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My priorities have changed a little bit; I'm moving so I've got to get the Chevelle mobile. I'm putting the rear back together so it'll roll; I fully expect to be pulling it back out later.

I completed coating the housing with POR-15. It looks pretty spiffy.

Got under the car, scraped the dirt and muck off that was coating the rear crossmember. It's surprising (at least to me) how little dirt was stuck to the bottom of the car overall - it seemed to all be concentrated on the crossmember and rear axle. Anyway, here's the pile of dirt that I scraped off; the greasy grime that was left came off pretty easily with lacquer thinner on a rag.

Pressed in the new bushings.

I'm installing rear discs; check out This website for pics of someone else who's done the changeover. To sum up what's going on, I'm using GM part numbers 18019858 (RH) and 18019857 (LH) for the caliper brackets and Cardone part numbers 164540 (RH) and 164541 (LH) for the loaded calipers. Autozone quoted me 15 dollars each yesterday for 97 Camaro rear rotors, so I'll need to get those as well. I've already purchased the brackets (I got them from GMPartsDirect.com.. took roughly 10 days for them to arrive. Big, beefy, very nice. Once I get the rear brakes done, I'll set up a separate page for the conversion. Note that the caliper is on the back side of the axle, and that the bracket is offset towards the inside - I had to come in and stare at the pics on that website to verify the direction.

I put the rear cover on. It's not painted yet; I just put the old gasket back in; and there's still no posi unit in there; but I have replaced the axle seals. I had a bit of fun when installing the axles; one of the pinion gears fell out. If this hasn't ever happened to you, it's a task to get both gears in and lined up with the shaft-holes. You can see on the stool next to the axle that I've purchased a set of "Gas Ryder" shocks - they were 20 bucks each; I need shocks so I can move the car but I may end up putting these on the elky once the move completes.

I had a few items that I needed to prime (or re-prime) as part of this process, like the upper control arms. I also wanted to prime where the gunk had been on the crossmember.. I mixed up too much primer, so I went ahead and primed the quarter as well. Now, when I finish attaching the inner fender to the quarter some of this primer will get burned off though.

There was quite a bit of surface rust coming in on the patches I had made on the rear panel here; so I wire-brushed them clean and primed here as well. I went ahead and got the areas around the taillights as well.

I painted all those items that I'd already primed that needed to be black; I used some single-stage black with a flattener I had. I don't know that I'm too happy with how well it came out, I think the paint store failed to sell me an item.

Here's what I had.. but from what I read on the back of the Black can, it sounds like I need a hardener as well? The paint dried pretty quickly, anyway, but it's very easily scratched.

I've got the springs ready to install. These are the original springs (so far as I can tell), but before I bolted them on I cut half a coil off each one. I didn't paint or coat them; I expect that I'll end up putting some higher rate springs in to replace these. I just wanted to check out how it looked - remember that when I got the car, the springs were in the trunk and wooden blocks were in their place.

Once the paint dried on the spring retainers, I went ahead and bolted on the springs to the axle.

And once the other paint dried, I installed the upper control arms. Unfortunately, I only have like 5 control arm bolts (well, I know where 4 are, but one is too damaged to use - I know I had 5 when I got the car though). OPG and the like want like 7 bucks each for the replacement bolts, so I'll need to find a cheaper source.

Here's a view of the newly primed undercarriage. Once I get the driver's trunk replaced, I'll be able to finish priming the undercarriage. I doubt that this will happen before the move though.

I know that I've got to mount the axle still; other than that I am not sure how much more I will be doing before the move.

From everything I've heard, once you move into a new house, everything that isn't house takes a backseat; so I imagine that progress will be slow for a while.. but I will finally get the 220v I need to get a stronger compressor.

Once I'm back to work on the car, I intend to pull the rear back out so I can rework the cover and install a posi unit; and I'll want to do the trunk pan so I can prime and paint the undercarriage while it's apart.

Hopefully I'll at least be able to buy parts occasionally while I wait.

Go back to the previous day (11 May 03)
Go on to the next day (1 Jun 03)

	I completed coating the housing with POR-15. It looks pretty spiffy.
	Got under the car, scraped the dirt and muck off that was coating the rear crossmember. It's surprising (at least to me) how little dirt was stuck to the bottom of the car overall - it seemed to all be concentrated on the crossmember and rear axle. Anyway, here's the pile of dirt that I scraped off; the greasy grime that was left came off pretty easily with lacquer thinner on a rag.
	Pressed in the new bushings.
	I'm installing rear discs; check out This website for pics of someone else who's done the changeover. To sum up what's going on, I'm using GM part numbers 18019858 (RH) and 18019857 (LH) for the caliper brackets and Cardone part numbers 164540 (RH) and 164541 (LH) for the loaded calipers. Autozone quoted me 15 dollars each yesterday for 97 Camaro rear rotors, so I'll need to get those as well. I've already purchased the brackets (I got them from GMPartsDirect.com.. took roughly 10 days for them to arrive. Big, beefy, very nice. Once I get the rear brakes done, I'll set up a separate page for the conversion. Note that the caliper is on the back side of the axle, and that the bracket is offset towards the inside - I had to come in and stare at the pics on that website to verify the direction.
	I put the rear cover on. It's not painted yet; I just put the old gasket back in; and there's still no posi unit in there; but I have replaced the axle seals. I had a bit of fun when installing the axles; one of the pinion gears fell out. If this hasn't ever happened to you, it's a task to get both gears in and lined up with the shaft-holes. You can see on the stool next to the axle that I've purchased a set of "Gas Ryder" shocks - they were 20 bucks each; I need shocks so I can move the car but I may end up putting these on the elky once the move completes.
	I had a few items that I needed to prime (or re-prime) as part of this process, like the upper control arms. I also wanted to prime where the gunk had been on the crossmember.. I mixed up too much primer, so I went ahead and primed the quarter as well. Now, when I finish attaching the inner fender to the quarter some of this primer will get burned off though.
	There was quite a bit of surface rust coming in on the patches I had made on the rear panel here; so I wire-brushed them clean and primed here as well. I went ahead and got the areas around the taillights as well.
	I painted all those items that I'd already primed that needed to be black; I used some single-stage black with a flattener I had. I don't know that I'm too happy with how well it came out, I think the paint store failed to sell me an item.
	Here's what I had.. but from what I read on the back of the Black can, it sounds like I need a hardener as well? The paint dried pretty quickly, anyway, but it's very easily scratched.
	I've got the springs ready to install. These are the original springs (so far as I can tell), but before I bolted them on I cut half a coil off each one. I didn't paint or coat them; I expect that I'll end up putting some higher rate springs in to replace these. I just wanted to check out how it looked - remember that when I got the car, the springs were in the trunk and wooden blocks were in their place.
	Once the paint dried on the spring retainers, I went ahead and bolted on the springs to the axle.
	And once the other paint dried, I installed the upper control arms. Unfortunately, I only have like 5 control arm bolts (well, I know where 4 are, but one is too damaged to use - I know I had 5 when I got the car though). OPG and the like want like 7 bucks each for the replacement bolts, so I'll need to find a cheaper source.
	Here's a view of the newly primed undercarriage. Once I get the driver's trunk replaced, I'll be able to finish priming the undercarriage. I doubt that this will happen before the move though.