"While you're in there" gone horribly wrong... bushing replacement

[JeremyD]

HA HA - why just do when you can over do!

Pelican parts forum - a secret society for the OCD, compulsive and anal retentive...

[dtw]

Wife/coffee table: Yeah, it's the coffee table. Every horizontal surface in my garage is covered with other parts as I scramble to get ready for the paint booth. When my wife saw the den, I just got a stern glance and a question, "Is all that going to be off the coffee table tonight?" (husband, sorting piles of car parts, drinking beer, watching the man show...I can't believe she didn't react more strongly). As I knew that wasn't really a question, I stayed up till 2am cataloging and bagging everything, it is all now safely stored in baggies and tupperware and ready for assembly.

Quantity: Definitely not all from one car. Pulled from all over my garage. I also knew that I was going to be doing a cad run soon, and that my last run was not very economical, on a cost/lb basis. So, I just went to a local dismantler and bought 50 lbs of grimy old used hardware, bulk. Now I'll have supplies of as-new, original hardware for a long time, without having to pay Wurth prices for the new stuff ($$$$).

Cost: OK, FINE. I'll talk. Between sandblasting, stripping, plating, and baking, the total cost is close to $3.50/pound. The platers do a good acid wash before plating but your parts should be immaculately clean before delivery or they will reject the parts.

[Kraftwerk]

Should read: "While you are in there" gone horribly Bling...

Looks amazing, really. You must've read "The Gold Plated Porsche" and were all like: when does he get to the plating part?

[randywebb]

I'm sure you're aware of the toxicity problems of yellow cadmium. You defintiely do not want those on your car, near your home, or anywhere near you, your wife/girlfriend or any children.

Unfortunately, you cannot recycle them or dump them in the garbage.

I can properly dispose of them for you however. i will not even charge you for this service. Simply ship them to me at:

666th Floor
Giant Skyscraper Towers
in Greater Metropolitan Nimrod, Oregon

and I will dispose of them in accordance with all applicable rules and regulations. I won't even tell EPA about this.

[Bobboloo]

Don't be surprised if you come home to a party, that no one told you about, with all your friends and family there. It won't be a happy kind of party.

Your dog won't be there however. He understands you and loves you just the way you are. He's your best friend.

[304065]

You know, that table would look good in Yellow Zinc. . .

[rusnak]

I hope you remember which bolts go where

[dtw]

Originally posted by john_cramer
You know, that table would look good in Yellow Zinc. . .

You're right...I bet they could rack it no problem if I disassembled it first...

Damn, and I just dropped off a batch of yellow zinc parts today. No need to be alarmed, only 10 pcs - just the items I couldn't do in yellow cad.

Randy, thanks for the offer. Just send me a shipping label. 150 lbs to your coast shouldn't be too bad...

[Emission]

You are nucking futs!

Soooooo cooooooool. Yeah baby!

[Kroggers]

That is going to look so good back on the car

[Porsche_911s]

Was this how it started? (see pic)

[randywebb]

Funniest Post of the Year Award!

[89turbocabmike]

This type of compulsiveness is one of the reasons I sold my original daily driver(e55) and now drive the turbo.... All projects must be finished by Sunday nite, or early Monday morning. It's saved me thousands

[defcon65]

Just put down the shiny objects and back away slowly...

[Shuie]

[Alan.UK]

Looks great. It makes things so much easier when it comes to putting it all back together.

[ChrisBennet]

After seeing that I feel a little closer to the middle of the sanity bell curve now. Thanks.
-Chris

[darkbeer]

Bliiing......Bliiiing....bliiiing...
"hello, who's there?"
"Gold!"
"who?"
"I Gold you earlier, & you didn't answer...so I Gold you back! "

[dtw]

Keep in mind: Everything you see below began with a simple trailing arm bushing replacement. Be careful with your next weekend project, or this could happen to you. Read on if you dare...

The sickness escalates to the next level!! Today is a red letter day - I'm officially ready for the paint shop. He should be ready for me in 1 or 2 weeks. In the last few days I have: restored the e-brake/heat/hand throttle console, reassembled the rear suspension less the spring plates, painted my calipers, adjusted the e-brake, correctly assembled my hand throttle (has never worked in my car until last night), reassembled the front sway bar, and started routing electricals in the engine compartment. Plus a million other small tasks, like kitting up hardware and parts for the reassembly process.

Next up: get the car out of the garage, shampoo the carpets I work on that are covered in grease, and strip the garage floor with the gasoline I just drained out of my tank. Amoco Ultimate 93 is, per gallon, still a MUCH cheaper floor stripper than anything you can get at your local big box home improvement store!

Sometimes the devil's in the details. Stripping the engine electronics board was not pleasant, but powdercoating the chassis was worth the effort. Everything on the board was cleaned, polished, and plated before reassembly:


Close-up of texture in engine bay:


Freshly plated engine mounts (I polished them before plating - they are nicer-than-new), everything clean, clean, clean:





I did draw the line at disassembling the rear hubs and brake shoes.


While the e-brake was disassembled, it seemed like a good time to pull the console in the cabin and restore it too.


E-brake assembly installed. Everything clean, clean, clean.


This will be one of the nicest details in the engine bay. Yes, the solenoid was polished and tossed in a zinc dichromate plating bath...


Brake hardware plated - went ahead and shot the calipers in high-temp paint while everything was apart.

[dtw]

Remember, here's what I started with:


After all this work, I think we now have an engine compartment that is worthy of receiving this: