On the 3rd April this year Jemima had been of the road for 21 years! It’s over 6 months since my last real effort on the car which may help explain the 21 years.
I bought a hood on the last sunny day of 2007 and its taken this long to be at home on a sunny day suitable for hood fitting. Not that I couldn’t have done other tasks in the mean time. I have popped into the garage and looked at a few things but never quite actually did anything. It was too cold or too wet – that was the usual excuse.
The hood was finally fitted yesterday with new seal and seal channel. The holes in the channel for the pop rivets all lined up with the existing holes which surprised me. I still need to finish the poppers.
I also had a look at the brakes. The front brakes were binding, this was the job that I was looking all the time. I didn’t want to have to rebuild the callipers again.
This time I tried to remove the pads but found it rather difficult as the pistons appeared to be fully retracted. Once removed, I noted that the pads have a 1mm soft pad stuck on the back surface, which may be part of an anti-squeal system. The pads were refitted without the additional metal anti-squeal shim. This seems to have sorted out the binding problem.
Some electrical lighting problems were discovered which turned out to be the old bullets from the lights not making best contact with the new loom. Also the wipers bashed into the top shroud as the parking point wasn’t set correctly. It’s ok now.
Now I need to fit a washer bottle, top seat belt anchor adapter, new tyres (maybe wire wheels), reset the tappets, then the MOT.
That should take about 3 years!
I bought a hood on the last sunny day of 2007 and its taken this long to be at home on a sunny day suitable for hood fitting. Not that I couldn’t have done other tasks in the mean time. I have popped into the garage and looked at a few things but never quite actually did anything. It was too cold or too wet – that was the usual excuse.
The hood was finally fitted yesterday with new seal and seal channel. The holes in the channel for the pop rivets all lined up with the existing holes which surprised me. I still need to finish the poppers.
I also had a look at the brakes. The front brakes were binding, this was the job that I was looking all the time. I didn’t want to have to rebuild the callipers again.
This time I tried to remove the pads but found it rather difficult as the pistons appeared to be fully retracted. Once removed, I noted that the pads have a 1mm soft pad stuck on the back surface, which may be part of an anti-squeal system. The pads were refitted without the additional metal anti-squeal shim. This seems to have sorted out the binding problem.
Some electrical lighting problems were discovered which turned out to be the old bullets from the lights not making best contact with the new loom. Also the wipers bashed into the top shroud as the parking point wasn’t set correctly. It’s ok now.
Now I need to fit a washer bottle, top seat belt anchor adapter, new tyres (maybe wire wheels), reset the tappets, then the MOT.
That should take about 3 years!
