Thanks wftb, good tips there and glad you enjoy the thread, plus for you!

Some more progress yesterday on the front upper control arms.
I could have given them to a friend to bring to work and sandblast, but as I mentioned before I am trying POR-15 for the first time.
This is something I can do myself, and I wanted to try it out on something small.
I might eventually do the underside of the space frame if the results are good.
I am posting the pictures to show Fiero newbies and homebuilders this option.

So here we go, I started by removing loose rust and paint with a wire wheel on the cordless drill:




A file was used by hand to finish what the wire brush didn't remove:




I like the burning method of removing old bushings, it's a fun, quick and damage free method of removing them.
Within 30 seconds of burning the rubber mounts, the inner sleeve pops out on their own and a flat screwdriver takes the rubber out in one piece:




Any rubber residue is quickly removed with sandpaper:




I put the inner sleeves to be reused on a screwdriver and let the wire wheel clean them up:




Now for the 3 step POR system, first clean the metal with Marine Clean to ensure surface is free of grease:




Next the Metal Ready product is brushed on for 15 minutes, to prep areas without rust or smooth areas:




Once rinsed and dry, the POR-15 was brushed on with a sponge brush and a second coat applied while it was still tacky:




When cured, the surface is a hard glossy black chip free coating that seals out moisture preventing rust from coming through the finish:




Now they are ready for polyurethane bushings and new ball joints to be installed.

[This message has been edited by Fiero2m8 (edited 03-02-2008).]

Well with the huge snowfall this weekend, it was a good day to work inside on finishing my front upper and lower control arms.
I am pleased to include new larger pictures in my thread that are still <100K in size.
Here is a scan of all the instructions and Fiero 84-87 kit lists complete with part numbers for future reference.
It explains how to properly grease everything and also how the thrust washers are to be installed on the lower control arms:




As you can see, although Prothane wants you to save all the hardware, I clearly found why my front end handled a little sloppy in the front end:




So I went to the Metal Supermarket to get a pipe I could make new inner bushings for the lower control arms.
I cut and grinded 4 of them to 60mm in length:




Here they are ready to go with the new 10.9 grade bolts and washer to replace the broken and cut original ones:




This is a great example of why my Avatar is of Homer's brain - I can be a moron sometimes
The instructions read "if the inner metal sleeve is not included in kit, then the original inner sleeve must be reused."
Somehow without checking, I forgot that the kit included new inner sleeves, so now I have an additional set




Here are the front upper contol arms completed with the ball joints and bushings installed.
I just need the new bolts to install them which I will have next week:




After the lower control arms were prepped and coated with POR-15, the new bushings, thrust washers and ball joints were installed:




Here they are ready to be bolted back on the car once I decide on a front spring solution (88's or Suspension Techniques drop springs).
See them here : http://www.jcwhitney.com/au...10000021896510194164




Also the spindles and upper spring perch will be getting the POR-15 treatment before reassembly

------------------

1986 Fiero2m8 (LT1 NX / 4T60 Roadster Build)
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/071642.html

Well as I predicted even after soaking the sway bar bolts with penetrating oil, all four snapped off using a small rachet with ease
So I picked up a couple cobalt bits to drill them out but I was wondering if I could just relocate the the sway bar 1/2" forward on the frame rails given the length of the sway bar end links?

Here is the restored sway bar ready for reinstallation:




I decided to remove the front hubs and steering knuckles for a good cleaning and repainting, so brake bleeding will be required later:
The calipers cleaned up well and I'm going to try the Dupli-color paint I had laying around on them:




I also got the rest of the hardened hardware I needed for reassembly, so I should have some more progress this weekend.
Biggest hold up right now is what I am going to use for new front springs.

Ryan

[This message has been edited by Fiero2m8 (edited 03-19-2008).]