Re: C3 chassis resto
Squeezing those rivets are a BEAR to say the least. I did mine with a air hammer and a skilled person was using it...no not me. I had to make a bucking bar with a small concave area to receive the rivet head that was welded to a metal support to go in the inside of the lower balljoint. It was a lot of work and I wouldn't do it again! That said the uppers would be much easier to do because you can get a straight shot at them.
Now you ask if a press will work? Well yes it will if it's a 20 Ton(smaller may also work but this is what we have at work). I tried one rivet all by itself just to see and it squeezed it quite easily. That said I'd have no problem doing my upper balljoints this way because they are a straight shot and the rivets are smaller than the lowers.
You are correct in that the pressure is on the inner ear when you install the bushings but that is where the GM tool also supports the A arm. Unless the bushing gets cocked it won't bend anything because they actually press in fairly easily.
I have a 1.5 Gal Caswell kit and I was able to do my headlight and wiper door actuators....it was a pain but I did it. I should have bought the 3 gal kit and the 5Gal kit would have made my life too easy.
I don't know about the backing plates but the caliper supports should be no problem.
What you are refering to is hydrogen embrittlement and it depends who you talk to about it if it's something to worry about or not. No kit addresses it but there is a process to bake the parts within 1 hour after plating at about 375 for 3 hours I think it is. I also read that you can "test" the fasteners by torquing them to their proper torque and then letting them sit for a few days and then retorque them. If the torque is still the same then they are okay but if the torque has diminished even a tiny bit they are scrap. Weather this is a valid test or not I don't know. It's only really critical for hardened fasteners like suspension nuts and bolts that are under high tension. I talked to a lot of platers and they all know about it but say that it's not a real concern... I talked to Caswell about it and they even say that it's not a concern. I would tend to believe them because you can just imagine the law suits they would have if someone had a suspension failure after using their kit especially when there is NO warning what so ever that the bolts may be weakened because of their plating process.
After saying all this I went and bought what I could of correct repop suspension hardwear and I also bought the remaining hardware used from the local Corvette place so that I can plate those and do a proper bake of the parts afterwards. I'm not convinced that I really need to do this but better safe than sorry.
Squeezing those rivets are a BEAR to say the least. I did mine with a air hammer and a skilled person was using it...no not me. I had to make a bucking bar with a small concave area to receive the rivet head that was welded to a metal support to go in the inside of the lower balljoint. It was a lot of work and I wouldn't do it again! That said the uppers would be much easier to do because you can get a straight shot at them.
Now you ask if a press will work? Well yes it will if it's a 20 Ton(smaller may also work but this is what we have at work). I tried one rivet all by itself just to see and it squeezed it quite easily. That said I'd have no problem doing my upper balljoints this way because they are a straight shot and the rivets are smaller than the lowers.
You are correct in that the pressure is on the inner ear when you install the bushings but that is where the GM tool also supports the A arm. Unless the bushing gets cocked it won't bend anything because they actually press in fairly easily.
I have a 1.5 Gal Caswell kit and I was able to do my headlight and wiper door actuators....it was a pain but I did it. I should have bought the 3 gal kit and the 5Gal kit would have made my life too easy.
I don't know about the backing plates but the caliper supports should be no problem. What you are refering to is hydrogen embrittlement and it depends who you talk to about it if it's something to worry about or not. No kit addresses it but there is a process to bake the parts within 1 hour after plating at about 375 for 3 hours I think it is. I also read that you can "test" the fasteners by torquing them to their proper torque and then letting them sit for a few days and then retorque them. If the torque is still the same then they are okay but if the torque has diminished even a tiny bit they are scrap. Weather this is a valid test or not I don't know. It's only really critical for hardened fasteners like suspension nuts and bolts that are under high tension. I talked to a lot of platers and they all know about it but say that it's not a real concern... I talked to Caswell about it and they even say that it's not a concern. I would tend to believe them because you can just imagine the law suits they would have if someone had a suspension failure after using their kit especially when there is NO warning what so ever that the bolts may be weakened because of their plating process.
After saying all this I went and bought what I could of correct repop suspension hardwear and I also bought the remaining hardware used from the local Corvette place so that I can plate those and do a proper bake of the parts afterwards. I'm not convinced that I really need to do this but better safe than sorry.
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