1962 Mercury Monterey Project

 I am fairly sure that ZEP engine degreaser is a gallon of soapy water. The ingredients say it has some chelating agent that binds metals to it and drags them into solution (I think other forms of EDTAs are using as anti-coagulants in medicine). Whatever it is - it works. And smells nice. Of all the degreasers I found at home depot - it was the cheapest. Step 1 - drop a piston is a small plastic tub that used to hold diswasher tabs with enough ZEP to cover the rings Step 2 - come back tomorrow Step 3 - wrap connecting rod in some carboard and cinch it up in a bench vise Step 4 - break off any piston ring pieces that are easy to grab with your fingers (do this so that the snapping action is pointed away from your face) Step 5 - tappity tap tap with a screw driver + hammer on the grimey stuck ring parts that are left until they fly out (see note on pointing the action away from your face). 2 minutes of set up and 5 minutes of tapping and the job is done. Should take me 7 more days to do

"Brakes are off" is what people say when they are ready to move forward on something. It is a metaphor for taking action after being stopped. For me it was a long holiday hiatus which got rolled into some delays to progress after the holidays (I mean - it IS after Groundhog Day and Constitution Day in Mexico). Speaking non-metaphorically, front brakes are off for this rust covered beauty. As others of you pointed out - when I tried this last time, I needed to remove the spindle nut to get the drum off. I used a pair of channel locks to remove the dust cap and a some needle nose pliers to get the cotter pin out of the way. I don't know what you call that ridged cap that sits behind the pin and wraps over the top of the spindle nut, but that thing just sort of slides off. The spidle nut was not very hard to remove. It was pleasantly oily. Based on the general crud covered state of everything else, I had been worried these pieces would be dry and ground up - but there was a