Making a little more progress. I'm waiting on some paint supplies to keep going with the engine bay, so I've moved on to working on numerous "little projects" that need to get done. I've decided that breaking things into little projects will help me keep moving forward.
My first project is tackling the K-member. I used the same degreaser I used on the engine bay and hit it with the wire wheel and the paint came flying off! I have a little more work to do on it, and need to figure out a way to get the grime out of the inside of the K-member... might need to get creative there.
K-member all disassembled:
Stripping it down for paint:
I had a busy week, so in order to keep moving forward I dropped my lower control arms off at a local garage to get the bushings and ball joints pressed out. I would have loved to have done them myself and learned a bit in the process, but I have to pick and choose my battles if I ever want to get this done!
In staying with my budget theme, I'm going to be keeping the stock lower control arms but rebuilding them with new components. For bushings, I am going to go with Delrin ones from Global West. Haven't tried them on anything and I am basing my decision purely on reading, but they seem to be the go-to upgrade for these cars. I like the no-binding benefits and am looking forward to seeing how they feel.
For ball joints, I am still torn. Since my car is lowered, it's causing my lower control arm to be at a different angle than factory (with the ball joint higher than the mounting point on the frame). In order to restore the stock geometry (which is essentially a horizontal lower control arm) and keep my lowered ride height, I believe I need to use a taller ball joint. However, I've been having trouble finding the proper part number and if these are even necessary. I'm going to keep searching, but if anyone has any info to save me some time it would be greatly appreciated!