Bird76Mojo
Well-known member
Is there a thread like this already? I haven't located one.. If not, can we get a sticky? If there is a thread like this already, then please delete this mods..
I'll start..
Yesterday I got my 97 front beams blasted apart for my beam/brake swap on my 87. I'll also be making brackets to use larger Sport Trac rotors and installing all new bushings in the pivots as well as the radius arm bushings. I've had $900 in new parts laying around for a month now. Time to make use of them! (rear gear swap on my Torsen coming too)
I made some good progress today. I went over both beams and radius arms with a knotted wire wheel to remove all of the scaly rust, oil/grease, and loose powder coating or paint.. I picked up my new primer and paint, and scored a 50lb bag of coal slag for blasting. I'll just mix it with my garnet media as it seems to be a similar size.
I still have to remove the rotors and ball joints from the spindles to blast everything with my homemade media blaster but we have a bunch of rain coming so that will slow me down. In the meantime I have to locate 2 new ball joint pinch bolts. Mine were in pretty bad shape and it's amazing they didn't break. I may have to go through a local Ford dealer on those. (EDIT: I just got a pleasant surprise. I went through my new parts and the Moog ball joints came with new pinch bolts. Hell yes! No searching..)
Today's progress was just pre-cleaning in preparation for media blasting.
I'll start..
Yesterday I got my 97 front beams blasted apart for my beam/brake swap on my 87. I'll also be making brackets to use larger Sport Trac rotors and installing all new bushings in the pivots as well as the radius arm bushings. I've had $900 in new parts laying around for a month now. Time to make use of them! (rear gear swap on my Torsen coming too)
I made some good progress today. I went over both beams and radius arms with a knotted wire wheel to remove all of the scaly rust, oil/grease, and loose powder coating or paint.. I picked up my new primer and paint, and scored a 50lb bag of coal slag for blasting. I'll just mix it with my garnet media as it seems to be a similar size.
I still have to remove the rotors and ball joints from the spindles to blast everything with my homemade media blaster but we have a bunch of rain coming so that will slow me down. In the meantime I have to locate 2 new ball joint pinch bolts. Mine were in pretty bad shape and it's amazing they didn't break. I may have to go through a local Ford dealer on those. (EDIT: I just got a pleasant surprise. I went through my new parts and the Moog ball joints came with new pinch bolts. Hell yes! No searching..)
Today's progress was just pre-cleaning in preparation for media blasting.
Last edited: