Last year I rebuilt the front steering and suspension of my 64 Wildcat. This year I am tackling the rear suspension along with rebuilding the rear axle, installing a posi carrier, and rebuilding the driveshaft assembly. I will tackle these in 3 separate threads to make it easy to follow. Disassembly began by getting the car on the lift and disassembling the axle to make it as easy to move as possible. Care must be taken to support the axle when removing the shocks as they limit the downward travel. On my car the springs extended an additional 2 inches once the shocks were removed. At this point I could remove the axle housing to access the suspension components: Disassembly of the suspension components was straightforward thanks to the southern climate and lack of rust. As a matter of fact all nuts and bolts were removed with hand tools. No air tools, hammers, or torches required. While the control arm bushings were dry they were in surprisingly good condition considering their 50+ years of age and 105,000 miles. I was careful to stamp the parts for their location as I removed them. The upper control arm bushings are the worst of the bunch. One surprise I got was that the left lower control arm had a good bend and twist to it. The centers of the fore and aft bushings are about 5 degrees out of alignment. I am tyring to source a good used one but may have to straighten this one out. It must have been a big pothole or curb: No matter what I do I will box the lower control arms with 1/8" x 2" strip steel to improve strength and handling. The parts are now at the sandblaster. Now I have to figure out the best way to remove the old bushings!
Now that the posi swap in the rear axle is done I can get back to the suspension! I was able to find a good left lower control arm from CTC Ranch in Denton, TX. The price was $100 including shipping, maybe a little high, but the quality was good as was their customer service. My plan for bushing removal was to press them out but I soon found that all that would happen was the control arms trying to distort. Plan B was to press out the inner sleeves and then the rubber leaving the outer sleeve for the torch. Well, the inner sleeves came out fine but pressing the rubber still was causing the arms to distort. Plan C was to burn out the old rubber which took a little time but worked perfectly. Now I was left with the bushing outer sleeves in the control arms. I used my trusty torch to slit the sleeves where they have a press fit into the control arm. Care must be taken to not damage the arm itself. Another option would be a hacksaw or die grinder. Once all of the sleeves were out I boxed the lower control arms using 1/8" x 2" strip steel. I didn't weld the entire seam so not to get too much heat into the arms. I considered extending the box section all the way around the bushings but didn't want to risk distorting the bushing holes. I believe this will be much stronger then OE and the bushings strengthen the ends. After cleaning them up and deburring the bushing holes I pressed the new Rare Parts bushings into the arms using sockets to keep the spacing of the two sides the same during the press operation. There are 6 bushings in all including the upper contol arm. They are $81 each but are nice quality and should last for my lifetime. As far as I know Rare Parts is the only supplier of these full size Buick bushings. I've been told that Impala bushings are the same diameter but are a little (1/4"?) shorter and, if you're careful, that you can reuse the old Buick inner and outer sleeves with new Impala rubber/poly bushings. I wasn't going to chance it. Once the new bushings were in I had to "drill" a large hole to access the lower spring mount bolt. The torch had the perfect bit size :laugh:. I cleaned up the rough edges a little with a die grinder and made sure a 3/4" hex socket would pass through. Now the boxed lower control arms are ready for paint.
I finally have the rear suspension together and painted. The biggest problem was getting the rear springs back in position, even with a good spring compressor. I found that using bolts a little longer than OE helped get the springs to conform to the mounts on the lower control arms after they were snugged down to the frame at the top. Next on the lift was to install the Airlift compressor to control my air shocks. I didn't want to clutter up my car's interior so I mounted the compressor control panel inside the trunk near the right side deck lid hinge. I chose this air system as it has a pressure sensor that is supposed to be adjustable to maintain a given pressure within 5 psi. I've not tried to adjust it yet but set the pressure to 60 psi and so far have had no issues. The power to the compressor is fed through a Bosch 30 amp relay I sourced from a mid 1990s GM car. I use another relay for my in-tank electric fuel pump conversion and mount them on the GM bracket on the firewall nest to the fuel pump safety inertai switch from an F150 pick-up. The ride quality is superb. One day I will finish off the trunk space with a sheet metal enclosure to protect the air system from loose objects. Until then I will just ahve to be careful. Gone is the driveline vibration, the various clunks and bangs when hitting potholes or backing up quickly. The car tracks so much better with the boxed control arms. It is not a canyon carver but it is much better than new other restored full size cars I've driven.
