a cracking, shiny finish.  But it takes at least two days to dry.  I found that it still leaves fingerprints in the gloss after a day.

I powder coated as many of the suspension parts as would fit in my oven.  Powder coating is, hands-down, the best and toughest coating for parts facing the slings and arrows that undercarriage parts must endure.

Assembly is where progress ground to a halt.  Bending brake lines requires massive patience, double, triple, quadruple-checks, some luck, and the right tools.  (Measure six times, lay it out and stare at it for a LONG time, test fit it, before even contemplating cutting anything!)  Sunbeam “helps” us by making some of the brake fittings bubble flares and others double flares.  I may do a side post about how to make each, but I only had a flaring tool for double flares.  I had to buy a kit (Harbor Freight again!) that makes bubble and double flares.  And I had to learn how to manage it.  How did I restore junk before You Tube?!

I bought a brake line set from Sunbeam Specialties, so I knew I would have to bend and fit the lines.  (To be fair, nobody makes a pre-bent set of lines for Alpines.)  But I ordered the wrong kit.  I ordered the kit for early Alpines (I think), which don’t have “T” junctions on the rear axle.  Not a big problem in that I was only missing one line, which I added to my next order from Rick and the crew at Sunbeam Specialties.

It could be that I got the wrong brake line kit altogether or my Alpine is weird, but Alphie’s “T” junction requires bubble flares while the wheel cylinders require double flares.  All the flares in the kit are double flares, and the lengths are a bit long for the locations.  Since I have to re-flare the ends, it’s good to have some extra length.

Left - bubble flare, Right - double flare
(I made the bubble flare, not perfect, but it will hold pressure)

Wheel cylinder with double flare cone receiver at the hole 

Alpine junction with bubble flare receiver -  a concave dish, no cone
This is the "+" junction in the engine bay

The old wheel cylinders were serviceable but dodgy; it’s the brakes for Pete’s sake, important components, not a place to scrimp on buckage (poundage, quidage?)!  I decided that I had better wait for the new wheel cylinders before making the final bends and flares.  Just because the old cylinders use double flares doesn’t mean the new ones will, don’t bugger it up.

Here’s where things stand.  I have gobs of bright glossy suspension parts laying about waiting to be assembled, with about $800 worth of parts in shipment.  When I manage to get everything in the garage at the same time, I’ll chuck them together and suspend Alphie!

In the meantime, I think I’ll bolt Alphie’s little motor to the shiny front crossmember and fit it in Alphie’s chest.  We’ll see how many unforeseen tasks that digs up!

Some More Pics:

Leaf springs, painted with new bushings, rubber wraps
and shiny new hardware

The bubble flares, the other ends have double flares
Thanks Rootes Crew!

Alphie has a new rear end!

Shiny new brake lines - a few crinkles, but not bad

The front suspension is next with all spanking new parts!
(The chunk of angle iron on the lower A arm is to prevent smushing it
when I press in the new bushings.)