Technical ~~~ peaking & polishing a 32 axle ~~~

I was contacted by a member and asked if I would be interested in giving his 32 axle a bit of special treatment, my answer was yes, of course. The freshly dropped axle was set to me, and while it is in realitivly good shape for it's age, as soon as I had it in my hands I knew it was going to be a challenge

Here is the axle as I recieved it, again it looks good, but as the thread moves forward its blems will be seen. Here are the tools I used, plus a milling machine, air compressor, vice, welder and lots of elbow grease.

 

Here are some close up pics showing factory blems as well as battle scars, some deep pits in the recess. Note the wishbone mount, I see this on lots of axles. The perch bolt gets abit loose and the whishbone works back and forth ever so slightly, the chafing wears the axle and bones, more on this later. It also appears that one king pin bore was worked on to tighten it up.

 

I set the axle up in the area where I do my cutting and grinding and started the fun. Polishing lots of items as I do, I have developed a feel for when to stop, and to know that filling will be needed, this will need it. I rough in the peak with a flap wheel on the angle grinder, stopping when it has been taken down as far as I can. I then use a file and give it a once over, after filing you can see any low spots, and it helps to get the peak line centered.

Note the the area marked with the sharpie, it is a small dent on the edge, instead of trying bend it back, I weld it up on top and grind down the inside. I have done this before and it works the best.....more to come.

 

Interesting process.

 

You have more patients than me. I'm watching this, very cool.

 

Curious as to why this process?




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If this is as good as those bones btt from a few years ago it will be awesome.
I get nervousness about cleaning up all the pits and divots.

 

Looks good so far, will this get chromed or detailed for paint? Bob

 

Nice work Harv!

 

About the dent, it takes alot of force to remove it, a hammer and or a blunt punch, no matter how careful you use them will also leave a mark/marks and then you may need to fill/weld them up. A small amount of weld on top and quick grinding on both sides takes care of it in short order.

 

I welded up all the low spots, a small weld here and there, let cool for 15 minutes. I repeat this process untill all the low spots are filled. Strangely, the bottom neded no filling I hit all with the grinder and flap wheel again until both sides are smooth with a nice straight peak. I can't state how careful you need to be during this process, one wayward push with the grinder and the peak is, well not good....more to come.

 

There are some threads that you just know will be great,
This is one of them.

 

Harv, you have the touch for making old Ford parts look like new. I am still in love with those 36 rear bones you did. Did you do any front bones in the past with holes?
Lynn

 

I have an album with some pics on my profile page.

 

Its looking beautiful, as usual Harv!

 

Man,that looks great! HRP

 

Beautiful work!

 

I've repaired some axles, similar to your methods. Are your repair welds mig welded?
I used my mig to fill low spots, but pre heated the mass before welding...
Your work is meticulous. (Amen to the caution needed with the grinder on the 'peak'...One false move...LOL Been there!)
Thanks for a GREAT thread.

 

TIG welded... Awesome work harv... looking forward to the finished product...

 

Thanks for the kind words guys, it's a love hate relationship for sure


Back to the worn wishbone mounts, what I decided to do is to mill them down just as was done at the factory to get them flat again. I set the axle up in the mill, used a 2" end mill and carefully took off just enough to get them flat. As you can see by the depth of the cut on the edge there was a good size ammount of wear.

After I machined them I used two different grits of small sanding discs and followed up with a small Scotch brite pad to get rid of the chatter marks and polish them up. I also blended in the peak to the mount area, it still needs some more detail work but it's getting closer. I know what you are thinking, yes the mount area is too thin now, but this was the best solution to the problem. Trying to build up the whole area with weld would be alot of work and heat, It is just under an 1/8" thinner now, a shim will be needed to take up the gap during final assembly, how thick depends on final finishes thickness...the axle and wishbone will be chromed.

 

Beautiful work, how many hours so far? Bob

 

Beautiful work indeed, Dropped my A axle and your work has convinced me that it is going to get this treatment, Just as your beautiful split bones did.
Jason..

 

Ok, in my first post I said the axle was in good shape for it's age, and it is, however here is what the recess looked like I first used a file on edge, two side by side at times to cover more area in each pass. I rounded the ends of the file later as it kept digging in when rocked up and at the ends of the recess where the transition is. Pics three and four show low areas that needed filling, pic three welded and smoothed is shown, look close, still one small pin hole needs filling.

After the vast majority of the nasty pitted surface was gone, well atleast untill my fingers were too sore to run the file anymore, I switched to the die grinder with flap wheel. You have to move quickly to keep from digging holes/low spots, running parallel and cross ways as much as possible. Even being as careful as I can, the recess will need block sanding to get real flat....stay tuned.

 

Great work as always Harv.

 

Harv, great work but not surprising when you see your previous posts! What's your total hours spent on a raw axle to detail polish? I do a stainless steel axle in 12 hrs with a little more tools! I start my polishing with a 9" angle grinder! Cheers Wayne


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Looks awesome already, it will be beautiful when you are done with it. What do you use for filler rod?

 

I went through this process with the front axel on my T-bucket, getting it ready for chrome. You do fantastic work. It's so nice to see CRAFTSMEN doing what they do best. I can't wait to see the 'finished' product.

 

Worked on the bottom today, got the peak looking pretty good on the ends, they flow nicely into the king pin boss. The wishbone mount unlike the top, just needed a light clean up. Also detailed one recess pretty good, some very small texture still left to remove, raw finger tips. In the 5th pic you can see a small pin hole on the beam edge, still trying to sand it out. In the pic with the Alliance tag you can see some wavyness, that wll be blocked out on final polish as well. Have I mentioned how much work this is and that I am super picky?...stay tuned.

 

great job, looking good..........