[fiftyfivegasser]

A while back, I found an old 55 210 x-drag car that was nearly eaten alive by the rust bugs. Couldn't see the old gal being converted to a soup can by the crusher, so I rescued it and drug it 300 miles to start a street gasser project.

Everything on the car seemed to be eaten alive by rust and since the floors looked the worst, that's where I started. Finished that and decided to take a break from sheetmetal and move to the rear end.

At some point, someone had spun the lug studs completely off one axle. There was fortunately two that were dangling and I was able to juryrig it well enough to move the car on to the hauler. Now I wanted to pull the axles for repair and check the gearing. Also need to move the car outside to replace some exterior metal and need tight wheels.

First, the brake adjusters were frozen, so I sprayed WD through the adjuster hole and worked for hours getting the brakes backed off far enough to spin the hubs. Now that the hubs spin freely, should be a piece of cake? NOT!!!

The hubs are now frozen to the axle center and lug studs (one side) and wouldn't give at all. Solution was to use a 4" wire wheel in a drill and clean all around the center and the lug studs. Then spray with WD, hit a while with the hammer and spray some more. It finally took a 15# sledge hammer and 10 good whacks to break them loose.

Now, getting the axles out should be easy....yea right! If you ever have to do this and don't have the expensive equipment, here is what I used;; a chain and crowbar on one and the hub reversed on the other (not enough room on one side for chain).

I took a 6' piece of chain with links that would fit over the lug studs (2), finger tightened the lugs, placed a crowbar where the chain looped and jerked twice for the axle release.
For the other axle, I reinstalled the hub backwards, put 2 lug nuts on tightening slightly so the hub had some in/out movement and jerked the hub about four times to free that axle. A word of caughten...don't be too close for this one,, may loose some teeth.

Didn't mention the condition of the brakes/hardware....that's another story.

Anyway, the old gal is starting to perk up and should be a real reward when she's finished.

[Italy's Finest]

Sounds like a hell of a project you have there. Any pictures of her??

[302 Z28]

We need pictures .

Vince

[fiftyfivegasser]

My pictures of the 55 project and other cars I've owned are at www.picturetrail.com/fiftyfivegasser.
or click on my call name (fiftyfivegasser) and scroll down to "visit fiftyfivegassers home page" to view pics.

I haven't updated pics recently, but do have the floor and all attaching sheetmetal installed.

And yes, it is a "real" project, but a satisfying one, especially being able to resurrect an x-drag machine that saw a lot of hard action in the day and left to rust away.