I've finally finished up the rear end. I've de-rusted the discs with ATF (a non-automotive related trick), mounted the calipers, and plumbed the hard line on the axle. Also, I reworked the axle tube breather, removing the factory Maverick brake junction block and machining a spacer for the breather. I removed the junction block because my new Explorer hardware has the junction block on the passenger side, rather than the Maverick's driver side setup.
Anyways, here's two pictures (left and right) of the rear end, all ready to go. The semi-gloss spraypaint will oxidize and flatten out here in a day or two, but for now it's pretty shiny:
This was my first time bending up hard lines, with the correct bender and a double-flare tool. I'm pretty happy with the result, it fits into the factory hold-down tabs, but still mates to the Explorer hardware.
So far, the Explorer brakes work great (well, they fit really well). The entire installation was fairly painless, the most complex step was indexing (rotating) the caliper mounts up and out of the way of the leaf springs. The Explorer bolt pattern would have placed the calipers parallel to the springs.
After working on the rear axle today, I also fixed [more] rust holes on the driver's side floor pan:
There's been quite a bit of rust, and it's a pain to fix. I'm assuming the car sat for a long time with wet carpet holding moisture against the sheet metal- the rust is pretty extensive. I'll try and pound a screwdriver through the floorboards to test the integrity of the metal, but it never fails that I'll find a weak spot with the welder and burn through. Once that happens, I add a little more sheet metal at a time until I start hitting solid parts of the floor again. I shot on a coat of semi-gloss black to keep the rust at bay.
Finally, I worked on the "engine" last. I bolted on these 1969 F-100 motor mounts to my mock-up engine:
The pan full of bolts is the contents of one of the bags full of random fasteners that came along with the engine.
These truck motor mounts allow me to use the factory 6 cylinder frame mounts:
This engine will be used for mock-up only, mainly to determine how/where to build the transmission crossmember, and to be able to judge clearances for the two master cylinders that will be mounted on the firewall (I'll be using a hydraulic clutch). I will definitely not be using this engine. I picked it up complete, but un-assembled off of Craigslist for $50 for these mock-up purposes, and to eventually be a core for a new 302.
My bellhousing and safety block plate should be arriving this next week, so I should be able to start building the mount sooner than later.
