Hawk-Rod: The Restoration

[HawkRod]

hmmmmmm....... Bentley or Road Runner?

No offense to those who like Bentleys, I am sure they are nice cars, but I have NO interest in the car. Give me a throaty sounding Road Runner and I'll be grinning ear to ear!!!

Wow, you made huge progress today - that's fantastic.

My wife is heading up to be with her mother for the rest of the week, so I will need to hold down the fort. However, I will try to begin assembling the K Member. I just need to clean up the strut rods first, and then to some assembly...

Sigh. I'm not making very good progress - I need to kick it up a notch... :sad4:

 

[Bigbehr21]

After seeing the factory welds, I feel much better about my own skills.

- - - Updated - - -

I agree Hawk, I'll take the AMERICAN muscle any time.

 

[eldubb440]

step by step...... inch by inch.......

 

[Redhorse719]

Wow, fast forward mode and lookin' good.

 

[HawkRod]

Looks great! I am going down to see the car tomorrow and to also to bring down some more parts. It is really cool to see the car turn the corner and start coming back together. I hope to make major progress on the K-Member this weekend.

I was going to try and paint all the tie rod ends, strut rods, etc. but I am out of Rust Encapsulator and I am not sure that I should take the time to do it. The car is, after all, destined to be a nice driver, not a show car. I know in a perfect world I should paint them, but it 'ain't a perfect world. I'm not sure I should loose the time to paint them, especially since I am a bit behind schedule with my work. I could always sand them down a bit and brush on some Rust Encapsulator after my trip next year.

What do you guys think?

 

[Bigbehr21]

Looks great! I am going down to see the car tomorrow and to also to bring down some more parts. It is really cool to see the car turn the corner and start coming back together. I hope to make major progress on the K-Member this weekend.

I was going to try and paint all the tie rod ends, strut rods, etc. but I am out of Rust Encapsulator and I am not sure that I should take the time to do it. The car is, after all, destined to be a nice driver, not a show car. I know in a perfect world I should paint them, but it 'ain't a perfect world. I'm not sure I should loose the time to paint them, especially since I am a bit behind schedule with my work. I could always sand them down a bit and brush on some Rust Encapsulator after my trip next year.

What do you guys think?

Hey Hawk,

The car is really taking shape. In my opinion (take it for what its worth) I say that while they are out of the car, paint them. At least you won't have to go back later and do it, if you don't forget them first.

Behr

 

[Propwash]

I agree. Some cast blast or chassis paint like "Chassis saver" or Eastwood's "Extreme Chassis" or "2K Ceramic". I'm guessing rusty parts would erk you down the road....by then you would not only have to worry about painting them in the car, but eliminating the rust on top of that. Just my 2 cents....Car's looking great!

 

[440+6]

Paint them now or you never will.

 

[eldubb440]

bring them down and we can throw them in the blast cabinet

 

[HawkRod]

OK, OK, you all shamed me into it!

Yeah, you guys are all correct, so I guess I need to just bite the bullet and get them cleaned up. What it really means is that I need to get myself some more paint...

 

[HawkRod]

So I forgot we had to go to a wedding on Sunday, and on Saturday I went to Apex to check out the car. The car looks really good and is making a lot of progress. Still some work left, mind you, but great progress.

OK, so limited time this weekend, but I did set off to paint a bunch of parts. I also broke out my old Eastwood small parts cleaner. I'll tell you, the thing works like magic (and no, I have ZERO financial interest in Eastwood).

The painted strut rods and idler arm. LOL, if I don't get the car back together, I can always use these as rabbit ears for the TV!


Photo got rotated when it uploaded, but I think you get the idea. Throw your crappy, rusty small parts in this with some water and let it run for a day...


Pour off the dirty water and dig out the parts...


...And they look like this. If you want them polished, there is another bin (not shown here) that uses a dry red media to polish them up really nice. In this case, these are suspension parts destined for black paint, so no reason to do that...

 

[satman72]

hmmmmmm....... Bentley or Road Runner?
]

Can I have both?

 

[jfreakofkorn]

this is going to be a nice build ...

also noticing the details, which will help it stand out later ...

 

[GearAddict]

Damn Hawk... Now I want a parts tumbler. You're ruining my budget!

Nice work.

 

[HawkRod]

Damn Hawk... Now I want a parts tumbler. You're ruining my budget!

LOL. Come on up! You can use it for free! I'll even buy the beer :headbang:


So I am making progress, but need some help. I got the small parts painted, and I am now finally installing everything. I had trouble with the control arm pivot shafts. As I try to tighten the nut, the shaft rotates in the control arm. I made sure to grease it well when I installed it, and now that seems to be causing me problems.

Any suggestions on how to tighten the pivot arm?

My painted small parts after my Eastwood cleanup...


This is the nut I can't tighten. It is a jamb nut, and it just causes the whole shaft to turn...

 

[GearAddict]

I believe you are only supposed to finger tighten the nut until you have the suspension in and the weight of the vehicle on it...the Service Manual say to do it with the tires on the ground, but a jack under the lower control arm might work as well so long as the other side is supported...either way, it's spinning because you don't have the full weight of the vehicle on the shaft pinning it so that it doesn't spin when torqued.

There are quite a few suspension components that you will have to re-torque once it's on the ground.


I'm sure you must have the Field Service Manual...but if you don't here's a link to a free copy

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=109

 

[HawkRod]

I believe you are only supposed to finger tighten the nut until you have the suspension in and the weight of the vehicle on it...the Service Manual say to do it with the tires on the ground, but a jack under the lower control arm might work as well so long as the other side is supported...either way, it's spinning because you don't have the full weight of the vehicle on the shaft pinning it so that it doesn't spin when torqued.

There are quite a few suspension components that you will have to re-torque once it's on the ground.


I'm sure you must have the Field Service Manual...but if you don't here's a link to a free copy

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=109

Thanks. I guess I need to put weight on it. I do have the FSM, and I did actually see that the parts need to be torqued properly with weight on the suspension. However, I figured I would pre-torque the nuts and check them again once I had it all back together. There is now probably 3/8" space before the nut even touches the K-member.

Thanks for the help. I guess I will jut need to wait with these until it is back on the car...

Hawk

 

[GearAddict]

There is now probably 3/8" space before the nut even touches the K-member.

That does sound like a concern... I didn't realize it was that far out. Not sure I would want to put it on the ground without the nut at least finger tight flush... maybe if you put some pressure on the LCA up near the bushing you can get a little pressure on it, enough to get the nut flush up against the K-member.

I'm sure others will chime in... you might ask MT_Mopar... I noticed he recently re-assembled his whole K-Frame and suspension out of the vehicle as well.

Let us know what you figure out.

 

[HawkRod]

Spent some time working on my son's 73 Road Runner this weekend, but did make some progress on the K member.

I took the pivot shaft nuts off and then "installed" them in the old pivot shaft that I had clamped in a vice. This opened up the new nuts a little bit so they were not as tight. I was therefore able to get them back on and seated. I obviously still need to torque them to proper specs when the car is on it wheels, but I feel much better now.

I also got some of the front brake parts attached as well. Now on to the sway bar and steering parts.

 

[GearAddict]

Looking good!

Out of curiosity, did you grease the pivot shafts, where they go into the K frame? It doesn't mention it in the service manual, but seemed like it would be greased just based on the metal on metal contact.