Beam Me Up

Okay, after evaluating the two beams that I had retained, I made the call to purchase a new beam. This despite my concerns over the quality of 'new' beams, which are typically sourced out of Brazil.

My original beam was rusted through on the shock towers. Years ago I had purchased and installed a kit which can be used to correct this defect. The kit consists of two plates that wrap around the shock towers in betweend the horizontal cross members of the beam. When welded together, this makes a very stout structural repair. However, there were other quality issues with that beam. Like for example, the lower left torsion arm, when extracted, was very rusted and pitted, and this made me wary of the condition of the bearings and metal spacer inside the beam.

The other old beam I had I suspected was already a replacement- I can't be 100% sure. It had some quality issues, and the configuration of the beam was such that I guessed it was not OEM German manufacture, but the kicker was that, after I pulled the torsion arms from the unit, they were noticeable rusty, even more so than the ones on my original beam, which was surprising. I thought that this might be due to improper or poor torsion arm seals. These seals were noticeably loose, not like the ones on my original. I made a mental note to apply a sealer such as silicone caulk (or similar) around the seals when going to reinstall the torsion leaves.

Last...if I didn't mention it, my original beam torsion leaves were in very good condition, with only minor surface rust that came right off with a 3M 'brillo' pad.

Herewith are pics of the new beam. Immediately I noticed that the paint job was crap. Very thin, with no primer, and drips and runs. Just barely enough to keep it from rusting...shit, cosmoline would have been better. Since I was in the process of stripping the pan, I hit this with aircraft stripper and the stripper just laughed at that paint. The paint came off nearly before I lifted the brush. The beam came from KGP&R...who stated that the quality was 'excellent'. If you look closely you will see MIG welding wire from the fabrication still stuck on the beam in one of the pics (to be posted later). We shall see...the last pic shows the first coat of Master Series Silver on the beam. Love that stuff!