There are a few more big parts of the disassembly of my car left: The rear suspension, the engine, and the dashboard. I chose to tackle the first two because I hate taking dashboards down. You spend a day on your back, bent like a pretzel to reach a bolt way up inside the dash, only to find that there are 5 more bolts, even further up inside holding that section of the dash down.
To pull the engine you need a hoist. The problem with a standard like the one below is that it is designed to roll under the car.
With the car up on an elevated concrete pad like mine is, that isn't happening. To solve this problem I decided to build a gantry. I gathered up some scrap steel from some old scaffolding and started designing.
I need this to be about 8 feet tall and wide enough to span the concrete pads we have. I'll hang a chainfall from it and we can use it to pick up engines or even whole cars.
After getting the steel, I cut one section off with the torch to make a foot, then I ran out of gas. Once I got ahold of a sawzall, I cut another section off. I hit all the surfaces that would be welded with the wire wheel, then lined it up to weld.
After some ugly welds, this is what I've got. Just need to make one more, then span the towers.
I also dropped the rear suspension out of my Z yesterday. First I pulled the driveshaft and halfshafts.
Then I disconnected the brake and e-brake lines, and loosened the 12 bolts holding the rear end of the car on.
And so this is how she sits now. The rear end of the car is light enough for one person to pick up easily.
K.Y. started putting the Benz back together as well. That sparklingly clean intake looks so out of place in the engine bay now. Hopefully we can get all the vacuum hoses connected correctly to get this thing running soon.
Making progress...
-W.W. SBSS
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