The project is beginning to take shape, as we get some of the parts cleaned and begin the process of selecting and putting things together.

The replacement front suspension came from Oklahoma on the ocean container and arrived here in Tarija by land.  It has travelled 7100 miles from its previous resting place in a junk yard in Tulsa.   At first it did not look very encouraging, but spraying with diesel fuel and then washing it with a 1500 psi power washer a week later shows that a number of the parts are not that old.

At the top you can see the comparison of the twisted original and the replacement.

You can see that the two shock absorbers are different, but at least the springs appear identical.  This is important because the original springs were not matched.

I will still need to buy new bushings for the front and rear suspensions.

The sandblasting process is a little dirty, but it gets the rust and stuff off that won’t come off any other way.  Here I opted for a bee keeper’s poncho to reduce the dust.

The rear brakes do not appear to be in bad condition.  Unfortunately I found that no shop or store in the city has a brake cylinder hone, so I will have to wait on honing the cylinders until I can import one.

The heads were quite dirty and fins totally blocked, so I sprayed them with diesel fuel, let them stand for a week and then washed them with the power washer.  After soaking in degreaser and laundry detergent they still had a lot of carbon on them, requiring a brass brush on the drill and a Dremel rotary tool with a small wire brush and then a stone to detail them.

The cylinder barrels in this engine had been adapted from a VW.  One lip was turned on a lathe to fit into the head,  The other end fit somewhat into the block with a lot of gasket cement that was very hard to remove.  One cylinder ended up getting cracked in the process of removing it, but they will all be replaced anyway.  As you can see in the picture, each cylinder was set into the block a different distance.

You can see the difference between one the old VW cylinder barrels and  the new Corvair cylinder barrel that will replace it.

The next pictures show one of the old pistons and a new one, as well as the clean engine block pieces ready for assembly.  The rest of the engine cover pieces received a scrubbing with steel wool and diesel fuel to eliminate the years of stains.

The oil cooler was so blocked that there was no way it cooled anything.  Blocking the holes so no detergent would enter, I soaked it for a few days in detergent, then presure washed it.  Now it can cool the engine.

The push rods for the valves are extremely worn and will have to be replaced.  So I will replace the hydraulic lifters where contact was made.

The distributor has the rotor cracked and glued together, as well as some play in the shaft and terribly worn cams.  I will replace it with a new one with an electronic module instead of points.

The generator may or may not work, but most of the cooling fans are missing.  I am replacing it with the alternator shown next to it.  This is a 70 amp alternator from a Nissan that has an internal regulator and an internal fan that turns the same direction..

The mechanical fuel pump may or may not work.  It appears to have been rebuilt with home made diaphragms.  I will replace it with an electric pump.

The push rod oil drain tubes are now ready to paint, and the valve covers sanded and ready to chrome or paint.

Disassembly of the rear axles and bearings turned out to be difficult.  First you have to take the universal joints off the axles, then take off the bearings. Obviously they had been there for many years.  I suspect that the bearings are originals from 47 years ago.

We put the first axle shaft in a 10 ton hydraulic press that turned out to be too weak.  Note the pressure guage in the red zone.

So we moved it to the 70 ton press, where somewhere between 10 and 15 tons it began to give.  The second axle we put directly in the 70 ton press and it released at about the same pressure.

The bearings were stuck just about as badly.  It took somewhere around 10 tons to get them off the axles.

The universal joints have no signs of grease.  Just rust, wear, and ridges.  I can find replacements locally.

I will have to replace the axle bearings with imported ones from the USA.  The special design and angles of these bearings are unique.  Here you can see the unique desing and excessive channeling and wear.