Next step to getting the subframe finished was done today. I burned and hammered the bushings out. I've done a lot of crappy jobs on a car before, but this one was just plain miserable. I'd hate to have to do this job with everything still installed on the subframe.
-My backyard literally has no grass, so it made the perfect fire pit to work in. I put the subframe up on some jack stands and put the MAP gas to work.
-The front bushings were rotted beyond saving. This one fell out when I pulled the subframe from the car at the junk yard. The other one was hanging on by a thread. The guy that had the car I pulled this from had put collars on trying to get rid of the bushing slop this had created.
-The rear two were unfortunately in great shape.
-But nothing a little fire can't cure!
-I am such a pyro. I enjoy lighting this crap on fire.
-I let the fire heat up the rubber and used an impact extension and a mallet to knock the centers out. Much faster than letting it burn out on its own, and a hell of a lot safer than some idiots I've seen sit there and spray the fire with spray paint trying to keep it going.
-The diff bushings came out pretty easily. I cleaned up all the outer races as best as I could by scraping the rubber while it was still melted.
-One hacksaw cut later, and the race sprung free.
-Easy to the breezy!
-The other one was easy as pie, too.
-The back ones, however, made me nearly pull my hair out. A hacksaw wasn't going to cut it (seriously, no pun intended there), so I took a trip to Harbor Freight and picked up a cheap sawzall. These guys were rusted in place. I cut the sleeves trying to avoid nicking the subframe, and after some ridiculous amount of time hammering, finally got it out.
-That was the easy one -_-
-Mmm...rusty.
-This one took the longest. Almost an hour just by itself. It was completely rusted in, fought me every step of the way, had to be cut multiple times in multiple places, AND then had to be helped out with vise grips. I felt the bird was appropriate.
-The front two came out easy. Split the inner race, and it came out easily. Then split the outer shell, and hammered it from the bottom. Done. 40 minutes for two of them with a phone call in between.
-Wire wheeled the races and sprayed them with rustoleum while I wait to take it to the painters. It's going to need a full tank, media blast, and powdercoat.
I'm trying to decide on a color right now. I was just gonna do black and spray my RLCAs Nismo silver, but the GKTech arms are black, so I'm thinking of going silver on the frame now. I'll probably stick with black since it hides road grime better.