Hi All,
Here are some pictures of my rear suspension and rear axle restoration that I’m working on these days. I own a black on black 1970 Cougar which I’ve had apart and been slowly chipping away at for the last 4 years. The car is undergoing a nut and bolt restoration. The focus right now is the rear suspension and rear axle.
Rear axle about to be pulled…
seen better days…
an hour later out shes comes…
what a mess…
all apart and a quick wire brush by hand to remove all the loose crud
sand blasted all the misc pieces…
this is what I used on the rear axle to clean it up…
rear axle all cleaned up…
I had the rear axle hot tanked to clean and the internal grime build up…
first coat of paint goes on…
time to clean up the rear leaf springs…
used the angle grinder wire wheel cup brush to clean them up
first coat goes on using eastwoods detail grey spray paint
driver side waiting to be painted…
Nice!!! And I like your posting style/pictures.
Regards,
Bob
Regarding the rear leaf springs…
I understand that they “sag” / relax over time. How are you planning to deal with that? Is there some method of restoring the springs back to the factory ride height, or do you just replace them?
My rear suspension on the '69 has leaf and coil springs,…the coils are aftermarket. Even though my leaf springs are new, noticeable difference after adding the coils,…softer compression. Leaf springs can be re-arched,… but does having them “done” restore their tensile strength???
no plans to deal with the sag…these leaf springs have been replaced at one time…i recall the original owner mentioning he had them replaced a year or two prior to selling the car to me which was 12-13 years ago as one of the leafs had broke on him…since owning the car, it hasn’t done much at all except sit on jack stands…i noticed on the leaf springs when taking them apart some white writing saying “Surrey, BC” so the original owner was correct with having them replaced
i don’t know much about cars, my mechanical skills are quite limited, this is my very first car i’ve ever owned and my first restoration project so I’m no pro here, but my plan with the rear leaf springs was to clean them up, paint them, C-clamp the leafs together and re-attach them together with new leaf spring clamps and press in a new front eye bushing and call it “restored”
the ride height to the car looked fine before taking the car apart and with them being replaced at one time, the plan is to reuse them for now…if they were the originals I would have bought new ones and not bother to take them apart
I’m a picture kind of guy…hopefully you guys like lots of wonderful pictures lol
Sounds good to me! 
Got some more updates and more photos on the rear suspension and rear axle progress. Mostly painted misc parts, but did get the freshly rebuilt 3rd member painted and the snubber bracket installed.
new rear shocks and brake drums…to bad the shocks are white…
sanded shocks down lightly and shot them with underhood black…
painted the drums as well so they don’t surface rust later down the road…
rebuilt 3rd member with brand new 3.50 gear ratio and rebuilt traction lock unit containing new clutches…
shot the 3rd member with red iron oxide…
snubber bracket cleaned up as well as the original rubber snubber…
3rd member with snubber bracket and rubber snubber mounted…
Looking really nice! Pity the drums say China on them, though. (Not a dig at you, just at the state of mfg here now!).
I’ve heard of people using metal-2-metal or JB weld to cover up imperfections like that.
I absolutely agree. Very nice job.
I agree…today was the first day I actually pulled the drums out of the boxes and saw the huge ass “china” marking on them and thought to myself that’s not going to be somewhat original looking
haven’t given them any thought but the idea below of welding up the “china” stamp is great…I got a good friend who is a welder…time to pay him a visit with a case of beer and these drums lol
Anyone have any pictures/descriptions for the correct paint markings to be applied the 3rd member itself. I think there is supposed to be a yellow and/or blue dot applied to it?
My car is a 1970 Cougar, Dearborn car, 3.50 posi, 28 spline if that’s applicable to the paint markings. Cheers
Just got a pair of rear drums… Raybestos. Stamped on the box “Made in U.S.A.” Hope that means the drums, not the cardbaord box!
Me too Steve. My thread has grown to be somewhat unwieldy at 110+ pages but if you like pictures and narrative I got you covered brother!: http://www.mercurycougar.net/forums/showthread.php?21714-(Picture)-Diary-of-an-ECI-(East-Coast-Idiot)
You are correct about the springs being replacements, the holes in the ends of the leafs for the pads are a dead giveaway that they are other than original.
Looking good!
Regards,
Bob
Check about 2/3rds of the way through my thread for a bunch of markings stuff. Sorry I can’t be more specific, I have plans (but no time) to make an index file for the thread so people can find what they are looking for.
you were correct on being 2/3rd’s the way through…you got a massive build thread and reading the details that go along with the pictures was very helpful…found it within 5 pages…thanks for the picture!!! Here it is…
I will be adding these markings to my 3rd member this weekend…I’ll post how mine turned out…Cheers
My pleasure Steve!
A bit of advice; before you put all those pretty pieces back together, take your drive shaft to a reputable shop and have it balanced. I didn’t do that until yesterday, and what a difference. I always had a slight vibration under my seat (no, not a f**t), and the transmission output shaft seal kept leaking all because the shaft was quite far out of balance. Just a suggestion … easier for you to do now.