Going the Other Way

Ready to start rebuilding at last

The frame is ready

I have now been working on the Ghia for over ten months, and I can finally say that I have started going the other way.

That is, I am at long last putting parts back on the car instead of the other way around.  The first piece to actually start this process was the freshly cleaned and repainted front beam.

First, of course, we had to turn the frame back over.  This gave me the chance to paint the primed rear suspension pieces, effectively finishing the process of cleaning the frame.

The front end is ready

So, on it goes...

With fresh clean bolts.

It was a real pleasure, putting this piece back on.  I enjoy all the aspects of this project, but it is the reassembly that I have been looking forward to since I bought this rust bucket in September of last year.  Of course, there are still a lot of parts to be cleaned as they get replaced, but I think the dirtiest parts of this job are behind me.

After all the time it took to get it off though, it went back on in just a few minutes.  I elected not to paint the bolts, choosing instead to just hit them with a little clear acrylic after they are tightened up.  This will keep the rust at bay for a little while, anyway.

Next up are what I call the 'heavy metal pieces', the suspension parts like the torsion arms and spindles.  With the new ball joints installed, these need to be buffed and painted before they can return to their original positions.

Torsion arm is cleaned...

...and painted!

I could almost put the whole front suspension back together but for the fact that I am missing those torsion springs that had rotted in the lower front beam tube.  That's a project for next Saturday and a trip to the junkyard.

Next: re-installing the rear trailing arms.