Painting and Detail Work

The Extreme Chassis Black takes 72 hours to completely dry. Unfortunately, this means I'm not able to put together the rear axle until Tuesday or Wednesday. Today, I focused on work I could do so the axle can go together quickly when the time comes.

I started by cleaning up the U-bolts which mount the rear axle. I cleaned the with a wire wheel and then put them in a phosphoric acid bath. When they had sat in the bath for about 6 hours, I pulled them out and rubbed them with steel wool. The parts now look like new. I'd replace them but since I'll need to pull the axle out again later, I'll wait to replace them then.

I cleaned the axle flange bolts with a wire wheel. I considered putting them in the phosphoric acid bath but decided to paint them. I don't think the phosphate coating would hold up very well. I ended up painting them with Extreme Chassis Black and put the nuts for them in the phosphoric acid bath.

I stripped the top of the leaf springs were the axle will sit. There was rust there and I wanted to clean it up good. I put a little primer on followed by some grey paint.

I covered the pumpkin with some Kyrlon Crystal Clear Satin clearcoat. I put three light coats on the piece within a couple of minutes of one another. I have Eastwood's Diamond Clear but was told the Kyrlon would work on the bare bolts and Eastwood's would not. The clearcoat made the red oxide paint darker. It looks great but lost some of the original look.

I then took apart the brakes as the backing plates did not look good. I cleaned them up and painted them about six months ago. I used a flat black paint by Rustoleum. It looks like the old axle seals may have leaked just a little. When I took off the brake lines, a little brake fluid got on them also. I did not want to put them back on in their current condition. I took them apart, sanded them, scuffed them up with a scotbrite pad, primed them, and painted them with the Extreme Chassis Black. Since it holds up to brake fluid, this should be a better choice and the sheen will match the axle.

I then put a second coat of paint on the axle housing. I ran a rope through the axle housing and hung it up in the backyard. I could spin the entire housing on the rope to make sure I had good coverage on all the surfaces. Once it dried for an hour, I carried it to the garage for it to await reassembly.

The Extreme Chassis Black is dry to the touch within a few hours. It's incredibly hard not to go ahead and start putting things together.