NAS ST swing away tire carrier rebuild

[dave_lucas]

Posting this thread as a reference for other people that may want to rebuild their tire carrier.

While the tire carrier worked ok it was acquired from a Chicago truck so it had a fair amount of rust and needed to be completely rebuilt.

The current plan is to sand blast all of the parts and galvanize the brackets and powder coat the main part of the carrier

Follow-up Post:

Pictures of the individual parts dissembled and ready to sand blast.

Follow-up Post:

While the bushings appeared to be in ok condition a few were damaged during removal so I decided to replace the bushings. Mike Smith from ECR posted the following part from McMaster-Carr

Part number 6659K34 $1.52

http://www.mcmaster.com

Removal of the bushings was accomplished with the use of an internal bearing puller to pull out one side and then I used a 15mm deep socket and hammer to push out the other side.

As you can see from the pictures the part from Mcmaster part is a little shorter than the factory bushing.

[FlaD90]

Great information Dave, I like the part about galvanizing everything and powder coat afterwards.
Do it right the first time and then forget about it .....then move on to the next project, has always been my process.

regards

[JimC]

Thanks - can't wait to see the finished product!

[FlaD90]

Dave,

How did this project turn out?

I will be doing the very same steps & include my front bumper push bar.

[cgalpin]

Cool. I recently sandblasted 2 sets of tire carriers and a light bar and had one of them powder coated. The other I'll be painting (hopefully this week) and it will be a good comparison.

I put some pictures of mine here, although there isn't a shot of it installed yet - will do so when I get my rear bumperettes put on after painting.

http://lhsw.com/gallery/d90_tire_carrier

BTW sandblasting the light bar was as much work as doing everything else (2 carriers and associated brackets) due to the baked on plastic coating.


Does anyone have a source for the main bolts on the hinged sections without buying a whole kit? I have replaced all the other bolts except these which are already rusting (i'll paint them if I can't find them at a reasonable price).

[dave_lucas]

Dave,

How did this project turn out?



I just got everything back from the galvy place on Friday, progress will start as soon as we move from our current house to a new place.

In the meantime I will snap some pictures :)

[FlaD90]

That looks great so far Charles, are the last pictures powder coated or painted?

[cgalpin]

That last one (DSC04103) is of the powder coated bits.

[mmac]

Charles,

Where did you find a place to powder coat? I wanted to do the same thing you did. I just got a 95 Conniston and looking to clean up a couple things.

Mark

[cgalpin]

Dominion Powder Coating in Manassas VA. His email is garryshafferdpc@aol.com - great guy.

The cost is in the sandblasting (and unless it's fresh steel he'll insist it needs sandblasting). I did the blasting myself, and it only cost $125 to powdercoat the stuff shown there. It would have been more than double for him to do it all.

Dominion Powder Coating
8740 Virginia Meadows Dr
Manassas, VA 20109
(703) 530-8581
Link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=powder+coat+manassas+va&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.365962,70.751953&ie=UTF8&ll=38.772287,-77.523823&spn=0.073876,0.138187&z=13&iwloc=A

[cgalpin]

FYI, as a comparison to powdercoating, I finally got around to painting a rear tire carrier set. A friend has a pretty decent compressor and spray gun (low velocity afaik) and they came out really nice and this paint is super tough.

http://lhsw.com/gallery/d90_tire_carrier/IMG_0277

I have mixed feelings about the powdercoating already - I managed to chip it during the install, and then noticed today that I chipped it again when installing my bumperettes. At least paint will be easier to touch up.

charles

[mikeybob2@msn.com]

Hey Charles.. looks great.. I'm in the process of powdercoating mine now and repainting the rear crossmember. Did you ever find the "tree" pins to put the reflectors back on?

[cgalpin]

Yes, Lowes has them.

[Ren Ching]

what paint did you use?


this paint is super tough.

[cgalpin]

I don't recall the brand - will have to ask my friend.

[chris snell]

Dave,

Did you finish this project? Do you have any pictures of the results?

I'm curious about how you handled the threads for the studs that hold the wheel in place. Did the galvanizing foul them up?

[dave_lucas]

Hi Chris,

Everything is galvanized but I have not started to clean the threads yet. All of the threads need to have a tap or die run on them to remove the excess.

I tried using a propane torch to melt it off but that did not work. It was a small one that you use to solder copper pipes and stuff like that so it just did not have enough power to melt the galvy.

The entire thing is sitting in storage so it will be a while before I finish the project.

[airbornrover]

yep, you need a blow torch heat

[chris snell]

I rebuilt my carrier and had it powder coated semi-gloss black. Installed the new bushing set from AB with lots of anti-seize and re-mounted it with Type 316 stainless steel hardware sourced from McMaster. It looks awesome. If I did it again, I would try to source the shoulder screws (the bolts in the pivot points) in stainless steel.

Project pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/defender90/sets/72157624439349518/

[founD90]

Do you guys know where to get/part # for the 2 rubber bumpers? I had mine refinished but the rubber bits sort of disintegrated....

Thanks,

Jerod