Spent the day getting the undercoating off from underneath the floor. Then repositioned support to the rear frame so I could remove the rear end of leaf springs to get ready for frame rail replacements.
Mark, where oh where did you get that spiffy new trunk brace? If I can score a new one for myself, I think I would just hold off until it shows up before ripping out the tail light panel. Mine's OK, but it's going to take a lot of cleaning and being careful while removing other stuff to continue using it.
I spent the day grinding spot weld shrapnel and stripping 40 year old seam sealer, undercoating, caked mud, and whatever else was left of the rear end of mine. My snot is dark gray, and the Q-tips came out rust-colored after I recently got out of the shower.
I also discovered that the Redneck Engineering (henceforth referred to as "R.E.") didn't stop with the Gas Tank Hammock... or just the one 12-pack, either. It seems our heroes (the previous owners) decided to install some air shocks when they bashed the stockers through the upper shock mounts in the cross-member. There's literally nothing left of the original mounting points - just jagged holes now. Apparently, they saw fit to use more flat stock and angle, with judicious application of the torch (no actually 'drilling' of holes or anything - just blow through 'til the hole's are big enough), and we have air shocks mounted. If you look closely at the tops of the air shocks, you'll see the pieces of flat stock they braced against the blown out original mounting points. They also used shock extender studs to get through to the trapezoid-shaped angle-stock brackets on top of the cross-member. Notice the passenger side is off-center - that's because the shock extender was bent all to Hell when they installed it (or maybe later when they got back to trying to out-do the Duke Boys). Regardless, everything they came up with just 'floats' in there - nothing is nailed down (which explains why when the shock extender got bent, the R.E. top-mount just slid over a little bit).
So tomorrow, I'm going to fabricate a new mounting system which will probably consist of more flat stock. I'm thinking one piece straight across, bent into the correct contours of the lower portion of the cross-member with the correct diameter holes
drilled through in the right places and securely mounted to the underside of the cross-member. Because sadly - their Hill-Billy R.E. solution actually seems to have worked - I'm just going to improve on it and do a better job of fabrication and not waste any more time trying to repair the stock shock mounts (which I have no idea how to do that anyway). That way I'll still be able to continue to use the shock absorber access holes in the cross-member as well.
Unless anybody has any other ideas, that is.
I won't even comment on or show pictures of the R.E. shackles they came up with, until later when I replace them with the correct units.
