Anybody know a quick, easy or maybe even safe way to get these things off?

vise grips and a pair of gardening gloves....expamd spring by grabbing it w/ gloved hand.....pull it toward front of car, w/ vicegrips, pull the spring out of the slot. presto!


why are you taking them out anyway?

Yeah, I thought of that, but then I thought of how I would put it back when the car is all painted and purty and the spring is powder coated. (Hi Rusty)

Any way to do it without scarring everything up?

mine were sagging, so i moved 'em up to the front setting. no scarring whatsoever. gardening gloves so your fingers dont get pinched by the spring. the vice grips to hold the end of the spring to move it up to the next slot

When I said scarring, I meant the springs. Vice grips will bite into them and tear up the finish when reinstalling.

Nothing a little bit of duct tape cant prevent! lol Gint thats way too anal! I bet that car is going to be nice when it is done!

Jeff

It just seems a shame to go to all of this work and then tear it up with vice grips.

Maybe a piece of old sail panel vinyl between the jaws of the vice grips?

Maybe I am alone here, but I have removed the springs several times by hand. You just grab them in the middle and pull back till you clear the clip and slowly lean forward. Theoretically it is dangerous, but the springs only close in on themselves, they dont spring outward. If you did lose your grip all they would do is fall straight down. Also by grabbing in the middle the spring seperated less, so you wont get pinched skin when they compress down. Just my .02 worth. It would be a shame to damage a freshly powdercoated finish by scratcing with vise grips. This way is quick and easy!

-Chris

I am not responsible if this somehow backfires and someone dies (unless it is me) But I really don't see how this could be construed (sp) as dangerous.

I made a tool kinda like the one Porsche uses. I used an old floor jack handle, drilled a hole about 6 inches from the end that inserts into the jack, bolted an "eye" bolt and hooked about a 6 inch length of chain to the "eye" bolt. Hook the chain to the spring put the end of the jack handle in the top of the shock tower and pull. Not a very good description I know but my son hasn't shown me how to put pics on line yet!
Cheers, Elliot

Rope To pull them off.

Gint, your big enough to put them back on by hand...if not have a freind help you.

B

I can't seem to get a good enough grip on them with my sanding dust coated gloves. I'll give it another shot later. My main concern was getting them back on after everythings freshly painted/coated. Thanks.

shackle and a coat hanger. the shackle makes for easy pulling. on reinstall the hanger gets trapped behind the spring. just cut it and get a new one. i gotta tell you mike, everytime you post a picture, the ongoing rust issues you have makes my head spin. that hood seal channel is pretty ugly.

kevin

I did it by hand. Take off the gloves and you can get a good grip.

I did the coat hanger trick....THEN replaced both front and rear with shock kits....the marine type that are stainless steel look really sharp.

Non CW, but like I care....

That one might be a winner.



That's tame compared to the long and inner fender in the engine compartment. We'll get her fixed up though.

Thanks guys

I have had the coat hangers come apart on me.. and send me to the ground while pulling. Make double damn sure you wrap it tight. Use a hammer turned sideways in the hanger. Better grip farther out to the sides.

B

Learn from anothers experience...prop the hood first!!!

It could come down pretty fast.

ductape on the vise grips will do the trick for you CW's out there....but real men use their hands to pull it!

Without gloves on I pulled'em right off. That'll work.

Hi brother.



Good job. My arms are killing me from scraping yesterday. Thanks for the brake cleaner tip. Goof Off is good stuff, but doesn't hold a candle to brake cleaner. I bought 6 cans of 3M stuff. It was on sale.

-Rusty

I got a few guys together at work and I made a deal with the Local NAPA store to buy 5 cases of 12 cans each for $1.50 a can.

Ha ha..

The local parts place thinks I'm nuts.. I'm buying 2 cases a week (24 cans) They asked me what I was doing: "I'm cleaning 30 year old parts..cause I hate working on nasty greasy crap"

They said: "Buy a parts cleaner"..I said.. "you cant buy one big enough to get a complete 3.0 engine in too."


B

What i did was use a crow bar hooked up to the shock absorber mount and a wire attached to the crow bar (so of a lever system). No problems taking off the springs.