Preparing to fit
Starting to drill holes
more holes
While the floor was off to de-burr the holes.
finished
Carnage
All bushings pressed.
So.... some actual text on how things are going. Ill start with the floor
Do yourself a favor..... dont use the harbor freight drill bits. I went through a ten pack and was still not finished. I had some other 1/8 inch bits so i was in luck. I expected to break a few... but TEN??? the 'other brand' ones that i think were craftsman did not break... even one after 15 holes. I was averaging I guess five with the HF ones.
Cutting the floor was straight forward, just use a sharpie at a fixed angle and use the chassis to trace. I drilled all the holes 1/8 first, then 3/16. Get and use the clecos, they are a huge help - as well as a center punch. I worked from one end to the center, then from the center out. I stood on it today and it holds my big ass so i guess i did something right.
I did the floor first for two reasons: Its step one, and i've never done anything but read about sheet metal work so i wanted to hide my crappy work. It turned out beautiful. all the rivets line up and are nice and geometric. Too bad no one will ever really see it again.
The bushings.... step TWO. Who knew i'd read the directions?
As usual with polyurethane, it was a royal pain in the ass. Didn't get any pics doing this... opps. Some things we learned that will make your life easier:
1. You absolutely have to file off the powder coat on the a-arm, get a nice smooth finish
2. Chamfer the edges of both the bushing and the insert.
3. Use lube, but not too much.
4. We stopped mid way to go get a vice (I needed one anyways), but the deadblow hammer worked the best. The vise helps with the sticky ones though.
5. This is important.... you HAVE to use the wire wheel on the (bench) grinder to finish the surface of the steel inserts. There was some leftover scale, oil from packing, and other things it did that made it SO much easier. The first two were a pain and once i discovered this the rest went smooth.
Well.... hardware is on order, should be able to start bolting things together Thursday.
Sheetmetal work in timelapse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdXmx1m5Djc-Brad