Pretty sure if this post should be titled "Bitter-sweet Nothings"...
Let's start with the good news, to lure the unsuspecting reader in
SO! My new pistons have arrived - complete with their rods, some nice shiny 83mm bore 11.2:1 Wossner pistons with PEC rods, ARP hardware etc! Have another box sitting with all King Racing bearings and other ARP hardware and so on so forth.
And that is the end of the good news!
So last night I went about removing the rear axle + suspension, mostly because I wanted to do some undersealing but also partially because my lovely powder-coated suspension components needed a good clean and I was feeling a bit anal

So up in the air she went on my wee scissor lift:
Suspension components all removed (with the exception of the driver's side rear torque bar because the back bolt on the chassis leg has seized to the metal sleeve in the bush somehow, need to cut the head off the bolt and punch it through but I've run out of cutting disks, job for the weekend.
Started having a little poke around some bits that looked a little questionable and well, see below...
the main offenders amongst others hidden below the OEM sealer/years of paint and sealer. On top of this, on the passenger side, the Torque rod bracket connection onto the bottom of the chassis leg has burst its welds presumably due to a combination of age, fatigue, rust and stiffer suspension/bushes.
Plan of attack is to cut out the full offending 10" or so section of chassis leg including the bracket on both sides (as complete as possible but not holding my breath there) then from my spare shell cuts of the GT I broke and cut up recently I'll remove its amazingly like new rear section of chassis legs with brackets, have them blasted, make repairs as required + beef up some of the connections of the bracket onto the leg, paint/protect as required internally and externally and piece in the whole rear section on each side along with probably some strengthening additions.
I'll accept that it's unlikely I'll get them PAP on perfect, but it might be time to explode adjustable rear torque rods so that any error in my mounting can be negated and with the added benefit of correcting changes to the toe of the rear wheels that comes with lowering a 480.
Stay tuned for more episodes of misery hidden with a shroud of hysteria!
