OK, so instead of giving the rear end of the car a quick cleanup and fresh coat of paint, I decided to take everything apart. Hey, why not, right?
I had installed the wrong replacement style U-bolts and the e-brake cables weren't correct anyway. Luckily, all rubber bushings & spring pads were replaced with GM parts 20 years back when they were still available, and everything was still like new.
Here is an original T-bolt (right) next to an AMK repro. I'm going to stick with the originals on these to retain the correct "M" head marking. I'll use new correct U-bolts & nuts all around at final assembly.
Springs were cleaned up and given a fresh coat of satin black:
3M Body Shutz was used at the body shop to duplicate the undercoating in the rear wheel wells. Mike test-sprayed some samples to get the right texture, but the final texture came out too much like sandpaper - imagine like a 20 grit paper, very rough. So, I used a very stiff bristled scrub brush (plastic bristles) to knock down the peaks, which really smoothed it out. However, it still wasn't the exact texture I was looking for. So, I topcoated it with 3M 08883 undercoating and it came out perfect. A nice heavy texture, but not 'scratchy'. I wanted to be able to clean the undercoating with a damp towel, and this finish is perfect. I'll also give the rear subframe rails a fresh coat of satin black - just haven't gotten there yet.
Next up is cleaning & painting the rear end.