Daily Update
Ran to Part Source at lunch and picked up some parts..
4x Brake rotors
1x Front Brake Pads
1x Rear Brake Pads
1x Set of new plug wires.
$750 over the original budget already 🙂 Let the games begin.
I called the dealership, the rubber grommet only comes with the whole e-brake cable for $170 (cheaper then the $250 for the brake assembly). He did give me a lead on a few other places to call.
Rubber parts that i need replaced are:
1x front brake piston boot (Complete rebuild kit purchased from dealership for $31.16, I bought 4 sets, 2 front, 2 rear)
1x Lower A arm ball joint boot (Will have to find from "Energy Suspension")
1x Tie Rod End boot (rear) (Will have to find from "Energy Suspension")
1x knuckle ball joint boot (Will have to find from "Energy Suspension")
2x Emergency Brake Cable Lever Rubber Cover (cant find anywhere for less then $170/side)
Day 2 of suspension cleaning. I would post more pictures but they would just be of me, sitting alone, scrubbing for hours on end. Kids lost interest in cleaning pretty early on.
I think i have found a local source for the "Emergency Brake Cable Lever Rubber Cover". Someone is calling me back tomorrow.
I have 2 complete corners clean, and another one started. With any luck i should be able to finish cleaning the suspension and move on to cleaning the brakes and rebuilding them by Wed. Brake paint on Thursday.
Then I can work on cleaning the engine until the parts i ordered come in for the suspension.
kit comes in 5 weeks or so and i need to have a few things done before it gets here:
1) brakes cleaned, rebuilt and painted (two tone black and red)
2) suspension rebuilt with new boots/grease (hit it with a few coats of clear coat before assembly)
3) Rust removed from wheel bearing assemblies (picked up chemicals for this). Then paint them black.
4) Rust removed from all the bolts, paint the bolts black. (might not stay but worth a shot)
Engine
5) Clean the engine
6) build the wiring harness (extend what needs to be, remove what i don't need)
7) Paint the engine valve covers and intake (like the picture i posted before)
8) remove the rust from the parking brake assembly.
I have looked at a lot of photos and and painting the suspension looks fake. If i was going to paint them it would be black, not trying to make it look like metal again. I will be spraying with coats of clear to make them easier to clean but not change the look.
I bought a pickle fork/34mm socket/paint/clear/primer and more degreaser today. Axels came off way easier then i thought they would with the air impact. I was able to remove all of the a arms with the pickle fork and was able to clean the next set of suspension.
There are a few rubber dust covers that have been damaged over the life of the vette, does anyone know where i can order these. I went to Canadian Tire and Napa, both came up empty. Is the dealership the only option? can i order just a set of dust covers and grease?
Pictures
I picked up red and black brake paint, main caliper will be red, bottom caliper pieces will be black.
I also went to Napa to pick up new pads/rotors.... $600 seems steep. When i can get this from Amazon for $250
http://www.amazon.com/1997-CHEVROLET.../dp/B00C82TILUI also was surfing the web last night and found this picture
and went out right away to buy mat orange engine paint. Going to paint some scrap metal to see if it looks good. If it doesn't work out i bought black crinkle engine paint as well which i can use on the valve covers.
Daily Update
So today started off with a quick trip to the dump, a little more room to move around in the garage now but i could stand to take another trip.
After i got back the kids and i hit the garage to start cleaning suspension parts. A little heat (blow torch), a 4 foot breaker bar, 2 impact guns and a few wrenches and its 80% apart. I know i own a pickle fork but for the life of me I cant find it. A few of the more stubborn arms wouldn't come out with the dead-blow hammer. Tomorrow I will pick up a new pickle fork and a 34mm socket to get these axel nuts off.
Once apart i filled a large Rubbermaid container with degreaser and warm water and put the kids to work. Nothing like a little child labor to start the afternoon. 4 hours of scrubbing with SOS pads and a wire brush resulted in 4 A arms that look like new.
Now I know some people paint these after cleaning them, but why?
After using the wire brush they look like new.
Does paint clean easier in the future?
seems like it might just flake off, rock chips and then look worse.
Tomorrow will be more of the same, lots of arms and spindles to clean.
I was also reading about using a 12 volt battery charger, some re-bar and a few chemicals to remove rust from parts. I was considering putting the wheel bearing assemblies in that solution to remove the surface rust. I could then throw a coat of black paint on those to prevent future rust.
http://makezine.com/projects/electrolysis-rust-remover/
Pictures or it didn't happen 🙂
All of the rubber and seals look good except for the ones on the calipers and the one on the rods for the rear suspension. Looks like i might have to replace those.