It has begun- Project Delmae

[65sporty]

Great project

 

[Walter Joy]

Great project

Thank you! It’s a learning experience for me. Helps to have someone who used to work on it when new (and owned for a time). It’s honestly moving at a faster pace than I expected

 

[Walter Joy]

Old frame is finally stripped and the new one is in position. I can see why dad wanted me to replace it before I had the car on the road. Will probably spend a good week prepping parts and another week painting.

Question: what’s a good place to find the parts you don’t usually care about until you need them (clips for brake and fuel lines, inner and outer bearing races, etc)? May also look for rotors and calipers as well (or someone who can rebuild them)

 

[65sporty]

The bearings can be sourced from your local auto parts, Napa etc. The clips may be a little harder to find, unless it's the clip that holds the brake hose to the bracket. That clip you should be able to find.

 

[Walter Joy]

The bearings can be sourced from your local auto parts, Napa etc. The clips may be a little harder to find, unless it's the clip that holds the brake hose to the bracket. That clip you should be able to find.

Yeah, I will have to do some searching. Luckily I have found all the big parts I need for it (had to do a google search and talk to @71Polara383 on correct numbers). Probably order that stuff later in the week or once the first coat of paint is on everything.

 

[Walter Joy]

Spent a few hours every night going through and cleaning all the parts I will be using and prepping them to get rust converter and paint. Now I thought the sway bar links and bushings were a pain to remove (handy dandy hacksaw came into play here), but the LCA bushings were a whole other level. Thinking it would be easier to do the washer method, I had a friend of mine run by this morning with his welder to put in a washer in each bushing. Unfortunately, that washer was so soft it just blew out under the press. Cue 3 hours of beating on just one side with chisels and sledge hammers (a BFH was how the upper bushings got out). Another 2 and a half hours later, both were completely removed and my knuckles only slightly swollen.

Next steps: paint the stuff I’m reusing. I haven’t gotten to cleaning the calipers yet or buy the seals and bearings for the rotors, but everything else is ready for some nice gloss black. Once that is done, new parts will go on. When that happens, I will have a full list of all the parts I will be using.

 

[polara71]

Those LCAs are not a fun job. Completed task that feels extra rewarding however.

 

[65sporty]

It's been a long time since I put a set of bushings in the LCA's. We have a set for the 65 and may do them this year

 

[Walter Joy]

Those LCAs are not a fun job. Completed task that feels extra rewarding however.

For sure.

It's been a long time since I put a set of bushings in the LCA's. We have a set for the 65 and may do them this year

So after posting the way that I did mine on my Facebook, I got feedback from a few other Mopar guys. One of them recommended using a 1 3/8 inch tap to thread into the bushing and then press it out.

 

[Walter Joy]

Surprise surprise, I’m actually putting care into how it looks! Unfortunately the past few weeks no work has been done due to issues within the family, however, I had the opportunity today to go out and paint some parts to try and mimic the natural metal colors. Was even going to dip in Cosmoline too but that’s too high level for this build. Waiting for this side to dry, then on to the other side, followed by the rest being painted black and everything clear coated.

 

[65sporty]

Looks good

 

[Walter Joy]

And now we wait for the clear coat to dry and cure. Have some smaller parts awaiting paint and still need to do the torsion bars as well (may just clear them). Hopefully middle of the week I can start assembling these and finally putting my NOS Moog parts on the car.

 

[Walter Joy]

May not look like much, but parts are finally being installed! Yesterday I got the transmission crossmember installed and today was upper and lower control arms and strut rods. Only had a minor setback with the bushings for the LCAs (luckily we had a big pipe) and I’ll need to drill out the spring pin in the strut rods. Also figured out I have an extra set of UCA bushings (Moog K-7006) and also a set of polyurethane A/B/E body lower control arm bushings (bought them thinking I need them but they’re different than the C body ones).

 

[Walter Joy]

I feel like that now I am at this point, I should share all the parts I am using for the front end rebuild.
*Cue Slim Pickens voice*

“In your 1969-73 C Body Front Suspension rebuild kit you will find:
- (2) Moog K772 Upper Ball Joints
- (1) Moog K7003 and K7005 Lower Ball Joints
- (2) Moog K7006 Upper Control Arm Bushings**
** Moog K7036 Camber Bolt Kit contains these bushings as well
- (2) Moog K7007 Lower Control Arm Bushings
- (2) ES352R Outer Tie Rod Ends
- (2) ES355RL Inner Tie Rod Ends
- (1) ES355S Tie Rod Adjustment Sleeve
- (1) K7072 Pitman Arm
- (1) K7014 Idler Arm
- (1) K7064 Sway Bar Bushings (these go on the strut rods and the bracket around it attaches to the outer most holes on the sway bar)
- (2) PST SL18238 Sway Bar Links**
** PST is the only company making new bolt together sway bar links. Moog K7061 has the bushings for the links and sway bar but require reusing the original welded sway bar links and aren’t in production. The NAPA 265-1932 are a discontinued part that is the same as the PST. The lot I bought from a private seller only had one.
- (2) Moog K7293 Upper Control Arm Bumpers
- (1) Moog K7046 Idler Arm Bushing
- (1) Moog K7027 Strut Rod Bushing
- (1) Prothane 19-1819 Upper and Lower Ball Joint Dust Boots

Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend at Carlisle with all this stuff.”

I have spent the past few hours trying to find the lower control arm bumpers for our cars, but they are different than the triangular ones sold (such as Prothane 19-1303) and I don’t want to spend $50 buying a set with another set of upper control arm bushings. And to all wondering, it cost $450 for me to buy the lot of NOS Moog parts from a private seller on Facebook. Good luck trying to find a deal THAT good! (And sorry for not buying it all from you @mobileparts )

 

[polara71]

The Moog parts I bought minus LBJs were from RA , most made in the states, some Mexico, No China man's parts. That was about four years ago.
Glad to see this getting done.

 

[Walter Joy]

The Moog parts I bought minus LBJs were from RA , most made in the states, some Mexico, No China man's parts. That was about four years ago.
Glad to see this getting done.

The only difficulty I had was one of the nuts in K7293 was gacked and wouldn’t thread all the way down (box says Made in USA but I think only the box was made there), but luckily I have about 60 years worth of hardware in the garage to use. The Moog ball joints were the biggest reason why I bought it. The ad popped up like a day before I did a search for some parts on Facebook, the seller said it was pending sale, then a few days later sent me a message saying that he backed out and he would sell me everything for a good price. I traded the lower ball joints I had bought from Craig at Carlisle last year to Wyatt for some parts (more to come on that this weekend).

 

[polara71]

The only difficulty I had was one of the nuts in K7293 was gacked and wouldn’t thread all the way down (box says Made in USA but I think only the box was made there), but luckily I have about 60 years worth of hardware in the garage to use. The Moog ball joints were the biggest reason why I bought it. The ad popped up like a day before I did a search for some parts on Facebook, the seller said it was pending sale, then a few days later sent me a message saying that he backed out and he would sell me everything for a good price. I traded the lower ball joints I had bought from Craig at Carlisle last year to Wyatt for some parts (more to come on that this weekend).

That's funny, I traded LBJs to Craig last year for NOS rotors.
Forgot, the pitman arm came from RA also but at a clearance discount. Someone here posted about it, $12.88 for Pitman arms, I bought 3, none were Moogs but perhaps TRWs.

 

[Walter Joy]

That's funny, I traded LBJs to Craig last year for NOS rotors.
Forgot, the pitman arm came from RA also but at a clearance discount. Someone here posted about it, $12.88 for Pitman arms, I bought 3, none were Moogs but perhaps TRWs.

I gave Wyatt first dibs on the Napa sway bar link (shame there’s only one). Those are really really hard to find if looking for anything other than PST.

 

[bnz84]

I gave Wyatt first dibs on the Napa sway bar link (shame there’s only one). Those are really really hard to find if looking for anything other than PST.

Every once in awhile you can get lucky finding McQuay-Norris FA1672. I'm using these.

 

[Walter Joy]

Every once in awhile you can get lucky finding McQuay-Norris FA1672. I'm using these.

Funny enough, I got scammed by a website in the fall over a set of them (I knew it was fishy but I had PayPal to protect me and I say screw it). I honestly had forgotten about the Napa one until I opened it up. I’ve heard on and off things about the PST bushing