After finding out late last night (when the temp outside finally hit a “cool” 88˚) that the puller I was able to borrow from my father in law wasn’t going to work, I was a little bummed. I’ll have to order one online in order to keep working on the axle, hopefully I’ll have it delivered before next weekend.
This morning (again when the temp outside was a cool 80˚ at 7am) my dad came over to get the flywheel from his 1955 Chevy Pickup sand blasted. Since I was going to do some blasting, I think it ended up working out nicely that I was able to scrape off so much gunk from the rear axle last weekend. After blasting the spring/shock mounts (that still need to be repaired) and my dad’s flywheel, I had started to put everything up and away. By the time I was finished cleaning up, it was already just shy of 90˚ out. But, I changed my mind and worked on getting the axle off of the workbench and down to the end of the driveway.
After quite a bit of pulling and trouble, I got it down to the end, and went to work. One of the major problems I have when sandblasting at home is that my air compressor can’t keep up. So rather than being able to spend about 45 minutes blasting away, I have to go about 5-10 minutes and then wait a good 20 minutes for the pressure to build back up. Not the most ideal, but certainly cheaper than a bigger compressor and probably quicker than getting these big heavy pieces off to a third party.
In any event, aside from missing a few spots (which show up so much nicer in the pictures than they appear in person) the axle is ready for finishing. Once I get the hubs pulled next weekend I’ll be able to pull apart all the brake pieces and backing plates. I’ll have to pull off the differential cover again, get some more of the axle oil out, and then get it masked for painting. I’ve decided to use the POR 15 system on the axles to give it a nice strong and lasting finish. Only trouble is, still need to buy some 🙂 Once the axle is back together, I’ll get new brake hardware and new brake lines put in, and then it will be time to work on the front axle.
For comparison, this is what it looked like when I started:
