28 Mar 2020
Front Suspension

Ok - to be fair, this isn't suspension flavored... but finished up the floors, seam sealed all the stuff I'd done.
Next up on the interior - Lizardskin sound and heat deadening.
On to the front - cleaned up the welds, scuffed the existing primer...
.. and then primed it all with the Summit Epoxy Primer.
And then shot paint.  It's the "Majic" Tractor and Implement Enamel from Tractor Supply.  I shot the color about two hours after the primer so in theory it'd have a chemical bond.  The online reviews for the Majic are mediocre at best but for firewall UV resistance is not so much a thing.

If I'd had more hardener, I'd have done a second coat.  If I'd had gloss instead of matte, that would have been better... but I didn't.
Still came out pretty good, if I don't say so myself.
So let's put things back together.  Here I've got the spring and spacer in, and the jack is lifting the LCA until it just starts to take the weight off the jackstand.  It looks like I'm pretty close to horizontal (at least for a line between the LCA pivots and the LBJ) here.
And again with the other side installed.
So I look at the passenger side, and the LBJ has a cotter pin on it, the upper does not - which tells me that I didn't torque the upper (and if you look really closely, you might notice the rear allen bolt holding the steering arm on isn't torqued down either)
Driver's side LBJ has no cotter pin.
And, in fact, neither does the UBJ.

Torqued all to spec, added cotter pins
Replaced the rusty rotors with new ones (some rattlecan for the center).  Dug out the pads for the brakes, and the brake pad clips and got those installed, torqued the calipers and the abutments (and added loctite).
Added the steering box, tie rods, idler arm, torqued, cotter pinned, greased.
Had to see how it looked on the ground.

5 1/2 inch clearance at the crossmember.. I think with the engine and body on, it should be pretty close to the 4 inches I was looking for.
I got front shocks.  They're partially installed - I can't find the J-nuts for the LCAs.  I may have to mail-order or venture out into the infected zone.
So when I pulled out the box that had the brake pad clips, it was all the little parts I'd ordered in 2005-ish.  Not quite sure what I was thinking for some of these.

  • 2 packs of 8 each LS exhaust valve seals.
  • A crank bolt
  • Four banjo bolts (two different part numbers - 22163795, Camaro front, and 10286122, maybe Cadillac rear?)
  • 2 separate 12160244 (Air Charge Temp Sensor)
  • 20 brass washers
Suppose it's the two temp senders that confused me most.  I *think* that I have an ARP crank bolt somewhere too.
I started to put the wiper linkage in but then I remembered (when I saw) - back in 97 or so, I broke off the pin that runs the second arm for the driver's wiper.  I need to weld something in there, so I pulled the linkage back out.
Installed the replacement parking brake cable.  Still need to hook up the rest of the parking brake setup.
Also installed the replacement reverse lockout solenoid.  It's much smaller than the one it replaced.  Relatively sure I have a replacement for the reverse switch too, but don't want to install it and then break it off during reinstallation.

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