I'm having a tough time removing the pivots. How do you get rid of the brazing? I found more of it used in the trunk to fill a small rust hole.

I don't want to grind too much in case I cut through the sheet metal, and the grinder wheel (4.5") is too big to get the rear side.

Suggestions?

If you don't want to grind, you'll have to melt it with a small torch using MAP gas. Propane might work, but you'l find more uses with the hotter MAP gas.

I used a Dremel Tool with a Flex shaft and ginding wheel...Worked real well, not fast but it works...

2-OH!

If you have access to acetylene-oxygen torch or MAP torch, put a long bolt in the pivot, clamp a vise grip on the bolt head, light the torch up, use shade #5 goggle, put heat directly on the braze, watch the braze turn from solid to "liquid" and keep on moving over the whole thing till the braze melts. Then while you're doing that, grab the plier and jig a bit till the pivot falls off. Becareful, the braze may splat "violently" if you get it too hot, if so, it's okay, keep on going till you get it all melt and pry the pivot out.

After that, let it cool and grab a 50 grit grind disc to grind the remaining crap out. Its really important to get it ALL out before you weld it back on by means of MIG or whatever cuz it'll splat right back to you if you dont! Back in the 50's and 60's, brazing was very popular as it doesnt require much heat to weld two pieces together, meaning very less chance off warpage compare to actual steel rod welding. It sucks big time nowadays and quite a bitch to clean it out.....

Hope this helps....

j

Yes it helps, thanks for the enlightening. Just a drag to deal with. I'll have to check with the neighbors and see who has what as far as torches go. I've got MAP in a small plumbers type torch, but I doubt that'll get hot enough. I'll try it though.

Yeah...it sure is a drag to mess around with anything like that...hey, if you could plan something like this....you can rent the ace-oxy welder from rental, do your removal and reweld a new piece? That's if you able to weld decently...ummm

Another possibility...since its a mess to deal with, if you can get a plasma cutter, cut a square hole to remove the old pivot along with the mess of brazing crap, mig weld the new flat plate, grin them flat and nice, then mig weld the new pivot. That would be alot faster but some people don't really want to put any more patches in the car than necessary...

j

Theres really not that much of it to go to all that trouble. Fortunately, this car is really clean, the pivots are actually the worst thing I've had to deal with.

I did find a tiny rust hole in the left rear trunk that got brazed too. I know trying to zap a bit of weld to fill it jack with the brazing. Again, not sure how to deal with it, but maybe melting it out will do the trick.

The MAP gas will work, I had to repair my 2.0 intake plenum and I brazed it using a MAP gas setup.

I've
Heated it w/a torch till it just begins to flow.
Have your air compressor cranked up to 100lbs of pressure,and as it begins to flow,hit w/air from a good blow gun.
It's worked for me in the past.
Ron