Project Rust Destroyer (56K W*A*R*N*I*N*G)

Well I got everyone of the 95% then.....

Reason # 8

- they check engine oil pans for leaks when you tell them you have leaking tranny fluid and suspect it may be the drivers side drive shaft seal into the tranny and charge you $60 for that wonderful & totally useless diagnosis.

And all of those were from 2 different Toyota dealerships. I have to travel 100km to get a Toyota dealership with decent mechanics.

 

Well onto restoring a front half shaft. Normally the part on the right remains with the tranny and you remove the 6 bolts and pull the shaft but mine came with extra bits.


See if you can find all the parts in the following pic in amongst all the grease of the above pic. This job may get you a little dirty.


Most people it seems are scared to take this apart but when you think about it it practically falls apart the minute you touch it so if it comes apart that easy how hard can it be to get it back together. Note on the inner race (yellow arrow) the dark streak in the center of the right channel. This is a combination of grease and whatever foreign material (dirt/metal shavings) that have been ground together and no longer function as grease but more like an abrasive rubbing compound (not really good for precision machined parts) but as you can see from the channel to the left it does wipe off for the most part with a little rubbing. So although the inner race is not 100% with new grease it will extend its usefull life.


You can't dissasemble the outside joint easilly so I just clean it up as much as possible before I pack new grease in there and put on a new boot.

 

Yep still got the 85 Celica Supra.



I mounted this piece on a hunk of 2x6 to keep dirt out of the bearing area. It may get a bit of dust inside but at least the abrasive wont be hitting the bearing surface. I'll give it a quick scrub with a wire brush to get all the road dirt off it.


The outer cv joint has been repacked with grease and a new boot installed and I masked off areas I don't want sand blasted. Some areas I'm not going to blast as they will be covered by grease and the inner cv boot but I didn't mask them cause I don't really care if they get hit by abrasive grit. Sometimes I use duct tape and sometimes I use masking tape. It all depends on what level of protection I want and how close I will be blasting to the masked off area.


A bit of a dusting off and it's time for some rust check treatment and then paint

 

Halfshaft has been rust checked as have all the other parts. The closer of the 2 driveshafts didn't react at all. I put a second coat on it before I took this picture but still no sign of a react.


I got this rusty old charcoal canister in my engine bay right now so I grabed another rusty old charcoal canister and bracket to clean up.


Some of the paint they put on parts holds up really well and takes forever to get off, so whatever they put on this charcoal canister has held up really well were rust hasn't penetrated underneath so I'm not going to waste alot of time removing good paint just get the rust spots and rought up the rest of the original paint. Its only a rusty old charcoal canister so I'm not that picky. The paint they use on the drive shafts is just as tough but in that case I took the time to remove all the paint so I could properly treat and etch the metal.


I still see some rust on this one so I'll give it another rust check treatement.

 

Well I don't know what happened to the bottom drive shaft the first time I applied a rust preventative to it but the second time worked.


Sometimes the rust preventative will cause a flakey buildup on it so I use a paintbrush or green scrub pad to clean it up.


All masked of and painted with Krylon Aluminum color, nice stuff but I can let it dry for a week and it will be dry to the touch and you will not leave marks on it when you touch it but your fingers will be silver in color so I put a clear coat over it.

 

The hood latch mechanism all painted up and ready to replace the original one thats looking pretty narly in the bottom pic.
I also have to re polish the shiny bits and then put a coat of wax (turtle wax) on them so they don't water spot again.



I was afraid that media blasting the hood latch may cause the pivoting points to get cruded up and seize/stiffen up but the media blasting really cleaned everything up great all all the pivot points move as good as new, which is way better than the rusty one I got.

 

I guess it's time to update my project. A few tasks were finished last summer so heres what happen. I sourced a used 3 piece drive shaft and put it through the media blaster.


As a special note for those interested I have switched from useing Dominion metal treatment to Rust Check Rust Converter.



You don't need fancy paints to airbrush with I just use Tremclad (which down in the states I think is Rust-Oleum)


Every sports car needs a few flames, I'm sure it boosts the top end by at 5-10 kph. I started out with some green painters tape and a kitchen cutting board and drew a design.


Cut out the design and removed the piece I didn't need.


Wraped the design around the shaft, masked of the far end and built a stand so I could rotate the shaft.


Some Yellow


Some orange


And a bit of red


And when the tapes removed






More drive shaft pieces (if you didn't catch it the first piece has been redone because the flame was backwards, so as a public service anouncement ....WARNING SMOKING DOPE CAN CAUSE YOU TO DO DUMB THINGS) but thats probably not going to stop me


Old one removed and restored one ready for instalation




As a final touch I give them all a good 3 or more coats of clear and then...The final product


More to come but for now the arthritus in my wrists and hands is getting sore from typing and moving the mouse so its time to go do something else. Thats one small reason why my Trac gets so much attention as it seems my arthritus is the worst when I sit around and do nothing....so its either out to the garage or fishing

 

Yikes!!! I guess thats what 20 years of loving care gets you. A little bit of wax or polish a couple of times a year really could have helped these rims. I think this was the first project I did last spring.



Half way done


The finished product


I know the trend now a days is more towards painted rims but at almost 50 years of age I'm pretty old school and back then rims had to be shiney and thats just the way I like them. The parts of the rim that didn't get polished (holes around the outside & center hole) I'll eventually paint black.

If you want to learn how to polish metal or plastic ---> Metal & Plastic Polishing

 

Business a little slow down there now that they have got all the klunkers off the road ?

 

I've given up on trying to polish metal in the engine bay and keep it shiny. I guess its just to hot in there and the polish or wax just burns off leaving the metal unprotected so I took all the shiny metal vacuum hoses (polished steel brake line) and painted it red. I like the idea of steel because those rubber vacuum lines can get brittle and crack especially with the heat in the bay of a Trac.





I still have to use some rubber hose at connections but I use new hose and the steel lines don't flex and move around with vibrations so I think I should have a pretty solid vacuum setup for a long time.