I got a lot of work done on the rear suspension in the last few weekends. First, I flipped the forward trailing arm brackets. Pretty straightforward, but you've got a bunch of those pesky GM rivets to remove. I wound up firing up the torch and heating them until they are cherry red, then hitting the trigger and melting the heads off, taking extra care not to torch the bracket. Then, grab the air chisel and knock what's left of the rivets out. When you flip the brackets, you have to drill 2 new holes per side. I wanted maximum strength, so I stepped up the holes to 7/16ths. A total of 16 fasteners, 32 flat washers and some red Locktite and you're done.
The next step was pressing new bushings into the trailing arms. I fired up the torch and burned out the old rubber and removed the guts. Then, I cleaned up the receptacle in the arms with a barrel sander and knocked the new polyurethane bushings in.
I painted the trailing arms and frame with chassis black (satin) paint. I bought a Super Track Bar Kit from Early Classic and CPP 5" drop rear coils and mocked up the rear end. I have still not welded the perches on because I have to mock up the engine/trans and carrier bearing in order to accurately get the pinion angle correct. I just wanted to see if there was anything I needed to address before I set the rear in place for the last time. Here is a picture of the rear suspension. Note: the rear axle is yet to be painted, the pinion angle is not set, the shocks are not installed, and the track bar is not installed. If you look close, you can see the new bolts on the forward trailing arm brackets that are now flipped.
Here's where it should sit at ride height. The wheels are mock ups; the tires are 31x11.50-15 and are really tight inside the wheelwells. I want close to a 30" tall rear tire, and these are relatively close, just a bit too wide. The '79 rear end is 1.5" wider than the original rear end, and that's a bummer because I would love to have a 10" rear rim tucked inside. Not gonna happen, unfortunately. It looks like an 8" will be the widest wheel I can run with this rear axle.
I have already started on doing some suspension mods on the front, but I'll refrain on posting pictures until the mod is done. Until then, hang tight!