Upon embarking on assembly of the front suspension, I realized that a lot of the spacers were raw steel. I took pause and hit them with some black Rustoleum. Looking ahead at “next-step parts” is something I will need to keep an eye out for. Nothing worse than carving out some build time and realizing that you want to coat some parts… paint doesn’t dry immediately. While the paint was drying, I assembly the Koni shocks for both the front and rear.
Next, I attempted to adjust the upper control arms for power steering alignment prior to mounting on the frame. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the rear arms short enough for the power steering caster specification and realized I’d have to shorten the sleeves and bolts… more time lost. I gave the sleeves to a fellow builder to remove about ¼” on either end on his lathe while I shortened the bolts by the same with hacksaw. Finally, I got everything mounted, greased, and torqued. Anti-seize was used on the upper control arms for ease of alignment in the future. My Lock-n-Lube Grease Gun made quick, no fuss work of all the bushings and boots using AtomLube red grease. The hub nuts required 250 ft/lbs. It wasn’t easy, but was made possible by my Tekton Split Beam Torque Wrench and Roguen as a counter weight!
