Monday, July 31, 2006

Almost ready to start build

Wow. Over two months since my last post, and I haven't done much. I'm still working on the Mustang. I did drop the gas tank a few weeks ago. That was easier than I thought. Then this weekend I got the rear end. That was vastly harder than I expected.

First, I had to take the wheels off. Easy enough, right? Four lugnuts each, with an impact wrench. Except that one of the lugnuts was stuck. So I soaked it with Liquid Wrench and hammered away with the impact wrench for a while. Finally it started to turn, but very slowly.

Actually, the nut wasn't turning at all. It was rounding off, and the cheap impact socket that came with the very cheap pack of air tools was actually flaring out to accomodate it.

Took me about four hours of drilling, cutting, chiseling, and prying to remove that wheel. Of course, the wheel stud is destroyed, too. But since I'm probably replacing the axles to go five-lug, that's not really a problem.

Worked for another couple of hours on the rear end. I was afraid to use those cheap impact sockets again, which left me with no 1/2" drive 18mm socket. So I was using the 3/8" drive, and a hand ratchet. But I simply couldn't budge the left lower control arm with that little wrench.

After that, I went down to Sears and got a quality set of Craftsman impact sockets, and a heavy duty impact wrench. $300 well spent, as I popped those control arms off in no time flat.

Pull the spindles and I'll be ready to start building.