De-constructive.

I have been putting off working on my cowl for quite some time now. There was considerable surface rust along the base of the cowl and i couldn't figure out a way to get rid of it without putting in a whole lot of effort (which I really hate to do).

This is how it looked when I first uncovered it.

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Once I cleaned out all of the pine needles and crap, I had to figure out a way to get my power drill and wire wheel in such a tight space to blast the rust out.

Problem solved.

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I used this (which works like a CHAMP) and a regular wire wheel to brush out the whole thing inside and out.

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Then treated it with my favorite rust conversion chemical, PickleX 20.

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Magic, as usual.

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Now it's time to remove my fenders.

First you have to remove the side markers and the headlights.

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Then I unbolted the fender all the way around and underneath.

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There were three bolts holding the front air dam onto the headlight bucket and fender.

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And shazam. She came right off.

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Full of bird seed and sunflower seeds and shit from the mice.

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Hit the whole thing with a nylon brush and a vacuum just to clean it up a bit.

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Ahh... Time to Beer.

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Anyone who is into really hoppy beers will greatly appreciate Sam Adam's Latitude 48. I will definitely recommend this one.

Ran into a bit of an issue with one of the passenger fender bolts.

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Nothing a little Dremel action cant fix!

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Badass!

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Whipped off the doors and the passenger side fender and headlight bucket.

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Lots of work ahead. I will be sanding and sealing all under and around where the fenders cover, along with the inside of the fenders. I need to make sure that we don't ever run into any rust issues again.

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Doors, air dam, and fenders, off and ready to be stripped and prepped for paint!

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Very exciting.

Diff Werkz

A couple of weeks ago I dropped the rear end out of the Z.

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Rusty, old, and DIRTY!

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Ick.

Anyone who has tried to disassemble a rear end after removing it knows that once you free it from the chassis, it becomes very difficult to get some good torque on any of the bolts.

It really turns into a squirmy little bugger.

Nothing a torch can help with! (Notice I jammed my ratchet in the axle to keep it from turning)

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Torch = mandatory.

After blasting everything with heat and my new ELECTRIC IMPACT WRENCH!!!!!



WOOT!

The diff was finally free of the axles and diff mount.

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MAN this thing is dirty.

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So I start scraping. It is covered with what appears to be 40 years of road grime and factory undercoating.

Who would have known that this was originally painted black?

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Take my stiff wire brush and face mask (don't breath in rust dust.. ever) and I brush all of the flaky corrosion and primer off the diff case.

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Then I hit it with some of my legendary miracle sauce, PickleX 20, and rubbed it down.

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After the chemical reaction with the rust particles it turns a frosty white color.

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I don't think the gear oil in this thing has EVER been changed. The Fill and drain plus were a MOTHERFUCKER to get out.

The torch did NOTHING.

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So I decided to just pull the cover.

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As YouTube instructs, leave the top bolt in place so when you break the seal of the cover it doesn't come flying at you with a shit load of toxic 90 weight.

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Tap tap taperoo.

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Eeeeewwww...

Out drained the gnarliest toxic black sludge I have ever seen or smelled.

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Happy to see VERY few metal shavings on the magnetic diff plug.

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Draining.

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After stripping the paint off of the removed cover, I hit it with some Brasso to try and clean it up a bit.

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Wire brush.

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Looking much nicer.

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The Internet says to use RTV for a gasket.

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I am concerned that maybe I used a bit too much. Ehh.. if it blows up ill swap an R200. :D

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Sealed it back up and taped it off for some paint!

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I decided to go with some High-Temp Engine enamel. This paint is rated for 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is plenty for my diff.

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After letting it dry, I unwrapped it and voila!

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Before:

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After:

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Much more respectable.

Tough Guy approves!

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Drop it like it's HOT

Over the weekend I had my Toyota Expert friend Bruce came by and help me drop my rear end. (no homo) lol

He brought a whole truckload of really expensive tools that made the job possible while drunk.

Here is the sequence of events that left the guts of my Z sprawled out on the floor.

First, we beer!

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Here is my buddy Bruce. I would never have been able to pull this off without him.
Thanks homie.

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So after a few hours of drinking we jacked up the diff a bit to relieve the mounts of its weight. We used a wood board, that I expertly snapped over my knee, to cushion it a bit.

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One of the most useful tools we had was this portable craftsman impact gun. I am going out to get one and you should too. This thing is wildly effective at getting 40 year old bolts off of shitty old cars.

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Another was my monster 1/2" breaker (mandatory).

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And this beauty. I think they call it a Mini-Ductor. Look at those nasty rusted bolts. This thing just sits on the nut and heats it until it starts to smoke (literally about 5-10 seconds), then a couple blasts with the impact gun and grab another beer. Almost too easy.

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Unbolting the rear subframe.

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And the diff mount.

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I think this is a picture of me taking a nap next to a bottle of margarita haha.

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Unbolting the diff from the mustache bar.

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Once you get to where you are unbolting the last few things, you want to make sure that you take great car with the suspension/strut towers. If you are leaving everything assembled when you pull it out like we did, it is a good idea to plan it out a bit and strategically remove the strut tower bolts.

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Once these are removed the diff wants to rock back and forth like a maniac so we left these for last. This way all you have to do when all of the underside bolts are removed, is pull these last few nuts off and lower it down off the jack.

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Here is an annoying drunk video of us dropping my diff.. haha Please ignore the stupid commentary. (Except for Bruce's Pro-tip lol)



After a little wiggle and drag operation the rear end was out of the car fully assembled.

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