Front discs

My brake discs had been stored in grease to prevent rusting, which is brilliant and grim in one.

So out with the rags and white paraffin again and a good scrubbing sees them restored to shininess. After I've attached and torqued to hubs they will be lightly coated with wd40 again to keep the rust at bay whist car build goes on.

So to attaching to hubs, straightforward stuff remembering to use copper grease on all mating surfaces including bolts and  washers. That means should I ever have to undo them again then they won't need my weight on the end of a 4ft bar to undo them.

Copper grease smells a lot better than the graphite grease. (I'm thinking of a side blog entitled "Greases I have smelt"... "Eminent Grises?" Ok, not funny.

Bolt all copper greased up.

All bolts in.

So the final part, torquing the bolts to correct value from Jaguar. Armed with trust well thumbed Haynes manual and torque wrench this is a case of just follow the instructions.

And the last bit - a consistent mechanism for telling myself and the IVA tester that the bolt has been torqued and double checked is a line of nail varnish (bright pink) across the bolts and disc interface. 

I will do this on ALL torqued bolts.

It also lends itself to a visual check as the car notches up miles - any line that is broken or has moved needs attention.

 Belt and braces, both sides done so can be easily seen when the wheel is off too.

Repeat for other hub.

Rear Callipers part 2

Right, back from many trips to Ireland visiting a customer plus a holiday in Devon I'm ready to finish off the rear callipers (thanks to Ed Ward of Wards for supplying the parts at a reasonable cost) by a final clean out and rebuild.

Not going into masses of detail here, summary is that the halves need a very good clean and de-dust. Using red rubber grease on the seal insertion and pistion insertion. Pop the dust boot and ring on and then put the halves back together and then assemble the hand brake callipers onto the completed brake assembly. All pretty straightforward.

Thoughts about brakes. I originally thought about reconditioning the calipers myself but doing a bit more research it's not a massive cost saving and given these are fundamental to stopping I'd feel more comfortable with them being professionally done and tested.

So, onto bath time. Let the degreasing begin.

Mucky stuff. Having tried different concentrations and probably poisoning myself I'm going to do more research as this stuff is still as filthy, and it seems to eat through the free plastic gloves from the petrol station. (I didn't deliberately take them - it was an accidental over enthusiastic grabbing last time the car needed diesel)

I have made a discovery. The best grease removal stuff is white paraffin. Cheap from any diy store, not that smelly either. Dissolves grease with ease and a bit of agitation with a paint brush.

As such this process whilst about getting these important suspension / brake / transmission bits back to their former glory, is also about testing my commitment and ability. Whilst I can lay claim to tinkering with engines and car bits when younger and more latterly arming myself with a mech. Eng degree, I feel like a total amateur who has no right to even be considering playing with this stuff let alone actually building a car.
For some reason these thoughts seem to permeate most just before going to sleep (along with what engine, wheels, colour, under slung exhaust or side pipes, nudge bars, and so on - ad nauseam)

Anyway, here are some more pictures of rusty bits. My iPhone seems to have a differing opinion to my own as to which pictures it will actually transfer onto my PC on any one evening. Given I work for an IT Software company it pains me greatly to admit being beaten by technology.

This was a defining moment - the removal of the first bolt from the first brake disc hub assembly (front right). What you don't see is the socket wrench operator jumping up and down on the handle and resorting to rubber mallet based persuasion to shift ONE bolt.

Good job I've been visiting the gym or I'd be failing the first hurdle of getting these wretched things off.

And the prize for removing five bolts is... Another rusty bit! Hmmmm. This is going to take a while.