Lipstick on a Pig- refreshing a 1983 GMC High Sierra

In reply to Gunchsta:

I use 2 hammers: one is held against the knuckle where you want to apply the force, the second is used to hit the first.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

That seems less likely to inflict damage on the spindle. I like it- I'm planning a Harbor Freight trip to pick up a couple little sledges tonight.

Thanks for the tips!

Wear eye protection if you use the two hammer method. It is very bad form to hit one hammer with another. There is a chance of shattering or at least flying shards if you do it. I'm not throwing stones, I have done it too. Just know the facts and protect your peepers when you do it.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie:

I did not know that. Thanks for the warning.

AngryCorvair wrote: In reply to Cousin_Eddie: I did not know that. Thanks for the warning.

Think about a punch or chisel. When you really beat on one the end mushrooms. It's meant to do that. The hammer face is protected while the punch is sacrificed. Hammer faces are exceedingly hard and meant to always be used on something softer than itself. I learned this from an old man decades ago when I was using an old kingpin as a drift. He pointed out that the kingpin and hammer were both hardened and not meant to be used together. Sure enough, the end of the kingpin shattered shortly thereafter.

This isn't an absolute, but it is always a good practice to go by.

Hmm... also didn't know that. Maybe I'll just stick to the one hammer method.

In other news- my springs are apparently waiting for me at home, so maybe I'll get some hammering and cutting done tonight and have results in the morning!

Most of the fractures in modern hammers are due to poor quality materials and manufacturing shortcuts. It really won't matter what you're hammering on, but as a rule, I agree with Eddie.

It's actually pretty difficult to find a truly hard hammer in a typical hardware store anymore. Most are tempered back significantly because people tend to do reckless things with them regardless of warning labels. The ones that are hard tend to be more because of low quality control in materials and/or manufacturing than intentional heat treating and tend to shatter with enough repetition regardless of the target.

Cousin_Eddie wrote: Think about a punch or chisel. When you really beat on one the end mushrooms. It's meant to do that.

This might be a little misleading. Mushrooming is an unintended side effect of pounding on soft steel. Striking punches/chisels with mushroomed ends is equally as dangerous as striking two hardened surfaces together. Actually, mushroomed ends shearing off account for far more injuries due to the prevalence of mushrooming on struck tools and the idea that it's "normal" leading to drawers full of mushroomed tools.

Rounding off the ends of a struck tool should be considered routine maintenance to help reduce the risk of bits shearing off.

Forget heavy hammering, pickle forks, tearing up boots, etc. Go down to HF and get yourself one of these, crank the bolt down and if it doesn't pop then hit the knuckle with a hammer, if that doesn't work more torqe on the bolt and hit it again. Or if you're in a hurry just crank it down with an impact gun until it pops, that hasn't broken mine, yet.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

Damn, that looks pretty nice too. I should probably still grab a real hammer, but I may be grabbing one of those as well for this particular project. Thanks for the heads up and testimony- I'm always a bit cautious about HF tools, but if you've used this one with luck that's good enough for me.

Crackers wrote: Most of the fractures in modern hammers are due to poor quality materials and manufacturing shortcuts. It really won't matter what you're hammering on, but as a rule, I agree with Eddie. It's actually pretty difficult to find a truly hard hammer in a typical hardware store anymore. Most are tempered back significantly because people tend to do reckless things with them regardless of warning labels. The ones that are hard tend to be more because of low quality control in materials and/or manufacturing than intentional heat treating and tend to shatter with enough repetition regardless of the target.

If you want to do mail order, these are the people who make SnapOn hammers. They have all varieties to choose from. Buying their brand rather than SnapOn saves a lot of cash. They do group buys over at the Garage Journal.

Crackers wrote:

Cousin_Eddie wrote: Think about a punch or chisel. When you really beat on one the end mushrooms. It's meant to do that.

This might be a little misleading. Mushrooming is an unintended side effect of pounding on soft steel. Striking punches/chisels with mushroomed ends is equally as dangerous as striking two hardened surfaces together. Actually, mushroomed ends shearing off account for far more injuries due to the prevalence of mushrooming on struck tools and the idea that it's "normal" leading to drawers full of mushroomed tools. Rounding off the ends of a struck tool should be considered routine maintenance to help reduce the risk of bits shearing off.

Indeed.

I guess I could have better worded it as they are meant to be soft and sacrificial compared to the hammer, but mushroomed ends are not any better than hammer on hammer in light of safety. Like you, I dress my stuff whenever they show deformity as a shard can do ugly things.

I guess it's one of the consequences of age or experience, but thankfully I don't often find myself really wailing on much stuff anymore with hammers. Deft technique and well chosen tools are sure safer than how I did it 20 years ago with stubborn reckless determination.

Hardness really isn't much of a requirement for a hammer. Most any brand name hammer made in the last 30-ish years will be sufficiently hard for mechanical work. Outside extreme cases, a marred face is the worst you'll get and that won't ever cause an issue for mechanical repairs.

I actually collect hammers, mostly antique, or boutique stuff. I do have half a dozen HF/Big Box hammers I use as throw aways for when I'm doing something abusive (driving out studs, intentionally breaking things, etc) that tend to get used under cars to keep grease off my oiled bare wood handles. I also modify a lot of them for specialty work when the job won't justify spending $150-200 on a boutique specialty hammer. Even with my judicious use, my high end stuff still need the faces dressed off occasionally.

I recommend Vaughn hammers if you want a good "all purpose" hammer as they're generally well handled, comparatively cheap and don't get marred without beating on stuff you shouldn't be.

Gunchsta wrote: In reply to BrokenYugo: Damn, that looks pretty nice too. I should probably still grab a real hammer, but I may be grabbing one of those as well for this particular project. Thanks for the heads up and testimony- I'm always a bit cautious about HF tools, but if you've used this one with luck that's good enough for me.

I've had mine for years so I can't comment on current quality, but it's just two lumps of forged steel, a bolt and a pin. If it doesn't break right away under warranty it will probably hold up. I think people have trouble when they don't seat them all the way on and it puts force farther out on the two fingers that go around the stud, like I said tap it into position with a hammer. The only complaints I can make on mine is the detent ball on the pin flew out at some point so the pin doesn't stay with it in storage , and the bolt is kinda soft and has mushroomed out, that's just a minute on the bench grinder though. Don't forget to grease the bolt threads and end of the bolt to decrease friction and better convert torque on the bolt into force on the ball joint stud.

TANGENT/ I'm a home builder, and have had a lot of hammers in the past. I bought this hammer head at a garage sale, and at the time didn't want it. The only handle I had on hand was an octagonal machinist handle. I put it on and gave it to my wife for her office hammer. Several years later I was building a house for one of the wife's former employees, and the hammer showed up on the jobsite. I then realized that it had some nice characteristics, so I traded her for it, put a long hatchet handle on, and it has been my primary hammer for about 15 years (same handle).

I don't know the age of it, but it is hardened to an amazing degree. The edge of the flat face is much more square than anything modern, and seems to be impervious to damage. I use the sharp corner to set framing nails deeper.

The head is steel, and relatively lightweight. The long handle makes it multi function. One of my favorite tools.

And I also will triple verify that hammering should be done with glasses/ goggles on. /TANGENT

^This is why I collect antique hammers. I have a cross peen of similar vintage that's my go-to for medium-heavy work.

Yes, old hammers are definitely cool! As are old bench vises. The quality on some of that older vintage stuff is extraordinary, you can tell they intended to keep using and abusing the stuff for a long time. Not the throw away stuff we see currently in a lot of trades/applications. But throw away stuff makes money!

Anyhow, I ended up using a couple solid taps on the spindle with my HF hammer and the ball joints popped right out. Keeping in mind that they only have been in the truck for a couple months and only have about 2,000 miles on them it's not surprising. The whole job last night took about an hour and a half from start up to test drive, so that felt nice. Good thing too as it started to pour shortly after I finished and didn't let up till late.

Dreary evening to swap springs in the driveway, but I was motivated so I ran with it.

The worst part about the job was trying to make sure my new bump stops didn't get pushed out when I was positioning the spring/spindle. Or when I lit my pants on fire cutting the .83" thick 1 ton springs. Otherwise everything went really quickly and I was pleased because I remember 10 years ago this would have likely been an all weekend job- not a before dinner rainy Wednesday night job. And as mentioned before I've developed some techniques so I no longer have to rely on painful arduous muscling & fighting. Sometimes getting old isn't all bad.

Here's the final result- I'm guessing the front will settle a bit yet, but I'm not unhappy with the look.

As for the driveability- I should have listened to SkinnyG long ago, it rides way better, it handles better, and the tires don't rub on anything. I'm very pleased. In the past I would've sacrificed all manners of comfort to have it 'low' but now I want it useful (although still low) and I feel like I've hit that mark. I'm planning a trip to my neighboring state of Wisconsin for some drag racing on Saturday, but it looks like there's a good chance it'll get rained out. Maybe I'll load up the truck and rack up some miles adventuring anyway.

I had notched my frame way back when I first got the truck and flipped the axle. Mistake. The pumpkin hits the bed floor before the axle tubes are even a problem.

I recently put in tall enough bumpstops in the rear to keep the bed floor off the pumpkin. I feel much better hauling my sixteen 1200lb loads of road crush home to finish my driveway.

Your front springs "may" settle, mine didn't that I could see. The height you have now looks good.

In reply to SkinnyG:

Thanks for the tip, I'm so much happier with the new setup than I was with the drop springs! It really improved both the ride and the handling. And also a definite +1 on not needing to notch the frame- mine isn't notched and I have 2" drop shackles as well as the flip kit and it's no where near being a problem.

If the truck doesn't settle at all I'm satisfied- if nothing else just for the driveability gained by raising the front up a hair. It seems solid enough now that I could autocross it like I wanted to, as well as not have to be ultra selective on what roads I drive.

My truck at autocross was like rowing a bowl of oatmeal one-handed in a storm-tossed sea.

In reply to SkinnyG:

Why does this seem like an innuendo?

After autocrossing a squarebody pickup, you're gonna need an innuendo.

In reply to Crackers: cuz it is... sorry gunchsta great looking longbed .....just found this

Love the truck and the thread!

So far I've autocrossed a 1975 Corvette, a 1963 Chevy Nova wagon, and a 2002 Lincoln Town Car. Something tells me I could handle the bowl of soup that a squarebody pickup likely would be.

Autocrossing big junk is a blast.