Part 5: Installing Front Rotors

We had not installed the new front rotors yet. After finishing the rear and taking it for a drive, the brakes were a little spongy. Most likely due to some air in the lines, but it made me dive into the front of the car again. On the front the rotors are riveted to the wheel hubs, something that I had not encountered yet. However, I think it is pretty standard on GM cars. I had to drill out the rivets on my drill press and then install the new rotors. while I was there I inspected and repacked the front wheel bearings.

Here is the rotor and hub assembly, the circles in between the wheel studs are the rivets.

Here is a video I shot of me drilling out all the rivets.

After drilling one out, the end of the rivet popped off and the rest could be pounded out with a punch and hammer.

The bearing races looked good, but were caked in old grease.

The front wheel spindles.

With all the rivets and rotor removed I was able to clean up the spindle.

Original rotors

Cleaned up spindles

The bearings looked good, so no need to replace them.

The dust cover and wheel bearings.

The bearings repacked with fresh grease and reassembled. 

New rotors on

Since everything was off, I painted the front calipers to match.

Part 4: Rear Suspension Part 2

With everything out of the back end of the car, new parts can start to go in. We opted for an aftermarket fiberglass spring. It saves almost 50 pounds and has a higher spring rate to allow the car to handle better. The trailing arms were sent out to Precision Motive in Hayward, CA to be rebuilt. I looked into doing it myself but didn't have the proper tools. Once the bearings are pressed out and the new ones installed, an experienced mechanic needs to install the correct spacers and balance the assemble. Something that I did not feel comfortable with doing. The rotor were also upgraded to Willwood slotted rotors to match the upgraded pads that were installed.

All of the u-joints were replaced with Spicer products. We had originally got a kit from a corvette parts supplier, but the u-joints were not branded and didn't fit.

The rebuilt trailing arms are installed and the underside has been coated in bed liner.

The trailing arms were all done at Precision Motive in Hayward, Ca. They did a full rebuild and full race balance with the new rotors.

Cleaning out the differential was a mess, the old gear oil had turned to sludge and the only way to get it out was the steam clean it. I did make sure to get a good coat of oil on everything to prevent surface rust.

Re assembled and sealed with a new gasket.

The differential and crossmember installed.

A new polyurethane differential bushing installed.

Shafts waiting to be installed.

Drive shaft installed.

Shafts installed on the differential.

Shafts installed on the axles.

New rear fiberglass spring installed. The calipers were painted red, we couldn't afford the expensive ones.

The Willwood rotors matched the car very well. Also, you can see the other change to the exhaust. We ran into a problem with the Patriot side pipes. Since they are designed to fit the factory exhaust manifold, the piping was too hard to bend to fit the long tube headers from Summit Racing. These are from Hooker Headers, we got the full kit which included bigger long tube headers and dump out the side of the car and bolt to the side pipes. 

Sway bar installed.

Everything was put back on in 3 days. I had just gotten out of school on summer break and had unlimited time to wrench on the car.