[Prowbar]

A lot has happened since the last post. Got the whole front suspension torn down to rebuild. Sandblasted all the parts in the blasting cabinet.
I made an extension for the cabinet to be able to blast the front crossmember. I could not reach every spot, but at least I could do the cast pieces and sides.



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Here are all the parts from the front suspension sandblasted and prepped for paint. I could not remove all the pitted rust with blasting, so I lightly coated the bare steel parts with the rust treatment that I have good success with. This is applied in a light coat with a brush, left to dry ~15 minutes and the excess wiped off.



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Here are the first parts in primer. I assembled the spindles and wheel hubs before painting. I assembled everything with ceramic grease on the fasteners. I used a 2K epoxy primer. This will be followed up by a 2K topcoat, gloss black like the original.
The spindle/backing plate on the right only has a light coat on the picture.



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Here I am assembling the control arms. I marked everything before disassembly to clean up the control arms. All the threads and rubber seals looked very good. I am replacing the grease fittings, using the old ones for painting.



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While assembling I ran across an anomaly. The book lists this dimension of 3.50" as a reference measurement. I centered mine as best as I could and came out to 3.60". If I put it at 3.50" the control arm was pretty off centered in the control arm. Not sure what is going on here, any of you might have a clue?



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Because I had the steering box, idler arm mount and front crossmember off, it was a good time to repaint the outside of the chassis rails.
I am reusing some of the old hardware but have bought new nuts and have new bolts for the steering box/idler arm mount. Grade 8 bolts are a PITA to come by here and they are expensive (~5 USD per bolt...)
I only but what I need, they come in a phosphate finish only so they will be painted anyway for rust protection.

Before I leave for the US I hope to put together the front suspension for primer/paint the body panels. The truck will be moved into storage for the time being.