So to catch you up... Brakes were knackered, battery tray was knackered. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Allow me to give you some pictures to narrate...
After unsuccessfully trying to remove the spacers, I began to try drilling the studs out... Yeah that went well, 20+ odd drill bits later, made no real dent. Had to get a bit more extreme!!
While I tried to figure out a solution, I went back to the battery tray. For those keen of eye, there's a bracket down the side of the chassis rail that's no longer there.
Monday: After a bit of backyard fabricating, I plated up the absolute abomination that was the post-battery-tray procedure.
^^ see?
All back together :) Much cleaner! Not very permanent mind you, but for all intents and purposes, it does tidy it up a hell of a lot.
Turns out the only way to sort out the brakes issue was to remove both the hub and the LCA (lower control arm), and to take them into a workshop. That in itself was an incredible nightmare... I've never tried to pop a ball joint before, but once I knew the technique, turned out it was quite easy... good to know for next time.
Tuesday: Tobs doing some industrial drilling on the hubs... this took a better part of an hour and a half to sort out. Nice to know that studs don't break terribly easy, but at the end of the day that's very little consolation.
The end result :) 2 new ball joints in the LCA's (the old ones were absolutely shagged) and some de-spacered and de-rotored hubs.
Wednesday: Given that I was in Redcliffe all day for work, I didn't have daylight... unfortunately I also didn't have the luxury of waiting around. Always fun trying to work under a stupidly bright fluoro light, but that said it did help to see things.
Tightening the studs up... Always learning!
At 9.30pm, I'd successfully installed only one rotor, including new wheel studs and spacer...
However once I put the calliper on, I noticed one incredibly big (or small) issue... the calliper was too small, by about 30mm in diameter. I measured the original ones before I ordered these, and I simply don't know how I could've mis-measured by 30mm... regardless, this posed one very big conundrum.
Doing a track day with ill-fitting components (especially brakes) is obviously a big no-no. Unfortunately, removing the spacers rendered the existing rotors useless. I could've limped the car as is, but that would've meant that I would not be able to return the rotors. I also didn't want to forfeit the track day, especially after all the work I'd put in for all this, plus the entry fee was a bit high to wave goodbye to... The other issue is that these rotors have to get ordered in, it's not just a pick up off a shelf kind of deal - and trying to get them sorted before the weekend would be very tricky...
Luckily, it helps to know people :) I did pay out the ass for the privilege, something I'm hoping to make back once I have time to sort it all out, but I'd invested too much time and effort to say goodbye to this track day.
Front hubs back together... thankfully they fitted the callipers properly this time! The spacers came with super long studs, so had to chop them back. I put nuts on them to protect the threads while I grinded them off.
*insert appropriately contexted comment here*
Kim, if I'm to be honest, I'm a little worried about your obsession with taking pictures off my ass...
Once the brakes were sorted, I decided to tackle a few other outstanding things that I had time for... just random aesthetics more or less.
Tint was one of the big kickers for me that I wanted to sort out. It was relatively easy to remove, just used a heat gun to melt the glue, and a stanley blade to get me an edge. After that, just some windex to clean up any residue, and happy days :) You can really see the difference in visibility, and more importantly, legality.
Kim giving me a hand to improve the paint... The buffer did this really cool thing by dispersing the detailing spray, unfortunately the camera didn't capture it.
Something cheeky for the track day :)
Annd all ready to go for Sunday!!! An absolute nightmare, but got there in the end... I guess the important thing is that I learnt a lot from this experience, but somehow that doesn't make me feel any better from the headaches that such a simple job has caused =\
Alas, stay tuned for track day shenanigans :)
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