Day ~42 - Rear Sub-Frame Refresh
Body Shop Update (January 8th)
I dropped off the car for paint on January 4th, since then I haven’t done much 2002 work. On January 8th, I had to drop of my father-in-law’s F150 for some bodywork (while he’s on vacation), I hadn’t expected Frank to start on the 2002 but surprisingly he started some body work on the roof and nose.
Rear Sub-Frame Disassembly
It was time to start some work on the rear sub-frame which hadn’t been touched since it was remove last spring (aside from being moved from the back to the side of the garage). The plan was to give it the same treatment the front sub-frame received; grind it down, degrease, metal etch, por15 & re-assemble with urethane bushings.
Differential Hangar
The first thing I noticed which I hadn’t noticed before is that the differential bracket seemed to be missing a metal sleeve. I’d like to believe it somehow got lost from the time I remove it from the car to now, but there isn’t many places it could have went in my garage without being seen or found. Regardless, I had a new set of bushings to insert with new sleeves (included with bushing kit for rear-end), so I’ll pretend it was there and I lost it.
Axel Carrier
Following the disassembly of the rear sub-frame I started grinding down the axle carrier to prep it for the whole por15 process. There was a significant amount of rust, sand and dirt trapped inside it, the photo I took really doesn’t do the pile of dirt justice. I think the cleaning alone provided a weight reduction of 1lb.
I gave both the axle carrier and differential hangar the usual pre-por15 treatment, then I made a “clothes line” to hang the parts while painting them with por15. I used the Eastwood internal frame paint extension hose/nozzle to paint inside the axle carrier.
You might be wondering why I didn’t paint the trailing arms at the same time as the other pieces… well there are 2 reasons for that, one of them was known and the other was a surprise.
The Known:
Previously, during the disassembly (last spring), I found out that the spring perch on the trailing arm (passenger side) had rusted through (half the circumference). I was hoping to find a used replacement or have someone weld in a patch-in, because a new one is $1014usd (the price actually went up from $970 2 weeks ago).
The Surprise:
At this stage of the project I assumed there would be no more bad surprises, unfortunately I was wrong.
Before I starting work on the driver side trailing arm, I noticed that it looked as though it was in much better condition than the passenger side. I figured maybe it had been previously replaced. Unfortunately, looks were not skin deep, while grinding away I discovered it had a hole (same issue as the passenger side, surprise #1) with the addition of another hole (surprise #2). The horrible part about this is that they were both “repaired” with body filler. I can only assume a previous owner was duped by a body shop because I doubt anyone would agree to this, not to mention the spring perch is completely hidden when installed (rubber bushing).
Differential Hangar Bushings
In order to press the new polyurethane bushings in I used a lag bolt (a log wood screw), a few washers and an old piece of 2x4. Here's a photo of what I did which worked very well. I assumed I didn't need to lubricate these bushings as wouldn't be moving but did it anyway since I have extra lube.
Carrier Mounts
They were in good shape and look like they've been previously changed, especially since the BMW part sticker was still mostly intact.
I cleaned them up, wire brushed and painted.
Body Shop Update (January 29th)
It was a beautiful day outside so I decided during my lunch break, I'd make the trek from to Montreal-North. As I have previously mentioned, Frank was taking on the job between others so I didn't expect much. He had completed bodywork on the front portion of the car and put it aside to work on some other jobs.