What an adventure fitting these brakes were. I didnt take any pics but 4 finished ones as we wanted to just crack on.
I finished work around 5pm and got the car ready for when @
AlexW turned up. Wheels off, caliper and pads off, discs off etc. Alex pulled up about 6 and had a little chat, etc then started to crack on. He bought new seals for the calipers and new stainless steel nipples. All the calipers were ready for him to start putting new seals in and i decided to start sandblasting some some parts he bought with him for @
ventura car. There was quite a bit to do so i turned into DR BLAST!! (It was a joke because Rob/Ventura said that because ive been blasting a lot recently i should change my name to Dr Blast and i kept doing this stupid superhero voice introduction to Dr Blast which Alex was getting annoyed with, so naturally i kept doing t all night!)
After an hour or so my missus bought us down a healthy dinner (McDonald's
) as it was going to be a late night. Saying that, Alex had no lettuce in he's so mine was healthier :rasp:
With that done we carried on. Pistons were removed on by one and cleaned up before going into the new refreshed calipers. The discs only came with 2 retaining screws so Dr Blast sandblasted to of the originals. We used some CeraTec (like copper grease but better apparently) on the screws. disc/wheel meeting points, backs of new pads and any other relevant parts. Then the fronts were done.
Moving onto the rears and the pistons were removed, ready for cleaning. At this point one of the nipples decided not to play ball and snap! We noticed that the slider rubbers had perished which would eventually leave then rusting and seizing up so we decided to use one of the calipers that was on the car as the sliders were better anyway. So we taped up all relevant parts and Dr Blast got to work, sandblasting the caliper. Tbf it was in good condition so didnt take too long.
Once sandblasted it seemed silly not to paint it silver, however we couldnt find any silver spray at work. So we closed the doors and shot home to pick up some silver spray that i had. Got back to work only to realise that we'd been locked out!! I had twisted the front door lock so it locked when the door was closed
Searching for any ideas, we walked around the factory and like a golden light, we noticed the customers toilet window was slightly open! (Someone probably had a major poo earlier on and needed to let some fresh air in!) So i jumped and squeezed though the window and hey presto we was back in! We must off looked like a right pair of gypo's breaking in!
So back in play and with the caliper being sprayed, the other one was fitted with a new seal and the piston cleaned up. All done we went for fit the new/old one and noticed that the nipple was the wrong size. Turns out that the calipers have been replaced at some point in its life and could be OE spec but not genuine? Anyway Dr Blast sandblasted the original nipple and it was all fitted up with new dics, pads and CeraTec. At this point it was late o'clock!
We then bled the car with the ATE super blue fluid. There was some air in the system which was to be expected. With the brakes bled Alex took if for a quick spin while i started to clear up. He came back and wasnt happy as he thought there was still air in the system but that was enough for one night as it was now 12:45am! So we cleared up and went home. Alex came back last night to help rebleed the brakes aswell as have some other stuff blasted/painted. We rebled the brakes and both took it out but we're still not 100% convinced, however we did notice an knocking noise. After a little investigation it turned out that the front pads never came with any shims and the noise is the pad moving so we shall order a set and get that fitted with on more bleed but that will be one day next week.
So i now have all new refurbed calipers with new seals and nipples (well 3), all pistons cleaned up, new discs and pads fitted all round, new hub nuts and full fluid change witha lick of silver paint for the fresh new OEM look
