1961 PV544 Project - Update 6

Given what I had found while stripping the interior floors and the trunk, it made sense to do the same to the underside although I think I may have naively thought I might not have had to do this when I got the car after having given it the once-over at the previous owner's garage.

To do this properly, the rear suspension needed to come out to gain access to the entire underside. It would need to come out eventually in any case.

As the car had been sitting for 25-30 years (most of that time the rear section had been over a gravel floor), the fasteners were unbelievably impossible. Massive amounts of WD40, heat etc, were used to coax everything apart - and copious amounts of time. Miraculously, I didn't break anything (other than skin).

Here's how I found it. As I mentioned in a previous update, those aluminum spacers under the springs are not stock (obviously). Everything else is.
A better view of the coil/spacer, traiing arm setup and panhard. There were no shocks on the car when I got it. They mount on the front side of the axle ahead of the u-bolt.
A view from the other direction.
What you're looking at here is a bracket that is attached to the top of the third member centre section that is then connected to the body (and pivots there) by two rods and through rubber bushings. It's a sort of anti-roll mechanism. The front suspension had a stock anti-roll bar.
Here you can see where the panhard is attached to a bracket coming off a rear unibody crossmember.
I tried everything to coax the spacer away from the spring but to no avail as I suspected that the centre bolt/retainer plate was fused to the spacer. I concluded that I would have to remove them as a unit.
Here are the springs out of the car. The centre bolt and spacer, as suspected, were fused together but a a number of passes with a cutoff wheel did the trick at getting them off.
With the rear suspension out of the car, work can begin on the cleanup of the underside. Oh joy!
Next step is to tackle the underside - going to be a BIG job.