1966 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S - Restoration
Progress continues - slowly. The guy that was going to do the body/paint is having health issues, so no idea when the car is going to be painted now (if anyone knows a body/paint guy on the east coast that's reasonable, let me know).
Everything suspension related on the car is crusty - most of it seems to be factory original, never replaced. The torsion bars were very difficult to remove - I built a tool similar to the factory tool that helped, but they were real stuck/seized in there. Finally got them out without resorting to anything that would damage them. Fair amount of rust on the hex ends that cleaned up pretty well. Stripped them, painted them, will install them after the LCAs. Got new boots from DMT.
I worked on finishing up the lower control arm refurbishment, following Jim Lusk's incredibly helpful videos on pressing in the pivot pins and bushings. Ended up using one of my pipe cutter heads as a spacer to get it pressed in. All went relatively smoothly. I couldn't use the bump stops on the LCA on the kit I used (they didn't have the proper head to lock into the spacer plates), but the originals were still in decent shape. Got things installed loosely, won't torque anything until its back on the ground.
Waiting on a socket to come in for the upper control arms before I get back to those.
Is the ball joint on the pitman arm replaceable? Seems like it might be integral - only seeing the full arm w/ ball joint installed.
Progress continues - slowly. The guy that was going to do the body/paint is having health issues, so no idea when the car is going to be painted now (if anyone knows a body/paint guy on the east coast that's reasonable, let me know).
Everything suspension related on the car is crusty - most of it seems to be factory original, never replaced. The torsion bars were very difficult to remove - I built a tool similar to the factory tool that helped, but they were real stuck/seized in there. Finally got them out without resorting to anything that would damage them. Fair amount of rust on the hex ends that cleaned up pretty well. Stripped them, painted them, will install them after the LCAs. Got new boots from DMT.
I worked on finishing up the lower control arm refurbishment, following Jim Lusk's incredibly helpful videos on pressing in the pivot pins and bushings. Ended up using one of my pipe cutter heads as a spacer to get it pressed in. All went relatively smoothly. I couldn't use the bump stops on the LCA on the kit I used (they didn't have the proper head to lock into the spacer plates), but the originals were still in decent shape. Got things installed loosely, won't torque anything until its back on the ground.
Waiting on a socket to come in for the upper control arms before I get back to those.
Is the ball joint on the pitman arm replaceable? Seems like it might be integral - only seeing the full arm w/ ball joint installed.