More Undercoating; Transmission Installed; Rear Suspension Assembled

I'm on a one week break from Fuqua School of Business this week, and while I have a lot of things to get done with the free time, I dedicated my entire Monday to work on the car. Good thing too, because I got a lot done!

In a bit of time I had last week, I got the engine compartment and transmission-area sound deadening pads installed. I got a kit of these from Stoddard, and while good looking, they don't appear the same as the original. They are thinner, for one. Probably work better, too. The original is a thick piece of jute backed with cardboard. This new stuff appears to be more like rubber.

The sound deadening panels were installed with 3M Super Trim Adhesive, applied to both the panel and the body where it would mount. Very little trimming/adjusting was required, they were a good fit. You can see more of the pictures here.

In my free time this week, I started by finishing the undercoating process. I sprayed a bunch more Wurth Underbody Seal into the wheel wells, because the coverage was a bit thin and this is the area that will most likely suffer from stone chips. I think I used another two cans, that makes about 6 or 7 cans total I've used on the car, and they cost $20 each...not the cheapest undercoating, but it looks good.

After letting that dry, I sprayed on rattle-can semi-gloss black from Plasti-Cote, just like I used in the engine compartment and front trunk area. It *might* be a little bit glossier than the black originally used at the factory, but not much. Plus, I think it looks better than the totally flat-black appearance of the undercoating by itself. Not wanting to uninstall the front suspension components I had fitted up in the previous weeks, I masked them off with heavy duty aluminum foil. What a great tip! Thanks Jim Kellog. The aluminum conforms easily to everything and no tape is required.

Then I started to reinstall the rear torsion bars and spring plates (or radius arms, if you go by the name given in The Factory Manual). I got the car level on the rotisserie by using a level, and then indexed each torsion bar to 15 degrees. This somewhat splits the difference between various settings specified for Coupe, Cabriolet, Roadster, etc. It may be not enough...Stock for a C Coupe is 19 degrees I believe. If the car is riding too low it will need to be adjusted, but I know that many people de-camber (raise) their spring plates to improve handling anyway. I need to check with the 356Talk people on this. Everything went together easily for this operation. Installing the newly finished transmission was the next order of business. I did up the bolts attaching the hoop to the body while I got a (strong) friend at The Shop to lift the rig up and slide it into the front mounting brackets. After doing all this, I referred to the Factory Manual and quickly realized I had put the front transmission mount shims behind the body bracket instead of front of it, where they belonged. Thus we had to undo everything and fix it. Don't get this wrong if you are doing it! What a pain. However, adjusting these shims can be required to change rear wheel alignment in severe problem cases, so you might as well understand why they are there.

I spent the rest of Monday re-assembling everything but the brakes/rotors that is attached to the rear axles. First came the shocks, which were easy other than the fact that I couldn't find the metal bushings that fit in the bottom rubber mounts for like half an hour. As an aside, I used mostly new hardware to install these, as I have in many places. Where I haven't been able to obtain replacement bolts or nuts, I have reconditioned the original hardware. There is always the problem with M8 nuts and bolts because the head/wrench size changed from 14mm to 13mm somewhere back in the early seventies, so any replacement hardware, unless specially manufactured, is guaranteed to be different. Oh well, safety over originality. I'm saving all the old hardware that is getting taken off for refinishing at some point in the future, if I ever care.

After shocks I attached the axle tubes to the spring plates. You need to attach the rubber bump stops at the same time. The procedure is simple, no need to further explain it here. Following this, I started to install the rear wheel bearings. This could use some explanation.

First of all, These are big roller bearings that fit around the axle, into the axle tube housing. The ones that came off the car seemed OK, and they weren't really noisy, but I decided to replace them anyway. They are $20 parts, and getting at them is way more than $20 of my time, so why not while I'm already there? The replacements are absolutely smooth and silent in operation, so the choice was a good one.

The inner race of the rear wheel bearing is a friction/interference fit with the axle shaft itself. You are supposed to use a special tool to press/install the bearing down onto the axle shaft. No one I know has this tool. I started each bearing onto the axle with light blows from a rubber mallet, evenly spaced, and then though about how to continue. I ended up using the rear wheel hub as a slide-hammer of sorts, sliding it onto the axle tube and repeatedly smacking it against the bearing. It makes good smooth contact all around with the inner race, inching it along the axle. In fairly short order, the bearing was seated.

Now, at least on a C car, you are almost done. You need to install a small metal shim and a small o-ring onto the axle. What it actually does, I can't really tell. Can someone enlighten me? Around the perimeter of the bearing, a large o-ring is installed. It doesn't want to stay in place; I used a liberal amount of grease to "paste" it into place as was recommended by the Factory Manual, and it worked fine. Finally, the bearing cover can be installed; it is held in place with 4 Grade 10.9 bolts and spring washers.

Then the rear brake backing plates were installed, which are held in with very short bolts; I had to re-use the old hardware for this because I couldn't find any new bolts as short as the originals, and I didn't feel like cutting down a new bolt to the proper length. Finally, the hubs slide onto the axle spline, and are held in place by the big castellated axle nut. These need to be torqued to over 300 ft/lbs, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to get them all torqued down and permanently installed, so I only did them hand tight, and I left out the cotter pins. When I get ready to install the rotors and wheels, I'll torque them properly.

The differential spins well, so I know I didn't mess up the fulcrum plates as I once suspected. The entire operation took me the better part of the day, as I was doing everything very slowly and methodically. One thing I will note is that this is the first time I have done most of these operations. After doing one side, I quickly found that the opposite side only took about a third of the time; subsequent operations will be even faster. My novice level of understanding is contributing heavily to the overall time required for the project, but it is time I must put in nonetheless, if I want to truly understand how it all works. I'm enjoying it!

Next on the agenda:

• Hopefully pick up my refinished wheels towards the end of the week, and have tires mounted. I'm leaning towards Pep Boys (!?!?!?) Futura Euro Metric tires, which are some of the only tires that still come in 165R15 size. They are actually manufactured by Cooper.


• Haul the C engine and parts to my rental house to work on rebuilding over the next month or so.


• Install shift linkage rod and make sure it at least operates without interference.


• Hopefully start the bodywork on the nose, door area, and rockers. I'm getting assistance/contracting the work to Dee Lashley and an associate of his, basically because I'm short of time and skill, but I'm happy to lend a hand.

Posted by pbrown at October 19, 2004 10:40 PM