And So It Begins....

[Nigel]

Guy,
Just after you've used the tank sealer, I suggest that you blow
through all the pipework, especially the small vent tube/s,
for obvious reasons!

Good luck, excellent progress,

Cheers
Nigel

[smithymc]

And grease the fuel sender mount 'floating' ring thingy and tape/grease the studs before you put the sealer in - ask me how I know...........

Mark

[SanRemo78]

Thanks for the tips Mark & Nigel - I was planning on walking into the Frost Restorations warehouse with the fuel tank to ask about the likelyhood of fuel line blockages. I had planned on blocking the filler pipe and float sender holes with a cork bung from a beer maker with a rubber glove to give a good seal whilst the goop gets sloshed around. I hadn't considered that it might be able to find the threads on the sender ring though so great tip. I'll see if I can find a can of compressed air to clear the small lines once treated though, great tip!

Won't be happening for a week or so though, away from Friday and still got half the top surface and sides to clear of corrosion which may be covering/finding pinholes soon.
Guy

[SanRemo78]

Procrastination with the fuel tank... I'll get to it later this week I hope, there's just too much crud flying about the garage to contemplate putting paint on anything at the moment. I need to finish some stuff off and then give the garage a damn good sweep before I start working out the best method to treat it and put a timetable together (and warn Andrea I can't give her any lifts whilst it's ongoing!)

So, cleaning more stuff up.... I decided to have a look at the brakes at the end of last week whilst the next batch of bolts and brackets is off being plated. The callipers were dragged out from underneath the bench and removed from their yokes with a bit of violence. Or quite a lot. But they all came apart in the end. The locking pins will need digging out and springs replacing (probably) and I've got seal and piston kits on the way for the rear callipers to overhaul them. I'll get the front kits from Mark at the beginning of June. All the pistons are free (pushed out when I dismantled the car using wooden blocks to limit movement) and they are now soaking in penetrating fluid in the hope that the bleed nipples will release. I'm going to try it out on a scrap calliper first with the rattle gun but my expectation is just sheared bleed nipples and a lot of swearing to follow.

The carriers and yokes are responding well to the wire brush treatment, I think I need to get a tap to run down the threads but I have a question for the Forum - what's the finish on the carrier/yoke supposed to be? I assume it's plated?

[WestonE]

Gold Passivate Zinc plated

[SanRemo78]

Thanks Eric! Another trip to the platers tomorrow then!

[stableblock]

Hi Guy
I had some done and IIRC there are two basic zinc plating processes.  One doesnt work well on cast iron and the other does so worth exploring that with your plater.  If you are struggling after that Vehicle and General Platers at Arlesey did a good job on mine.  (I think it might be the acid zinc process that works but dont quote me on it).  Peter

[SanRemo78]

Thanks Peter, I've had one fail so far with the platers - the boot latch mechanism won't take the plating for some reason? Not worrying about it, I have a great spare one. Four carriers and four yokes to go in tomorrow along with another pile of sundry odds'n'sods. The callipers themselves have been soaking for a couple of days now, I'll give them a few more before trying to undo them. I may try the AFT and Acetone route, no rush. Except that the rebuild kits are sitting on the bench and it'd be nice to put everything away ready for the day.

Shopping list for Mark's on 6th includes a pair of rear discs (got a front pair for £48 NOS when I did a stocktake at Hawk Cars a couple of weeks ago) and a compensator valve plus it's bushes and a set of brass bleed nipples as well as a master cylinder. Picked up a NOS reservoir for £24 at the stocktake too! Then it's just a few unions/copper washers and the copper pipe and I'm good to go with the brakes!

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Well that's another part to be bagged and put on the shelf. Steering rack fully overhauled, no discernible play in the rack/pinion, replaced the track rod arm bushes with Mark's polybush kit, new track rod ends, everything cleaned and plated, new boots and a custom made stabilised bracket to take the new Audi shock absorber.

If anyone wants the original, newly plated, shock absorber bracket drop me a PM!

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Today was part something or other of the brake overhaul whilst the carriers are away being plated. They've been marinating in release fluid for 4 days or so. I took them over to Geoff's workshop to use his aqua blaster to clean them up and that worked a treat! Got home and noticed the offside arch on the Alfa had been scraped but no note left so that put me in a foul mood until I got at it with a rag and some TCut and was left with the faintest of scratches in the paint. So, thinking I might be having a lucky day after all I put all four callipers on the bench, dug out a decent 8mm socket and 1/4 inch drive for the bleed nipples. The first five gave it up without any effort and the sixth needed a little tap and a bit more force before it popped out too! Proper result! The rebuild kits are there so now all I have to do is extract the pistons. I may need to rig up something to push them out hydraulically!

Happy days!

[peteracs]

Hi Guy

Good result, I needed to use a rattle gun on my bleed screws. On the pistons you can use compressed air without too much issue rather than rigging up any hydraulic setup.

Peter

[SanRemo78]

Hi Peter, I really didn't want to use the rattle gun on something so small, if they hadn't given up with penetrating fluid the next resort was going to be a mixture of ATF and acetone and then some heat but at the end of the day it wasn't necessary.

One of the rear callipers is ready for reassembly tomorrow, I read the Haynes manual and it said don't attempt the disassembly of the return mechanism inside the piston but given that the new piston in the rebuild kit didn't have the internals there was no choice. In the end it all disassembled easily and, more importantly, went back inside the new piston very easily. I polished up the inside of the housing with Autoglym Metal Polish and there is one small mark in it half way down. I don't think it will cause any issues down the line though so it will all go back together tomorrow. Hopefully it's twin will be as good.

I've never dismantled a front calliper but the Haynes manual doesn't say don't do it so I'll have a go over the weekend. Unfortunately I don't have access to a compressor to shift them but I've got enough old hydraulic lines to jury rig something to shift both pistons. Geoff wants to see the disassmbled components, he's never seen anything like it and wants to get his head around how it works!

Amazingly none of the roll pins are damaged either so the standard Beta lines will locate properly. The only slight concern I've got is that all the locking pins are impacted into the bodies, I'm hoping I can lever them out to get them working again. If that fails I'll be employing a stainless long grub screw and tapping the calliper carrier.

Guy