[Fix Until Broke]

Not much unfortunately....Still trying to figure out how to strip the paint(?) off the back bumper. Hot tank with some nasty white powder in it didn't touch it, chemical stripper didn't touch it. My next thought is to sent it to a heat treater and have them stick it in their tempering oven at ~900F to cook the paint(?) off. Maybe it's powdercoating? How do you get this stuff off (I'm tempted to leave it on!)? I'm planning on having it galvanized so it will go in a molten zinc bath at ~850F - maybe they can do it twice? Once to cook the coating off and then again to actually galvanize it?

While transporting the hitch/bumper assembly it fell off the trailer at 75 MPH and slid down the interstate (oops!). Very fortunate that there was light traffic and only part was in the travelled portion of the road so was able to pull over quick, run back and get it off the road (then carry it the 1/4 mile back to the trailer - I'm out of shape!). That took the paint(?) off the bumper in a couple small spots. Hitch itself appears undamaged - No flipping/tumbling/etc - just bounced off and slid.

 

[Fred Kiehl]

I developed some overheating with the 454 in my 91 OCC when using the AC. I ended up putting a 2500 CFM heavy duty electric fan on the right side, a new 180 deg. thermostat, and replaced the bleeder with a filler at the high spot of the system. I have not tested it much yet, but I did let it idle for about 10-15 minutes, and it held temperature reasonably well.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Not sure technically if a hearse is a wagon or not, but this seems close enough .

Went to start it and it just cranked and cranked, no fire. Hmmm

Seems that some critter decided that wires looked tasty and ate some of them...

Somehow they at them way up by where the wire pokes out from above the fuel tank so there's only a couple inches of wire left to hook on to. So, spliced them all back together again and it fired right up.

On my actual wagon, I finally got the repair panels installed in the rear wheel wells and a first coat of paint on the back 1/3 of the underbody. Will post some pictures of this later.

The bumper is slowly getting cleaned up - paint will come off with a fingernail now after about 3 days soaking. Hopefully it will get to the point of coming off all on it's own soon. Trying to let it soak all week.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Rear inner fender patch area sandblasted, cleaned and prepped for "assembly"

No pictures of the assembly process, but there's about 1/3 of a tube of windshield urethane in/around there. I used some angle iron and vice-grips to squeeze it all together since there was some oil canning on the existing sheet metal.

Similar on the other side... but due to the bigger patch, had to use a couple pieces of angle and more vice grips. Had removed some of them below before I remembered to take a picture...

Also got the first coat of paint on the floor pan and frame. Chassis Saver Aluminum and a quart will do the entire frame and underbody. I'll cover it with roll on bed liner - Monstaliner Black. I don't know that it's any better or worse than anything else on the market. Time will tell I guess.

UCP934 Silver-Aluminum – Used as a pre-primer under gloss or antique-satin black. Heavily filled with over two pounds per gallon of flake aluminum to help smooth and fill pits and deeper rust damage. Interleaving flake creates an incredibly dense barrier to prevent moisture permeation. Commonly used for marine barge and oil field maintenance. Great for metal roofs, steel truck rims and to rejuvenate tired, rusting chain link fence.

I kind of like how the silver/aluminum looks, but since the entire rest of the underbody is already black, I'm not going back to re-paint it silver .

Progress seems really slow, but keeps moving along. Should get more done next weekend with having an extra day due to the 4th of July holiday. Should get the painting done, rear end disassembled/reassembled at least. Maybe, just maybe start putting things back together under there?

 

[Fix Until Broke]

This week I was able to get all the areas you can't see painted. What tedious and un-glamorous work this is - Likely never to be seen by anyone, but really important to help keep the corrosion at bay.

While that was drying, I pulled the rear end apart. Everything looks great inside. Just some light visible wear on the axles, nothing you can feel, just a shiny spot where the rollers ride. Gear teeth look good, magnet just had a light layer of slime on it, no large particles so that's good. I ordered all new bearings, seals, etc for it a couple months ago, but darned if I could find them this weekend. Probably have to order them again - not the end of the world, just frustrating. Since I couldn't put it back together, I ground down some rough spots from the factory welds and re-welded a couple of them. Also started on redoing the rear axle brake lines. All the tabs that hold the lines in place had rusted off so I got started on a couple new ones. shown below. I will probably weld on a couple nuts to the tube for the ones farther out toward the drums.

Does anyone know what the coiled wire is for on the outside of the brake lines? Planning to bend my own from Nickel-Copper, but don't have any of the coil to replace the original.

Hopefully next weekend I can get the underbody painted black with bed-liner. If I can get that all done in a weekend I'll be happy. Maybe my rear end parts will come out of hiding by then .

 

[grandpas wagon]

Coiled wire is for protection from kinking. It can be bought although your original looks fine.

Is that a mini sway bar? Never saw that type before. I admit I haven't read much in this thread, maybe you mentioned it.

 

[Fred Kiehl]

It looks like the ford anti roll bar, because it is clamped to the axle.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Interesting about the coil to prevent from kinking. There are similar tight bends under the hood that they didn't use it on. The NiCop bends really easy and I've a bender that makes nice smooth bends so shouldn't be a problem. Both tubes will get replaced as they're pretty rusty/thin in spots.

The sway bar is from SpeedTech. I'm using their rear control arms which don't have provisions for mounting a sway bar, so this is their solution. I like the concept, however my gut (and others) say that it should be a bit thicker/stiffer. Having the mounting points so close to the center compared to out at the control arms puts the swaybar at a mechanical disadvantage. Others have put the ford design on and said it works very well so we'll see how it goes before passing too much judgement on it .

 

[Fred Kiehl]

I believe the coil is more for abrasion/damage protection. You have a lot of large bolts near them, and a slip could cause the line to be crushed.

 

[95wagon]

Finally got around to assembling the new front upper arms.
Tall joints
Del alum inners
Global West shaft.

The set in the car has del alums but on stock shafts and was never the closest fit.

Now to get a roundtoit

 

[gbhs72]

This week I was able to get all the areas you can't see painted. What tedious and un-glamorous work this is - Likely never to be seen by anyone, but really important to help keep the corrosion at bay.

While that was drying, I pulled the rear end apart. Everything looks great inside. Just some light visible wear on the axles, nothing you can feel, just a shiny spot where the rollers ride. Gear teeth look good, magnet just had a light layer of slime on it, no large particles so that's good. I ordered all new bearings, seals, etc for it a couple months ago, but darned if I could find them this weekend. Probably have to order them again - not the end of the world, just frustrating. Since I couldn't put it back together, I ground down some rough spots from the factory welds and re-welded a couple of them. Also started on redoing the rear axle brake lines. All the tabs that hold the lines in place had rusted off so I got started on a couple new ones. shown below. I will probably weld on a couple nuts to the tube for the ones farther out toward the drums.

Does anyone know what the coiled wire is for on the outside of the brake lines? Planning to bend my own from Nickel-Copper, but don't have any of the coil to replace the original.

Hopefully next weekend I can get the underbody painted black with bed-liner. If I can get that all done in a weekend I'll be happy. Maybe my rear end parts will come out of hiding by then .

Hey FUB, I have heard this coiled wire called
Rock Guard or Gravel Guard. Inline Tube calls it Spring Wrap. Here it is in Stainless. They also have steel. 3/16 < Click here.
Things are coming along on your build. Kudos Bud.

Mark: Snowman-33

 

[Fix Until Broke]

gbhs72 - Thanks for the tip on the spring wrap stuff, I'll check it out. Also, thanks for the kind words - This "last part" is taking longer than I thought it would - Just a few more weekends (for the last year ).

 

[Fix Until Broke]

New rear end parts showed up so now I have two sets (somewhere ). Got all the "edging" done with bedliner and a couple small spots that I had to massage for exhaust clearance. Just have the rear cross member/frame and main open sections of floor to do. Just like painting a room, all the edging takes as long as painting the walls themselves. Ended up changing brakes and oil change on the better half's daily driver so that took some time away from the Roadmaster, but needed to be done. Hopefully finish the bedliner next weekend as well as the rear end bearings/seals/paint. Then finally start putting it back together...slowly but surely.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

FINALLY have all the painting done under the car - ugh. In hindsight, I should have just separated the body/frame - Next time .

Since the 2012 ABS does not have a rear channel, I'm planning on using the rear end sensor location to mount a temp sensor so I can keep an eye on rear end oil temps. Not a big deal for cruising around, but when the trailer gets attached, It's something I'd like to keep an eye on. If anyone has an old/bad sensor lying around that they'd like to get rid of, let me know.

Also stripped the rear end in prep for a 2nd round of sandblasting. I had a local shop use their big outdoor sandblaster to do this as it would have taken forever with my small handheld setup. For $80 they blasted and primed it. They missed some spots and then just primered over them (this is why I end up doing everything myself...), but for $80 I can't complain as they did the majority of the work. I also cleaned up some bad factory welds, ground off the rusted off brake line mounting tabs, cleaned up some sharp edges on the casting, etc so it would have needed some work regardless. Hopefully I can get the rear end "done" next weekend - Sandblasted, primered, painted, re-assembled, new bearings/seals and if I'm really lucky - start installing.

 

[Fred Kiehl]

I was having a high idle issue with my 92 OCC with an LO5. It idled at 1K at all times. AC on, AC off. I thought it had Covid 92.

I rebuilt the AC system, and I did not properly fill it, so I took it to a local AC shop, and they put the proper amount of 134a in it...the AC works correctly, and now the idle is back at 650. I do not understand why it is idling correctly now, I did not change anything else. Anyone have any explanation as to why it works now?

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Well - had another good weekend. The rear end is officially ready to go in the car. Re-sandblasted, 2 coats of paint, All the guts put back in, new seals, new brake tubes made, block off plate for the ABS sensor made, vent hole tapped for 1/4 NPT. Just need to roll it under the car and bolt on the control arms. Finally can start assembly again!

The backing plates are still in primer because I had JUST enough paint to get everything else done and I'm hoping to put rear discs on at some point anyway . Same with the parking brake cables.

I chose not to put the coiled rock guard on the brake line, mostly because I didn't order it and wanted to keep moving on the project.

New goal is to be driving it by Labor Day...Likely another weekend worth of re-assembling the rear end into the car, getting pinion angle set right, rear sway bar installed, getting coil over's installed, ride height set, reassembling all the fuel and brake lines, driveshaft, exhaust, etc. Still need to get the hitch and back bumper galvanized one of these days (as soon as I finish getting the bumper stripped!)

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Rear end is actually in the car and supporting weight!

One of the main saddle bolts didn't torque up to 70 ft-lbf nice and firm like the other three did. It hit 70, but when I went back to re-torque it it kept turning so I stopped... Ended up ordering a stud kit and cover from TA Performance.

GM Girdles, Chevy 8.2"/8.5"/8.6" 10 Bolt Rear End Girdle - Original, TA_1807 | TAPerformance.com

The stud was able to thread in a bit deeper to use some of the extra threads in the bottom of the hole. The nut on top of the stud torqued/untorqued 3x to 70 ft-lbf without any problems, nice and firm, no yielding feeling

No pictures of the studs installed, but here's the damaged hole...

The cover is a solid piece - well made and sturdy! I put new fill plugs in from Gold Plug that have magnets on them - One in the new cover, one in the original location on the side. The cover has a magnet on it's drain plug too so 3 in total now.

Gold Plug LLC - Magnetic Drain Plugs

The Gold Standard in Magnetic Engine Protection

goldplug.com

The SpeedTech upper and lower control arms were installed and the whole assembly was then bolted into the car

The lower coil over brackets were fighting and there was just no way they were going to "bolt in" so I got them aligned with the shock so everything was in plane and just welded the bracket to the shock mount. More welding to come to solidify it, this is just a "tack" to make sure everything is in place and works like I want. Plenty to hold the weight of the car for now, but will get fully welded before it goes on the road.

Everything clears and fits like it should (save for those darn brackets).

I started re-assembly of all the rest of the bits and pieces - Got the rear brake line re-installed which should have been 10 minutes, but took an hour since it got bent a bit somehow in "storage" and I ended up making new clamps and re-routing it a bit.

Next up will be to get the exhaust installed, fuel tank, all the plumbing for the fuel lines and then get the rear sway bar installed. The rear bumper is finally getting most of it's paint removed. That is the most stubborn thing. Probably have 80+% of the paint removed, but still quite a bit left in places.

Still targeting to drive it on Labor Day - 3 more working weekends until then, it'll be close .

 

[95wagon]

Here is some info,
If you are running a stock fuel tank, that TA cover will hit it.

 

[95wagon]

If you are worried about the threads in the housing, there is enough meat to tap to 1/2.
Least the left side for sure.
But, if the 7/16 stud bites enough good as you say,,,,,,,

 

[Fix Until Broke]

The original plan with the saddle cap bolt hole was to Helicoil to 7/16 but since the stud was able to go in further and held multiple torque/retorque cycles I ran with that.

Stock fuel tank - You're saying that I should have gone with the low profile cover? I'll know soon enough I guess .

GM Girdles, Chevy 8.2"/8.5"/8.6" 10 Bolt Rear End Girdle - Low Profile, TA_1807A | TAPerformance.com

Speaking of low profile...does anyone know of low profile front wheel bearing dust caps available? The factory ones hit the wheel center cover by about 1/4" or so. I didn't find anything obvious in a google search other than "use a hammer".