Sandblasting Rear Strut Cups!

[hckrphil]

So I'm getting ready to put on my new Aspire front and rear struts/coils.

I picked up a great front set of struts from a '97 Aspire with 34k miles on it.

The rears I got from a junk yard. Coils are fine but a little rusty, struts were shot. Bought new struts for the rear and sandblasted the coils and upper strut cups.

Here is the before and after sandblasting of the cups:



They are now all primed black with rust converter and will be painted gloss black tomorrow.

~Phil

[bravekozak]

I have to do that with mine. I can't remember if I tried to compress the springs of not. All I remember was there wasn't much room.

[hckrphil]

You are trying to compress the rear springs to get the metal caps out?

Looks like the whole suspension setup is pretty simple. 4 bolts hold each of the front struts in place......

2 bolts hold each rear struts in place. Luckily my Festiva has barely any rust underneith (original New Orleans car)....so I'm hoping the bolts come out easily with the impact gun

Brother -in- law has a lift which will make the swap much easier than lying outside on my back while its snowing

[angrygocart]

I sand blasted all the parts for the aspire swap including the rear beam. I painted it with a brush and a can of rustoleum gloss black. The paint seems to be very durable and wipes clean easily.

[hckrphil]

I love my sandblasting cabinet! I'm working on a 1941 Studebaker Commander and its been great for that. My blog on that build is here: http://1941studebaker.blogspot.com/

[91blufestiva]

^ Little advice when you use an impact on the lower strut bolt in the back. Make sure it's a 6point sauket, and get it on there really good, then when you start using the impact, go slow with it, just enough for it to turn. If you go too fast, you can risk snapping the welded nut inside the axle.

[tulsacarman]

^ Little advice when you use an impact on the lower strut bolt in the back. Make sure it's a 6point sauket, and get it on there really good, then when you start using the impact, go slow with it, just enough for it to turn. If you go too fast, you can risk snapping the welded nut inside the axle.

Had the loose nut thing happen to me when I was replacing the right side strut on Festrailer. The good news is that you can find a nut that works on the bolt, insert it into a box-end wrench and slide it in through the end of the axle beam end. Place some tape over the nut and wrench to help keep the bolt from pushing the nut out of the wrench (or use a nut with a shoulder). It took some patience and a steady hand but it is a possible fix.

It all started because the bolt was rusted to the inner sleeve of the lower mount of the strut which caused the bolt to push the welded nut inward (away from the rail wall) when it was spun with the impact wrench. It look a lot of cutting with a sawzall to get the bad strut out.