CHASSIS STRIP DOWN - The front end

Well, time to strip the chassis down...

The project is full steam ahead. Rust repair panels are on the slow boat from America, more on them when they arrive an a couple of months time.

The engine has been dropped off to be rebuilt and I wont see it back for 5 or 6 months. More on that as it gets pulled down etc to reveal just what needs to be done.

So the next 8 weeks are dedicated to the chassis. It has had a sound hammering I can tell you!

First job up was to remove the front brake drums and brakes. I was not prepared for what I found. Ive done this plenty of times on other cars so figured they may be a a bit worn...but...

On the left side, the brake assembly was missing one spring and rod that holds the shoe down and the other was bent way out of straight. The right side I couldn't get the drum of until I wound the shoe adjustment right in. The pics tell it, the grooves in the drums are far deeper than the photo shows and I think puts them beyond use, the shoes are down past the rivets and are missing sections on brake lining and have been running on the steel for quite a while i presume.

That done it was onto the top and bottom arms, with getting the shocks out. Another baffling battle.

I use a home made set up for getting coils springs out. I have used them on the Galaxie and the Cadillac and now on the Fairlane. Makes removing them a breeze. Basically a 2 ft length of threaded rod with cross plates inside the spring and a series of greased washers and a nut on the top  of the spring tower. And simply wind it up to compress the spring, remover the bottom ball joint, lower the arm and wind the spring down. Reverse to put them back...

The lower shock mounts appear to be off another car, using the saddle style mount (that I am sure the Fairlane did not come with) These were bolted in place on one side with square head nut and bolts too inaccessible to spanners that I am convinced they were never done up more than finger tight in the first place. The fruits of the dodgy conversion and a testament again to the hard life of the car is the worn out shock mount holes in the lower arms

The next big challenge was removing the top and bottom arms. The top arms are a no brainer. But the bottom were a puzzle to start with. Past yank tanks I had, had bolts that went right through and this looked the same due to the large hex head on the 'bolts'. But nope. They simply would not budge. A read of the 1959 form workshop manual revealed...nothing. So I hopped onto google and found a guys blog where he showed pictures of them...as pins. Thank you Google and 'ranchwagon' blogger.

Two came out relatively easy but two were so rusted to the inner bush that they just refused to budge. In the end I destroyed the bushes around them using chisels and heat to strip them down to the pin, at least with one pin out of each side and the bushes being so stuffed and worn i was able to wriggle the lower arms off.

Anyway, for the enlightenment of those who may be doing the same vehicle and are not intimately acquainted with them, THIS it the pin that goes right through the bushes...

 So loose has the front end been, that the front LHS hole for the pin through the chassis has worn the hole right out past the reinforcing plate:

 OK, All arms off next up was the sway bar.

This car has a chassis literally full of dirt. All encapsulated nuts in the chassis appear to be firmly rusted up due to the dirt probably having also spent a lot of time wet. There was no way I was going to try to wrench the bolts out, as I figured they will either snap or tear out the nuts. After getting a finger in the access hole each side and scooping out the packed in dirt i got a blow torch in the hole and heated the offending nuts before I undid them. The thought of trying to remount the sway bar into snapped off nuts in a box section wasn't appealing at all!

So now i have the front of the chassis stripped...I've said it before and I will say it again...Boy has this thing been hammered! All upper and lower arm bushes were badly worn with some being no rubber bush left at all, Ball joints sloppy, tie rods sloppy, mounting pins for lower arm bushes and the shocker mount holes worn through, brakes shot. I truly wonder how many miles were done in the car in terribly unsafe condition, it must have wandered all over the place.

time to work on the back and see what horrors await!