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Just to bring everyone up to speed. I'm trying to paint this car while upgrading the brakes and rear axle to an 1800E style. So... the car's about 30-40% regal blue rustoleum w/o clearcoat, I've got a grinder-modified 1800E axle in the rear, and have completed most of the dual-circuit power-boosted brake upgrade. I have 1800ES wheels on there with 140-style center covers.
Today, I finally pulled the car out of the garage so I could clean the floor and I noticed that the rear end is no longer sagging. This surprises me because the rear end *did* sag with 40-year old springs. Also, the panhard rod mount has not been moved yet and is still at the "low" side of the axle, which should have pulled the rear down an extra inch or so...
The only things I've done back there are (1) grind out part of the axle mount, so I could get the differential axle close to reasonable angle, before I take it to the welder for proper work, (2) replace the front trailing arm bushings with poly, and (3) installed the "bent" 1800 panhard rod in place of the 122 rod. NOTE that the original panhard rod and the 1800 panhard are exactly the same length, but the 1800 version is narrower at the top and is has a small bend to pass around the differential cover.
So by all rights the rear should be lower, not higher...
And the real reason I ask (aside from showing off my wheels and half-arse paint job), is that I'm taking the 122 and 1800 axle to the welder to have the brackets swapped and the panhard rod mount moved to the proper place. *but* if the rear end is right now, then maybe I should just change brackets and have them leave the panhard rod alone??? Then again, maybe the rear end height only looks higher because I've got no bumpers on the car..?
Any ideas or advice?
Of course it's much improved over that rear end sag back in 1968, when this car was only 1 year old...
Hard to believe that it is the same car...
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