LM rear Hartford shocks

[mikeyr]

So my rear shocks are really bad. Was blasting them to powder coat them and since I can’t get between the arms very well to blast and then powder them. Thought I would buy some new ones. Oops those things are expensive

New plan. Since the rears are not visible I will grind/drill out the rivets and clean them up. Then bolt them back together and since I don’t trust that those bolts would hold up to the stresses. I will spot weld them together as well. They can’t be seen anyway. I will clean up all the parts and get new decal ring on the outside to make them pretty. Spot weld as discreetly as possible and also fix up the paper thin ends where the bushings go.

Should work right?

[Peter McKercher]

Why not re-rivet?

[mikeyr]

well they were hot riveted together when new, I don't have that capability and I don't think there is any way for me to do it as tight as they were originally. But I will research that and maybe...

See that is why I ask questions...30 seconds of googling found this

https://www.grainger.com/category/faste ... ters=attrs

it says "Solid rivets set permanently with either a hammer or rivet press" guess I need to look at rivet presses. About $300 for a press, guess a hammer will do just fine Just not sure how tight I can get things, but I will find out.

Ok, time to drill out some rivets and get back to the blast cabinet.

[Peter McKercher]

Just get the rivets out and take them to a machine shop. I'm sure they would rivet them for 20 bucks.

[ColinB]

You could always get new ones.

https://www.completeautomobilist.com/ca ... e-hartford

I'm not sure if they have the correct version for your LM but worth a look.

[casadecabra]

Have you thought of using an electrolytic method for cleaning your shock absorbers? The process is easy, effective, cheap and well described on several internet sites, e.g. http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

All you need is a plastic bucket or bowl, some washing soda (sodium carbonate) which costs next to nothing and an old 12 volt battery running in parallel with a non–digital battery charger. I found this method very effective for cleaning my Hartford shock absorbers without the necessity to un-rivet them. I treated each arm for about 12 hours in the electrolytic bath. A lot of scum was created which needed to be removed periodically and washed off the item and anode, but all the paint and corrosion was lifted and was easily cleaned off with a high pressure hose. A light wire brushing and scraping with an old hacksaw blade between the blades left the arms ready for painting.

I have used this method on numerous ferrous items from my Singer, including the wire wheels complete with spokes. Lately I have used a power supply salvaged from a redundant desktop computer in place of the battery charger.