Tear Down - Phase II

 ScottDate: 29-Nov-2020

The tear down has been continuing and continuing and continuing. It will be continuing I think for a very long time, well at lest until I get to start putting it back together. 

 

I've been able to get the entire front suspension off. It was tough one one side as the passenger side spring either lost its temper or just collapsed due to age so I couldn't get the spring compressor tool in properly. Thus it was a very "interesting" removal. My friend Chris was there to help and had a lot of good ideas on how to get the spring out safely, without killing us (as those springs have a lot of stored kinetic energy).

Now that the suspension is all off, it's time to start cleaning up all of the parts. After 57 years, some of these components I believe are the original parts (springs, upper/lower control arm bushings, etc.). First thing I needed to do is get those old ball joints out of the control arms. GM (unlike Ford) these are ball joints are pressed in. I decided to buy my own tool to press the ball joints out/in. Thank goodness I have a vice to hold the tool! It actually worked really well!

We all know that a car will go faster when it is lighter (see Ford vs Ferrari) so my way of lightening the Riviera has been in removing all of the dirt, rust, and petrified grease. Ironically, a hammer and chisel was needed to get some of the material off!  I think I have literally removed almost 10 lbs of material in those three categories (luckily most of it has been in dirt and dried grease). I refurbished my dad's media blaster and have been using it on some of the parts (see other post on Media Blaster refurbishment). It has been working really well, as long as I wear a mask for dust, ear protection for the noise of the compressor and vacuum cleaner. The only issue has been my compressor not being able to keep up with the blasting needs. So on some of the larger parts, I bounced between using the tried and true, drill with a wire wheel. I always appreciated the before/after images, so here are some of those for the suspension parts:

The final stage of tear down is the removal of the engine. Once this is out, only the frame is to the front of the firewall. It really looks like the front of the car has just been chopped off. I enlisted the help of my brother to do this task as it's always a good idea to have a second set of hands when moving a 600+lb piece of metal. Before we took out the engine, I thought of my post "The Pre "First Fire" Background story...15 May 2014", which brings back the memory of "Did you do a compression check?"

Since the front of the car was burned, I really don't know the status of the engine, is it toast, working but ok, some gasket damage,...etc. I just don't know. So I had to figure out a way to do a compression check. Recall, engine compartment burned, no wiring, the battery is melted, so what do I do? 

Luckily for me, I have a spare car (well actually 3 spare cars) with car batteries that are just sitting there. I rounded up some new battery cables and hooked up the starter, along with my trusty remote starter trigger, I was able to do a compression check. Yeah! The results were less than, yeah...The compression values ranged from 90-180psi....ouch. I was hoping for something more consistent, but that's what I got. It looks like there is some engine work ahead of me, hopefully only a valve job, but I'll know more when I tear into it (which will be more than a post in it's own right).

The engine is out! I now have a Riviera with Zero horsepower! It's time to de-grease, clean and paint the frame! After that, I get to work on the firewall....which involves cutting out the heater box, apparently, that is the WAY to do it (according to all of the Riviera Forum posts).