April sleet

The wintry weather let up for a bit this afternoon allowing the left trailing art to be body worked, primed and painted.

Last in a long line

The final parts that are awaiting restoration, save for the engine and transmission, are the brake calipers. These will be further disassembled, painted, rebuilt and reassembled once the rear trailing arms are done.

Speaking of that, some more parts showed up and the left trailing arm was media-blasted and treated for rust today. Once the rust converter dries out, this will be primed and painted and set aside for when the bearings are installed properly into the bearing carrier.

Collection

The collection of parts that make up the left rear trailing arm that will be reused were restored today and everything looks great.

Now begins the process of accumulating the parts and tools necessary for putting this, and the right side, back together.

Grit

It took a lot of effort and some strategy, but the left rear trailing arm is finally apart. The right side trailing arm should come apart a little easier now that this one has been done.

It seemed like a good idea to do these one at a time so the other can be used as an example for how everything goes back together and to avoid mixing up left- and right-sided parts.

Bearing says NOPE!

Putting the rear trailing arms together is tricky, but taking them apart is relatively straightforward. That is, unless the bearing is rusted to the spindle.

The step, which if written in a manual might read "remove rear spindle from bearing housing" and take about a half second, might now take all weekend to accomplish.

This car continues to put up a fight that exceeds all expectations.

Shifty

The gear shift mechanism was disassembled and sandblasted before being Parkerized back to black.

The pivot needs to be replaced and there are a few missing parts, all of which have been ordered for about $30.

Strange

The rust pitting on the half shafts was filled with filler and sanded before they were primed again and painted.

It was strange to have spent so much time doing body work on a driveshaft, but they look really nice.