My LCA's looked very rusty and I was positive there would be heavy pitting that would need to be filled. I just got them back from being sand blasted and they look really good. You can still see the date codes on the rivets. I'm wondering if I should even paint them now or leave them bare metal and treat them with RPM.

Does anyone have any tips on restoring a set of LCA's? I know they aren't going to look exactly correct since they've been blasted but they really look too nice to paint with Seymour Stainless Steel paint.

Will rubbing them down with steel wool be enough to take away the blasted look or is there something better?(that won't leave scratch marks) Should the swaybar bracket welds be heated to get the coloring back before RPMing?
Thanks

This might be of some help....

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...&PHPSESSID=


You could wire wheel them if you want a nicer finish.

Good luck and post some photos once you get done.

Darren,
Maybe this pic will help... NOS, courtesy of a board member here, but can't remember who...

Ray

I used Krylon battery protectant in a shaker can. Looks pretty close to cosmoline, dries hard, and was good enough for my non OE perfect resto.

Rick.

I picked up a can of the battery protector awhile ago. It's either that or Resto Ricks cosmoline paint.

I guess unless someone says different, I'm going to rub the arms down with steel wool, darken the lower ball joint end, darken the torsion bar socket, darken the rivet heads, spray the cosmoline and finally RPM the thing.

There's several way to do it, just how perfect do you want them? I love what David does with his level of restorations, but my experience with RPM hasn't been that great. I thought I might have gotten a bad batch, but when I called they said that wasn't the case.

Do you plan on driving your car or just a show car for OE judging? Anyway, here's a few I did testing colors and techniques.

[image]http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=81034.0;attach=146718;image[/image]

[image]http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=81034.0;attach=146719;image[/image]

None of your links work.

I've had great success with RPM. My spindles, calipers, tie rods, adjuster, center link, strut rods and many other componants are all bare metal treated with RPM.

The car will get driven but not in bad weather. RPM's abrasive tests have shown it to hold up well to road debris.

Darren,
Could you post some pics of the suspension parts that you treated with RPM? Also, how were the parts prepared before the RPM, bead blast, sand blast, acid wash, etc? I'm looking to see if they are different shades/colors to each part as they came in different shades/colors from the factory. TIA
Ray

Hi Darren,

Sorry about the links, they were just photos. One photo is shown in the post above and the other is just a close up.

Please do not take my experience with RPM for anything other then what it is. Just my experience. I'm glad you've had good luck with it. I've heard soooo many great things about it and seen many others on here with nothing but glowing reviews of the product. That coupled with the work that Dave does led me to believe I had a bad batch and that's why I called. Based on what others have done with it and seeing what Dave does I would still recommend others that are doing OE Gold restorations try the product. For me, I went a different route. Since I will drive my cars in good weather, but still wanted a stock look I chose to blend 4 colors with air brush to achieve a similar look to cosmoline but with longer durability.

Based on the other work I've seen you do, I'm sure whatever product you choose it will look fantastic.

I look forward to seeing your car once it's all done. It should be one of the nicest!

Have a great day.

Quote:

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None of your links work.

I've had great success with RPM. My spindles, calipers, tie rods, adjuster, center link, strut rods and many other componants are all bare metal treated with RPM.

The car will get driven but not in bad weather. RPM's abrasive tests have shown it to hold up well to road debris.

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I can take some pictures. The calipers were reman units that were fairly dark right out of the box. The RPM didn't change their color at all. I sand blasted the spindles and caliper brackets. I darkened them by spraying them with black oxide solution. They turned a nice gray color but once RPM was applied, they got much darker...too dark...but still look better then paint IMO.

The center link and strut rods were put in a piece of PVC filled with muriatic acid. Once the rust was gone, I filled the pipe with baking soda water. They soaked in that over night. Then I rinced them with regular water, blew them dry and RPMed them right way.

You should be able to smooth out the metal with different grades of steel wool.

If you use the Krylon battery spray, do it before RPM...DAMHIK..

Here are a few pictures. This car was very rusty and a lot of the suspension parts do have some pitting.

This is a reman caliper I bought many years ago. It was pulled from the box, disassembled and RPMed. The hose ends were also RPMed.


Here is one of the spindles. It was sand blasted. I wanted to try and darken it a little so it wouldn't have that blasted color. Once it was RPMed, it did get too dark but I still like the look of it. All the parts were RPMed seperately, then assembled. The lower ball joint is the color it came...I didn't try to darken it at all.


Here are the tie rod ends, center link and strut rods. The tie rods are new, the other componants are original to the car. These parts(except the new tie rods) were acid dipped to remove the rust. I did lightly wire wheel and steel wool the tie rod sleeves and clamps. One side of the car had the 70-72 style clamp nuts with the nylon pellits. The other side had the 73-74 style lock nuts.

Great job on the parts Darren! They look really nice.

Darren,
Thanks for posting the pics and what was done to each part. LOOKS AWESOME!!!

Yes, the bolts are supposed to be phosphate. I'll take another look at the fastener guide tonight but I'm possitive that's what it says. The caliper bracket bolts still had blue thread locker on them. I put more on the threads before assembly.

Probably 10 years ago, I painted all these parts with POR-15.(except the calipers) It has been a lot of work stripping that junk off to get them bare metal. POR-Strip works great at removing the POR-15 though. Regualar stripper doesn't touch it.

Eastwood gold tint; also used the lower reinforcements.