Restoration continues...

For full details and pics from now on you can follow along on the thread I started on "Corvette Forum" here: corvetteforum.com This past weekend I was able to spend a few hours starting the rebuild of the suspension. So far I've had 2 bolts snap that required me to drill them out; 1 bolt head stripped which will need to be cut out; 1 bolt was cut out using a hacksaw (still don't have a cutting disc - 5 mins instead of 5secs!). :ack: So, so far I have the leaf spring seperated from the wheels but still mounted to the rear end. These 4 bolts will take some work to remove. I've been heating them and soaking them with PB-Blaster. I'll need to get help from a friend heating the casting while I try to loosen the 4 bolts holding the leaf spring in place. I have the driver side completed down to the trailing arm which is next. The passenger side still has the inner bolt of the strut rod (needing cut-out as it is the one with the stripped bolt head on the camber bolt) and the trailing arm. Here is the start, putting it on the jacks. Nice and solid!

Before:

The sway bar bracket on the pass side had both bolt heads break off. This required me to drill them out. I also had to cut the spring bolt to remove it. I have both the correct bolts and longer bolts for the re-install. I'm having new plates made at the office since I was unable to salvage the threaded holes in the 3"x1" steal support plate for the sway bar bracket. I'll be cleaning and painting everything that is not new prior to re-install, ie. brackets, plates, and shock mounts.

Here everything is removed from the drv side leaving just the trailing arm.

In the last pic you can see that I've started heating and soaking (with PB Blaster) the 4 main bolts for the leaf spring. I just need to get a hotter torch to be able to break the bolts free. No luck so far... I've also started soaking the bolts for the trailing arms, but have not tried to break them free yet. Hessitant to put heat on them that close to the body. The shock mount for the drv side has not budged! I hit on it until my head was pounding! I'm going to try heating and soaking the trailing arm and strut rod more before whacking it more. I'm using a block of wood and a heavy hammer to keep from damaging the mount or threads.