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by **Monzadude** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:21 pm

79 skyhawk
3.8 litre
th350

Ok here's the deal.I've owned h-bodies in the past but this is the first time i've tried to fix one up properly. I've taken a few apart for parts over the years to fix up the one i was driving at the time. Most of what I did was just fix on the fly as I had no other car to drive.
So far I've removed the motor so I can clean up the engine compartment and clean up the motor. I thought the rear main was leaking but it looks ok. Possibly just a combination of leaky valve covers, bad intake gasket and some of the oil pan bolts were a little loose.
I had a piece break off the aluminum timing cover. Small panic but after some ideas from the forum I talked to one of the maintenance guys from work and after looking at it he said he can weld it no problem. He welds aluminum all the time at work and isn't going to charge me anything.
So far I've cleaned and painted most of the motor. I've got the 4 barrel intake and valve covers just sitting on the block to see how it will look. There was talk of putting a mild cam in but that will have to wait. Maybe it the spring before the motor goes back in. A 4 barrel carb is on hold until after Christmas. I still haven't decided what kind of carb to get.New or used. A friend of mine used to be a mechanic and said If i get a decent used Rotchester quad he'll help me rebuild it. Not sure that's the way to go.
I sprayed the engine compartment with degreaser the washed it off with the presser washer. Citrus degreaser and warm water at 2300 psi seems to do a great job. Next is to clean up the rust under the hood but my original idea of using an angle grinder with a wire buffing wheel won't work that well. I forgot there's that many corners and angles. It's all just surface rust as far as I can see. Everything seems solid. I have a small gravity feed sand blaster, I'm going to try that. Never used it before. Any helpful hints and suggestions are more than welcome.

Here's some pics.

by **steelhead** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:06 pm

the blaster works great in there,take everything out you can and just seal everything you don't want sand in extra good, it'll get in everything and go everywhere. And blow and blow and blow to get it out of the nooks and crannies afterwards, getting it all back out is harder than the blasting. you'll have to encase yourself in layers of plastic or sand will be all over your garage.
Lanse

by **AusRs** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:08 pm

i have a suggestion for you ,while the engine is out remove the upper and lower control arms and replace the bushes ,it is way easier to dowith the engine removed

i just spent around 6 hours rubbing down my engine bay to prime it !

by **Monzadude** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:16 pm

I'm planning on re-doing the whole front end. I've got all the bushings,ball joints and tie rods. It might take a little while to get to that now that it's cold out. Now that I think of it If I take the control arms off right now I can clean up around the bolt holes.

by **Monzadude** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:54 pm

OK i'm an idiot!! Steelhead told me the sand from the blaster would go everywhere but I had to try it. So I got it ready thinking i'd do a small area to see how it works. Works great! And yup, there's sand everywhere! Seems to use a lot of sand. Is that normal? Also after playing for a few minutes my air compressor over heated and quit working. Motor was fine but the compressor was really hot. Bad bearing? Needs oil or something? Maybe it's just time for a new one. It has a 20 gallon tank but is really old. Christmas is coming! Maybe Santa will be nice.

by **steelhead** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:07 am

yah it uses lots of sand, the plastic can help catch it then filter it through a fine screen and reuse it.There should be valves for adjusting the amount of sand and the amount of air pressure, the one the bottom should control sand.And yes it takes a good compressor to keep up, its bad enough with a small pot,refilling and screening, even a fairly new 30 gallon can't keep up steady

by **AusRs** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:46 am

Monzadude wrote:I'm planning on re-doing the whole front end. I've got all the bushings,ball joints and tie rods. It might take a little while to get to that now that it's cold out. Now that I think of it If I take the control arms off right now I can clean up around the bolt holes.

thats what i did

by **fyrftr50** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 12:32 am

Nicely done Bill, your on a tear with your hawk. Lots done since I last saw you, I wish I could get that motivated, lol.

by **Monzadude** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:27 pm

Well I finally got around to taking the control arms off. If i'd known it was going to be this hard I might not have started it. The top control arm bolts came off no problem but the lower ones are a pain. One bolt came out after about 4 hrs of fighting, the others just broke. I've got the passanger side control arms off and have started to clean them up and paint them.
I thinking of getting new shocks and the power steering pressure hose was leaking a little so I'm going to see about getting one of those as well. At the moment my priority is to get new lower control arm bolts. I haven't even started to look for a new carb yet. Funny how the more you do the bigger the to do list seems to get.
For now I'm going to continue to clean the rust out of the engine compartment, off the suspension parts and out of the wheel wells.

by **patrick1151** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:53 pm

Hopefully you saved the caps off the ends of the old control arm bushings as I hear they are impossible to find. Want to come out here and do mine for me??

by **Monzadude** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:56 am

I've saved eveything i've taken off so far. What are the caps? Do they look like big washers that go between the bushing and the frame?
As for coming out and doing yours for you, I'd hate to rob you of the experience.lol. Besides, doing this nightmare once is enough for me. Hopefully when you do it, it go's better than it has for me.(it couldn't go much worse)

by **AusRs** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:47 am

patrick1151 wrote:Hopefully you saved the caps off the ends of the old control arm bushings as I hear they are impossible to find. Want to come out here and do mine for me??

i saved the caps off of the old bushings ,however i am using energy bushes in the car now ,NO room to fit any washers in there with the energy stuff ....after deliberating i just left them in the leftover parts pile LOL

by **SunbirdMan** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:49 pm

AusRs wrote:
patrick1151 wrote:Hopefully you saved the caps off the ends of the old control arm bushings as I hear they are impossible to find. Want to come out here and do mine for me??

i saved the caps off of the old bushings ,however i am using energy bushes in the car now ,NO room to fit any washers in there with the energy stuff ....after deliberating i just left them in the leftover parts pile LOL

The bolts are supported by the part of the cap that inserts into the bushing's inner metal sleeve. Without them there will be some additional clearance between the bolt and sleeve. This may not be a problem but i thought I'd bring it up. I have some kind of polyurethane bushings (can't remember the brand) but I reused the caps and greased them up and they fit back in.

by **patrick1151** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:27 pm

Monzadude, if you are not going to reuse the washers/caps and want to sell them, let me know as I know someone needing some.

Shannon

by **AusRs** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:37 pm

i actually tried the sleeves on my energy bushes ,the part that fits into the tube that has the bolt running through it does not fit ,I would guess that those sleeves are only required IF you are replacing your bushes with an oem style of bushing

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