Resto: And out rolled the front end

This Sunday sees Ray drive back out from Melbourne again to the "Gippsland Health Retreat" as he calls it for some more quality resto time on the Chev, so when I got home tonight I went into the shed, jacked up the front end, undone the pitman arm nut plus a couple a brake linkages and then the 4 spring hanger bolts, raised the chassis a little more and then pushed out the front end, total time 16minutes.... just to get a head start.

BTW I was missing one of the nuts from the spring hanger bolts so I wonder just how long it had been driving around like that for in it's more active days on the bumpy dirt roads out around "Hill End".

Why the front end removal you ask?, well the "pitman arm" and the main steering rod which, you guessed it control the steering of the vehicle are both bent slightly so they both need fixing and a good wack with the hammer, also the left hand side spring has been put on the car back to front which offsets the front axle about 50mm and this was noticeable with all the body panels removed and I guess this would date back to when dad retrieved it from the farm and had to put the front end back under to drive it up on the truck to cart it home to the workshop and if I now dad he would of been in one hell of a hurry to get it all together, make it roll and get out of there quick smart, he was fantastic on the tools but little time to explain anything, I can just picture him.

Also the front brakes need to be fine tuned and tickled a little as the new brake bands are rubbing, but thats an easy fixer.

Hopefully the fuel tank and new copper fuel line can go in and then we can start and go for a drive, well thats the plan for this Sunday...

Saturday morning:

Both springs now removed from axle, shackles look really good with very little wear that I can see, I have cleaned up with the wire brush wheel the inside edge of the springs which were hard to reach when they were set up on the car also the mounting plates for the springs on the axle got a good cleaning.
Shackles, nuts and spring washers are now all soaking in turps before getting a good buffing up as are the 4 x main spring bolts with the grease nipples also soaking then will be undone, soaked some more and cleaned right out like new.

I have been told that this is a good opportunity to completely soak the springs in engine oil of some sort,  lay them on their side and let it drip and work its way right in between the leafs for a few hours, will let you know the outcome :)

Saturday Afternoon:

Front springs now all rubbed back and dripping with motor oil which I will keep rotating throughout the day to get the oil in amoungst the steel leafs.
Shackles, nuts and bolts all buffed up nice waiting for their installation tomorrow, also the 4 x grease nipples on the shackle bolts opened up, cleaned with turps and then had compressed air blown through them, it's good to be a little fussy with a lovely old peice of motoring history...

Late Saturday Afternoon:

Pitman arm and steering rod both removed with the rod being disassembled on each end and the internals being the end nut, spring and cups all getting a good soak and scrub also once again you cannot forget to clean up the tiny grease nipples.