Gramma's Car: the new project!

[njsteve]

And here's another glitch. It seems that the factory had some issue over the upper control arm bushing nuts coming loose so they tack welded the front driver's side nut on. I have seen this on other 1975 cars. It is only on the front nut of the driver's side.




The passenger side does not have the tack weld but does have a different lock nut on the rear of the stud.

[njsteve]

Here's the bad spindle. The casting number is 371675.

[seventieshow]

"And here's another glitch. It seems that the factory had some issue over the upper control arm bushing nuts coming loose so they tack welded the front driver's side nut on. I have seen this on other 1975 cars. It is only on the front nut of the driver's side"

I have a 1971 Camaro with the same thing on the passenger upper forward bushing nut. Car is unrestored (but needs it). I always thought it was done by an alignment shop, but now you have me wondering. It is the same style of nut like the one in your picture.

[njsteve]

Well, the plot thickens. After perusing 42 years of old receipts it turns out that the Midas Muffler Shop my brother took the car to, replaced the driver's side spindle about 30 years ago when they did a brake job....and they used a 1978 spindle, and didn't bother to fully tighten the ball joint castle nut. Hence the "D58" date code on the spindle and the noticeably lighter duty casting than the passenger side spindle which is a 329354 spindle dated "G25". So I guess I need a 329353 spindle in case anyone has one sitting on a coffee table somewhere. I believe that this spindle was used on just about every disc brake GM car from 1970 to 1976.

Driver's side 1978 spindle:



Original 1975 passenger spindle:

[njsteve]

One of the guys on the Performance Years website found this TSB. It talks about the welded nut on the control arm but doesn't give a reason for it being there.

[njsteve]

Looks like it started in 1974 because nuts were coming off:

[Jonesy]

I believe my 74 z/28 has this welded nut thing also.

[njsteve]

Things are moving along nicely. A fellow member over at the Performance Years forum sent me 1974 casting date spindle from one of her parts cars and we are good to go. Thank you LadyTATA! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Here are the new coil springs. I got them from Coil Spring Specialties http://www.coilsprings.com/ They build your springs to order using the factory specs, out of specific coil material. They don't just hack an inch off of some unversal sized coil. It usually takes a week or two to get them made.

They did an awesome job making me a set of springs for the black 72 Formula a few years ago which had the car sitting perfectly - not too high, not too low. I looked up my old invoice and had them build the same set again, under that work order. The spec was for a 72 T/A 455 with A/C and a one-inch ride height drop. (Even though the spec were for a lower ride height, the springs had the car sitting at the exact ride height as original).

Here they are. They are shorter than the factory spring but made of a stiffer material. If I put my weight on the old spring I can compress it a little...not with the new spring!

[njsteve]

On Monday I dropped off the control arms and inner fenders at Xtreme powder coating in West Easton, PA http://xtremecustomcoatings.com/. They had them blasted and powder coated and ready for pickup on Friday! Now that's service! Very good price too. I was lucky in that they had a load of other stuff to do in semi-gloass black scheduled that week and I came by at the exact right time to add it to the batch.

Once I got them back, I painted the bare metal portions with stainless steel paint to duplicate the original undipped portion of the arms. Now it's time for pressing in the new bushings and balljoints.

[CamarosRus]

Steve, Do you any knowledge of what kind/brand of filler can be used on rust pits
on metal that would be then powder coated ???

Also having recently pressed bushings into unpainted control arms....
I'm very interested to see/learn how YOU do this with damaging
your fresh powder coat.