Blue Car - Teardown Pt 2

Next up on the "Teardown To-Do List" is to strip Blue's suspension components. I knew this was going to be a long day, and my Dad was probably still smarting from the last weekend's shenanigans and would likely not return my calls - even if I promised cold beer.

Next victim on the list is my good pal Brent, who always seems to be around to help me out with any loony plan I've concocted. This loony plan was no different, and he willingly joined the mayhem.

The first order of business was to find the perfect place to do the work. We had to consider that when we were done, the resultant shell would be far too heavy to move on our own. Through the wonders of craigslist I had a few people lined up to haul the shell away, but I needed to make sure they could get to the car when I wasn't around - not to mention, I don't like strangers from the interweb wandering around in, and possibly casing my garage.
Much to my wife's and I'm sure my neighbor's dismay, we decided that out in the driveway would be the "perfect" place.

At the top of our driveway, off at an angle, is a little parking spot that will fit one average sized car while still allowing full access to the garage. That's where we decided to put the car. Unfortunately I live right at one of the main intersections in our subdivision, and the decrepit remains of this car would be highly, highly visible. I don't live in a super posh part of town where Homeowner's Associations rule my every move, but I also don't live where it's perfectly acceptable to prop a junked car up on jackstands until the weeds obscure it. We got many second takes, pointing, and general "what the?!" reactions from everyone who drove or walked by.

As with the interior, we had our hands full, and no one else was around to take that many pictures, but we got some decent action shots.

Here are the last shots of Blue with her original suspension intact. This will be the final resting place until she's hauled off to the scrap yard.



The front suspension came off very quickly. Due mostly to the fact that a race car's front end works very hard for a living, and tends to get a lot of routine maintenance. The fasteners were all close to new and in great shape. The only hiccup was due to the accident. The K-member took such a hard hit that it actually broke the internal chassis weld for the main attachment bolt. Without the nut welded in place, the bolt/nut would just spin. Since the nut was hidden in the chassis and never meant to be messed with, there was no way to hold it in place. The K-member was effectively stuck on the car. That's when my handy reciprocating saw (sawzall) went to work...



Five minutes of work with the saw, and the K-member dropped out easy as can be. The front end was done. The rear however, was a different story...



The shot above is of the inboard rear suspension mount - these parts had not been messed with in a VERY long time. Most likely ten years or so, according to Greg. I knew these would be a problem, and for the last few days had been soaking them in my favorite penatrating oil - PB Blaster. I have no idea what's in this stuff, and probably don't want to know. What I do know though, is that it works. All the nuts we needed to get off, came off easily, but the rear mounting bolts were rusted in place and refused to budge - even with some gentle coaxing from Brent and a 10 lb sledgehammer. I didn't want to cut the bolts since they were going to be my spares. Instead we got to play with another of the home mechanic's favorites....

FIRE!!



Didn't matter...We must've torched that thing for 10 minutes. All it did was waste a bunch of propane and provide us with some chuckles as various oil soaked bushings caught fire. The bolts were seized in there, and refused to move. In fact a little more hammering ended up with one of them bent so much it wouldn't come out anyway. Back to the saw...





A few minutes with the saw, and Brent sucessfully liberated the rear suspension. In the shot above, you can see the bolt on the far left. Notice how badly rusted it is.

While Brent was hacking away on the bolts, I tried to free up the equally rusted-in-place outer suspension pivots with the torch.


Nope - no good there either. Now that they're off the car, I'll put them in a vice and see if I can get them out that way. But that's a project for another day.

When all was said and done, we had reduced the car to a mere shell of scrap metal. Time to cover it up and hope that it gets taken away before I get a nasty letter from the city. I'll leave you with the sight that greeted everyone who passed my house for the next week....enjoy!



Thanks to Brent for helping out with the manual labor and for bringing his bad-ass camera, and gorgeous new lens to capture all the madcap fun. Don't get used to pictures of this quality - next time it'll be back to my crappy pictures.

Blue car - Teardown Pt 1

So, a few weeks ago, my Father expressed some interest in helping me work on the Neons. He seemed both sincere and quite sober. I hope he wasn't bluffing, or using reverse psychology. Because one day I ambushed him and asked if he'd help me strip the interior out of the blue car aka: Blue. Foolishly, he said yes.

He came over one Saturday afternoon, and after many hours of wrenching, drinking beer, wrenching some more, scratching our heads, eating some BBQ chicken, yet more wrenching, some cutting, swearing, and at least one episode of "sledge hammering", the interior was barren.

I don't have many pictures of the days events, but here's what I managed to get. They don't quite capture the 8+ hrs of work, but trust me - it was a long day.

BEFORE-ISH


By now we've cut the cage out - which despite all my fretting and planning, was the easiest part of the whole job. We cut in four semi-strategic places and when I jiggled it to see if it would move, it literally collapsed into the center of the car.
By the way, that's my Dad - he's likely wondering where his day went so horribly wrong.
Note that the dash is still in place - this will take us the remainder of our evening to remove.






Done and done! The dash is gone. All that's left is to pull out the wiring harnesses, strip off the suspension and send the shell to the scrap yard.

Easier said than done, I'm afraid...

The Street Car

The Street Car

This is the frame and body that will make up my new race car. It's certainly no show car. It's full history is unknown to me, but it's clearly been sitting outside for quite some time. It was a daily driver in Ohio and has obviously seen several salty winters. All of the suspension fasteners are very rusty, it's got 168,000+ miles and an engine described vaguely as "blown".
To add to the charm, someone has already torn into the engine with reckless abandon and at least one utility knife as every hose you can reach in the engine compartment has been hacked in half.
Inside, it appears that the previous owner drove everywhere shaking an open soda can - pretty nasty.

I'll let the pictures tell the story:


What a looker, huh?

HOT!

Uhhhhhh....where's the rest of the dashboard?

In the trunk of course! What's that thing on the left?
It appears to be a fuzzy shower cap covered in mouse poop. I think I'll burn it to be safe.


At least he took care of the pedals

PEEKABOO!!


I've got my work cut out for me as you can see....