72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

I have the subframe all painted up and on the stand now. I started cleaning the control arms and noticed that the factory must have dipped the arms in black paint with the idea that they stopped dipping before the paint got onto the area of the ball joints. (or the ball joints were installed when the arm was dipped) Here is the lower control arm. You can see by the rusty area that there was never any paint on the end:

[njsteve]

Here's the underside of the lower arm. (The wierd tiger striping is from the pressure sprayer set on too fine of a stream)

[njsteve]

Here's the upper arm. It seems that the upper ball joints must have been installed when the arms were dipped in paint as there is no paint on the mounting surface of the arm where the ball joint was installed. This car still had its original riveted ball joints in place at 115,000 miles. (I took them out as I intend to drive the car and I'm not too crazy about having my wheels fall off at speed)

[njsteve]

Here's the underside of the upper arm:

[MosportGreen66]

Steve... great pictures! I would be interested to see if the Camaros were assembled in a similar fashion! Great work!

[njsteve]

I believe that the Norwood plant was the only plant making Camaros and Firebirds in 1972. The United Auto Workers went on strike in April of 1972, shutting the entire plant down until the next model year. That's why 72 is probably the rarest year for F-body total production. (only 458 4-speed Trans Ams were built). When the line went back up in 73, they ended up scrapping thousands of partially completed cars due to the fact that they did not meet the 1973 emissions and bumper regulations.

[Stefano]

Great Pics, keep'em coming!