[SIZE=4][B]The Resurrection of GOD's Car[/B][/SIZE]

[Dragonhealer]

Can't find an early pic.
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A year ago today, I got the following message on my phone from my good friend Jim:

'Hi, Ryal, uh Jim Anderson speaking, uh, I was driving down Oracle Road and I
thought I was in a war zone. I hear this tremendous crash and the car starts listing
to then right. The, uh, right rear tire went sailing off into space and I started
dragging the rear end along. Uh, when I finally got the stopped, uh, the lug nuts were
sheared off right at what I would call the brake drum and, uh, after an hour and a half
of waiting and crying and calling and everything else I got a tow truck to bring it over
to the bar [the Meet Rack in Tucson, AZ] and, uh, there it sits in my parking lot with
two pieces - the tire and the car. So, uh, maybe you could, uh, at your convenience,
come over and take a peek and see, uh, what the prognosis would be. Happy Easter
- way to be - bye-bye...792-0455

Yes, we are starting the story in the middle, seems like the right place!
Down to the bar I go. Well, he's mostly right. Wow, OK, the missing part is the spindle nut.
A trip to my house (an hour outside of Tucson) and I strip the axle et-al from the right rear
of Trash2 (saving this chassis for a Lemons car) and head back to town......

[bhazard]

Uhhh...wut?

So someone decided to never ever check their rear wheel bearings?

[Dragonhealer]

Uhhh...wut?

So someone decided to never ever check their rear wheel bearings?

Jim is less mechanically inclined than a pineapple, but he runs a greatbar

[Advancedynamix]

[Advancedynamix]

Show some pictures of the engine bay on Jim's car. It's like a museum piece under the hood.

[Dragonhealer]

The parts from Trash2 are barely adequate, but I got them fitted to Jim's car and nursed it to our in-town facility.On the way I noticed that there are more than a few issues with this car, only 131K on it, how did this car get so screwed-up? Jim drives like an old lady! Turns out others ran "errands" with this car.

Decided to fix the spindle problem first.
The staked nut on the '91L's rear spindle can obviously fret enough to come off given enough miles I guess. After cleaning up the original spindle, it's missing a few threads on the end. This is only going to happen again.... All right, a page out of the old Mercedes book, plus a safety backup. Drilled the spindle two places at 90 degrees.

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Got some fresh right hand and left hand thread castle nuts, tig welded on some bits of steel, drilled, tapped, counter bored, slotted, clearance drilled one side, and fitted hex socket cap screws.
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Serviced up both sides with Timkin bearings and seals and JT6 grease after fitting new wheel cylinders and NOS brake shoes.

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At least it won't be the nut that fails

[Dragonhealer]

Charlie, you are getting ahead of the story!

[Advancedynamix]

I'm impatient! Lol.
A little German engineering on a Japanese/Korean/American car with a Mexican name. Love it!

[Dragonhealer]

Of course, Gila Monster Racing is rather busy, short on time, and Jim probably doesn't have a lot of cash, but we will just dig right in!
And we did. An hours inspection showed it would be simple, replace it all!
Brakes bypassing, steering beyond vague, suspension hopeless, two blown shocks, oil leaking everywhere, engine down on power, combination switch no turn signals, no cancel, no hazard, low beams only,, rear view mirror flopping around, courtesy lamp DNF.
Not to mention the paints gone chalky and lots of dents had appeared.

Mechanicals first;
We put together a parts list and checked our sources prices, came to about $880. Drove over to the bar to give Jim the bad news and drop off a Miata for him to use for the duration, as this will be a "as time is available" job. He bought us drinks and wrote us a check for the parts right then.
Ordered the parts the following morning. Most came in quickly, but we are busy.

Summer time, and god it's hot here in southern Arizona. Very little track work at these temperatures. so we started with the de-greaser and the pressure washer as Jim's poor Festy had become an oil and grease sponge.
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Note the acid damage to the paint under the battery box. More on this later.

After three go-arounds of de-greaser and washer, topside as well as bottom, IT'S STILL A MESS! Ok, lets get this thing apart, we decided to remove the power train as everything needed service, and the steering rack is a piece of cake this way.
Drivers side axle did not come out with the twisty wiggle, but no biggie, we'll get that later....

[legend123]

tell us more keeping us in suspence.sounds like this could be a festiva of the month story

[Dragonhealer]

...............Later....I won't go into how many hours we spent attempting to remove the starboard side axle. We did everything by the book, and a lot of things not in the book, and a few things not discussed in polite society. Axles were a little worn.
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At the end, we gave him another 5 speed.
Here it is cleaned, with the axle still in.
Also note the steady rod stud on the gear box. Guess someone had the wrong nut!
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[Dragonhealer]

At this point, we cleaned the engine bay, scrub scrub scrub.
Almost clean.

Scrub scrub scrub and Meguiar's cleaner wax on the tough spots and in the corners.
Clean


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Ok, the pictures are missing after this, because i switched phones and later lost it without having down loaded the pictures!
The acid damage went down to sheet metal so we sanded it off, masked the area and sprayed a thin coat of VHT self etch primer and let that cure for 48 hours, scotch bright 400 grit to remove half of it and sprayed color and clear following the instructions provided by the automotive paint store. they made up the color by code and put it in an aerosol can. the clear was in a special aerosol can where you push in a plunger to release the catalyst into the clear, shake two minutes and use within 24 hours. The result is an undetectable repair!

On to the suspension....

[bhazard]

Wowzers

[drddan]

Wow! :shock: You guys rock! Way to help a fellow Festivian.

[drddan]

Are those side pipes on god's car?