Rear end tear down

I had some time to get in the garage and think about something other than my concern for Jim. I had laid out a plan for this weekend but I didn't get half of what I wanted done. Life's like that. Time to make some lemonade from these lemons. :-)

So, I got the following done this afternoon:

* Gas tank off. In taking the straps off the frame bracket I noticed the rust was a little thicker under the lower lip. I'll get some pictures later but I'm concerned about some steel patching I might need to make to keep it solid. I was disappointed that I could not find the build sheet on the gas tank. Oh well.

* All of the u-joints are disconnected.

* Exhaust system removed (had to cut the pipes where they go through the center of the frame to get them out but I'm going to keep them for oiginality. I plan to replace the exhaust system with new headers and pipes. Interesting that this was already a dual exhaust system with no Cat convertor. I thought this was a Fed requirement in '77. Maybe not? Anyone know about this?

* Rear spring removed. I'm trying to decide if I rebuild this or replace with a Fiberglass rear spring. That is a heavy bugger. I'm leaning to rebuild and reinstall the original steel spring to keep original as possible.

* Rear brake calipers removed

* Started on the trailing arm bolt removal. The nut came off fine but the bolt itself is pretty strongly bound up somewhere going through the frame and t-arm. I hit them both with some Liquid Wrench and let them sit.

Total time: 3 hours