Info Beast in the Bushes

[Yardpilot]

A little play time today. Jacked up the back and pulled the rear wheels. Amazing how tight lug nuts get in only thirty years! Thanks go out to the inventor of PB Blaster. Friggin' ant hill under the right rear. Five leafs in the main rear spring stack. Two more underneath with the big rubber bumpers. The brake drums are completely free and just slipped off. Drums and rigging look good. Rear wheels turn easily. Yes, I'll take pictures! Dislocated right index finger hooking up a stupid sprinkler. Fixed it. Hurts a bit. Not as bad as the neighbor's ears from the language, I bet. I'll haul two 20-ton hydraulic jacks out there after it cools of a bit more this evening so I can get started on that roof. The braces appear to have rusted some and just snapped in two from the sag. I'm thinking 2x12 on the floor, 4x4 vertical frames and 2x12 on top oughta do the job. Slow and steady.

[Yardpilot]

Change to above. I turned the right wheel and it was free. The drive-shaft turned, so I assumed the left side was free, too. Wrong. Put a bar to the left side and could barely get it to turn with a heckuva lot of strain. The right side did not turn when the left creeped slowly a half a turn. Everything is absolutely drenched in PB. I'll have another go tomorrow. I'll try it in gear and in neutral just for the info.

[SuperBuickGuy]

if it can turn a bit, normally when you pull the car/drive the car it'll loosen itself

as for both sides turning, only if it's a locked-type differential - most open differentials can freewheel the driver's side without spinning the passenger side tire (why that is, I dunno, just an observation from my field rescues)

[Yardpilot]

A little time for the Blaster to work and howdy! Both rear drums slip on and off now. Turn either side and the other side does not move, but the drive-shaft turns with no noise or drag from the shaft or the rear end. I believe that makes me happy. Got tires for the rear. The fronts are unbelievably holding air pressure for now. Should be able to move the old girl up to my "outdoor shop" area in the next day or two.

[Yardpilot]

Oh, fish nuts. I was working on the left front, heard a little "pop" from the right front, the ol' girl shifted to the right and dropped a bit. That old tire just delammed and shredded itself. Poopy. I'm just gonna bite the bullet and new all of them up. Can't get those front drums off. I don't think I should use the puller against the grease caps, so I'm thinking I'll pull those, put a short piece of steel rod against the end of the spindle and run the puller pilot against that. I've backed off the adjustors till they almost fell apart with no effect. PB on everything. Lots of hammer whacking. No go. I think I'll look in the old socket bucket and see if there is something that might work better than a piece of rod. I'm wearing down just from killing spiders. So far things look pretty good underneath. Naturally there is a lot of surface rust on things like the springs, frame and such, but no more than I have seen on many working vehicles. There are some body rust spots, but again most of it is surface stuff. There are a couple of small rust-through spots like the lower rear passenger side corner, but I think I can handle that. Only two bullet holes so far! Good thing she was so well-hidden in the bushes. How do you deal with rust or potentially rusty spots between the inside sheet metal and the outer body sheet metal? I don't believe my budget will allow stripping 'er down, hauling 'er a hundred miles and having the body dipped.

[milner351]

por 15 works wonders on stopping surface rust.

[Yardpilot]

Worked fine. Front drums came off with a lot of PB and a little bit of tug with the puller, just enough to break them loose. All four drums will go to the shop to make sure they are round. The shoes look new. The bearings all look good, just gummy as hell. Repack, replace? How about seals? Flush the brakes or just fill, bleed and see what happens? Dumped a gallon of solvent and an old jug of trans fluid in the engine to soak. Flush the transmission? Rear end?

[hauen]

When I got Ernie, it had been parked for 14 years, though not in muck like yours, but the problems when I got the drums off were very similar. I went ahead and replaced the seals and bearings (they're cheap), the wheel cylinders all got a good hone and rebuild kits (hopefully yours didn't absorb too much water and get really pitted), fluid flushed, and after all that I still had to replace the master cylinder, so you might as well do that while you're at it too. I was afraid to flush the engine, with all the crud on it I figured it would start spewing like old faithful if I ran anything but cheap oil through it. Changed the gear oil in everything, when it drained out it was thin and black, I imagine all of the lubricating qualities went away sometime in the late '70's. Since yours has been sitting in wet amidst the wet it's probably all...well, wet, and rusty. It's cheap insurance, and with most of the parts available through rockauto and such, inexpensive to go ahead and redo it all right the first time.

[Caveman Tony]

Dude, Yard... you ever seen those early VW bug sliding sunroofs?

If your new found van-love were going to be stored indoors or under cover of any type, that's what I'd be thinkin'...

Who else would have a 'vert van?

NOBODY, that's who!

[Yardpilot]

Dude, Yard... you ever seen those early VW bug sliding sunroofs?

If your new found van-love were going to be stored indoors or under cover of any type, that's what I'd be thinkin'...

Who else would have a 'vert van?

NOBODY, that's who!

I like that. I have been thinking about a multiple sunroof setup, so that is kinda along the same line.