Flat iron

The differential received a coat of flat iron paint after work today and it looks great.

Differential

The differential was wheeled outside and sandblasted to remove 50 years of dirt and rust. One of the side yoke seals failed at some point, so there was a lot of gunk to blast away.

These units were not painted by the factory, so they rusted before they ever made it to the dealerships, but this will be painted to look as though it is raw iron.

The three yokes will be removed after this is protected by that layer of paint. They will be restored with new shields while the housing will be given new oil seals along with a new LSD tag and fill plug.

The unit feels very tight, quiet and smooth with no play in the gears, simplifying the process of restoring this and making it ready to install back onto the car's frame.

The housing bears the casting date of Aug. 5, 1971, making this undoubtedly the original differential that came with this car.

Other markings indicate that this was cast at 9 p.m. by the second shift on that particular Thursday.

Hardware sore

After messing up the last of the epoxy primer in the shop while mixing it to prime the leaf spring pack, there was nothing to do but Parkerize and electroplate hardware. The carriage bolts that hold the steering gear to the frame were Parkerized

The hardware that holds the shock absorbers to the rear of the frame were also Parkerized along with a handful of other pieces of hardware.

This is a tedious process that is tiring and isn't all that exciting but it's necessary. In the end, this will make the car even more accurate and good-looking.

Shocking

A little detail work and these are nearly ready to install. They look great all done up in new paint. A full set of aftermarket shocks will be purchased at some point and we'll rob the bushings off of those and put them on these.

Suspension

The car still sported the original front shock absorbers, so they were media blasted and repainted their original battleship gray.

The original bushings and hardware need to be replaced.

The lower and upper mounts were painted black originally which will be done once this industrial paint cures fully.

The rear shocks had been replaced in the 1980s, so a new set will have to be found.

Original shocks for these cars are prohibitively expensive, but a good, aftermarket set resembles the originals closely enough that they can also be painted to match the front and should work. just fine.

The rear spring pack was disassembled and sandblasted in preparation for being painted. They were given a rust conversion treatment which will require some time to cure.

These were originally given a primer finish in a shade a bit greener than gray.

An original bolt that holds the springs together was also found.

There is significant enough pitting to require some bodywork on these leaf springs before primer and assembly.

Parking brake

The parking brake cables were installed with a set that most resembles the originals.

Back to black

Today the front sway bar along with the mounting brackets for the rear camber bars were sandblasted, primed and painted. One of the sway bar bushing brackets is smashed, presumably from the front collision years ago, so it will have to be replaced along with the rubber bushings.

Next on the list was to electroplate the four nuts that hold the upper A arm to the car and allow for alignment shims to be used to align the car. They were not rusty so they turned out really shiny and nice, which is good because they are very odd and have several distinctive markings on them.

It was very nice to have these turn out so well.

The staked bolts that they go on were also Parkerized and driven back into the frame.