About to start body restoration on 86

[gbeaird]

STILL waiting to get the newer rack on the car. Shoulder surgery still has me sidelined for the time being. Hopefully we can get back to it before the temps in the shop reach 'oppressive' level this summer.

[Corrugated]

STILL waiting to get the newer rack on the car. Shoulder surgery still has me sidelined for the time being. Hopefully we can get back to it before the temps in the shop reach 'oppressive' level this summer.

I too have my rack, solid steering shaft and hoses to install. Been sitting next to the car since end of last year. Hopefully get at it before Spring hits lol

[gbeaird]

I too have my rack, solid steering shaft and hoses to install. Been sitting next to the car since end of last year. Hopefully get at it before Spring hits lol

Hmmm, I'm beginning to detect a trend! :-). Our latest rack iteration has been laying beside our car since early Q3 past year. I'm slooooowwwwwllllllyyyyy getting back out there to do things. Just finished up replacing the thermostat on one of the toe-kick heaters on our vintage motorhome yesterday. Turning much more than a screwdriver or lifting a flashlight into place, though, are still out of the question, so 'No Wrenches For You!!'

[gbeaird]

Since I need to run the engine to bleed the newer rack, I decided to drop the car on the ground and R&R the leaking heater core. Still not finding any good ones, so I ordered the cheap cr@p to have on hand should I run out of options. Once I get the old core out, I may call around some truck radiator shops (their stuff is too big to 'cheaply' do in aluminum, so they tend to recore/repair existing radiators/intercoolers) to see if anyone wants to mess with a tiny little heater core.

This is the first time the car has been on the ground since the install of the FMS B springs, and the drop is quite notable. While they're supposed to be less than a 1" drop, it does look more like 1"-1.5" on our car. So far, happy with the stance. Since the heater core is leaking and the rack is just about ready to remove, no driving has happened, but can't wait to do that. Should be fun!




Bad angle, but the car does seem to be a bit lower in the front than rear. The rear has the B springs on MM adjustable spring perches.

[Bruce]

Sure looks good sitting there!

[svono50]

Looks like a perfect height to me and pretty level...from the angle of the pic!

[gbeaird]

Sure looks good sitting there!

Thank you! It'll look a LOT better w/o all the cr@p on it, but we've filled our fish bowl, so just about every car we have has something (usually old fiberglass hoods from the race car) on them.

[Corrugated]

Since I need to run the engine to bleed the newer rack, I decided to drop the car on the ground and R&R the leaking heater core. Still not finding any good ones, so I ordered the cheap cr@p to have on hand should I run out of options. Once I get the old core out, I may call around some truck radiator shops (their stuff is too big to 'cheaply' do in aluminum, so they tend to recore/repair existing radiators/intercoolers) to see if anyone wants to mess with a tiny little heater core.

This is the first time the car has been on the ground since the install of the FMS B springs, and the drop is quite notable. While they're supposed to be less than a 1" drop, it does look more like 1"-1.5" on our car. So far, happy with the stance. Since the heater core is leaking and the rack is just about ready to remove, no driving has happened, but can't wait to do that. Should be fun!




Bad angle, but the car does seem to be a bit lower in the front than rear. The rear has the B springs on MM adjustable spring perches.

I went with the same setup on my 85.5...having that height adjustability in the rear is so worth it!

[gbeaird]

Indeed. They're not that expensive, so figured I'd be ready, just in case things didn't look right, especially with the 'glass hatch on the car. I was concerned the back would be kind of light and sit kind of high.

[gbeaird]

For completeness, I'm documenting the heater core R&R here:


We'll return to the second rack R&R once I get the core replaced so we can run the engine to bleed the rack.

[Bruce]

Did you by chance weigh the hatches to compare?

[gbeaird]

Did you by chance weigh the hatches to compare?

I did not. I didn't have any suitable scale for the task, so didn't. The 'glass hatch is significantly lighter, though.... at least until you put a real glass window in it.

I do plan to weigh the entire car once I get it running again, and fix my scales. I'm curious how much 'lightness' we've added.

Note: If you have Longacre scales, and casually use them, pull the two 9V batteries from the display unit, so they don't leak and/or corrode the connector so that the terminals are stuck to the battery, causing you to pull the terminal off the connector when trying to peel the connector off the battery. If you do, though, I have a lifetime supply of 9V connectors I can send for the cost of postage. :-/

[Bruce]

LOL I have a lifetime supply of 9V connectors I can send for the cost of postage. :-/

[gbeaird]

LOL I have a lifetime supply of 9V connectors I can send for the cost of postage. :-/

Yeah, the smallest quantity I could order is 10. I only needed 2. Actually 1, since that's the only one I broke. I've never had to replace these things until now, on a ~$1000 scale set, so I guess it's kind of worth it. 10 weeks like a lifetime supply. I should fix that while I'm waiting for that other heater core to show up.

[gbeaird]

Finally got the heater core project done and tools put away. Since I'm at the end of recovering from Covid, I did go out to the shop and at least get the car up on jack stands and get the front wheels back off. We're now back to where we were in March. Hopefully, I continue to recover, and the temps come down a bit. They are currently in the 'blast-furnace' range. But I can, at least do a little at a time. All I need to do is unbolt the steering shaft and the hoses and the thing will fall out of the car. I'll probably wait until my codriver can help me so we can drop the old rack and at least get the hoses connected to the new one in quick order to minimize the mess.

Note that the replacement rack looks to be one of the 'metric', for lack of a better term. The body is a steel tube that's crimped to the aluminum rack ends. Not a solid aluminum body like the OEM rack is. Fingers crossed it at least doesn't leak.