Uh chief, you got those backwards.

 

Anyways, to the progress. Got the brakes installed today. It went without a hitch. The install even took much less time than they expected. Turns out that the rotors didn't need to be turned and the pads were fine. Everything just needed to be worked a little. Once they were on the car and spinning, the terrible noise stopped. Guess they were just rusty as hell.

New prop valve, yeah it looks the same:


Goodbye drums!




The guys double teaming the brakes starting with the ebrake cables and A arms:


Driver's side gone:


Passenger side on the way out:


Bye bye drums! The guys at the shop are sending a team to that 24 hours of Lemons race. From what I understand, these are better than what they've got on their car (4th gen Civic sedan, D16a6 5 speed, ...really stinky car. Not a lot of paint.) and they don't leak so they'll be swapped in. At least in part.


This is how bad the bushings were. Well, the other one was worse.


Halfway bolted up:




All bolted in:




From here, we refilled the system with Wearever Synthetic DOT3 brake fluid and bled the system. Next step was an alignment.

Ready to head off to the alignment shop:




Daniel took it down the street to his buddy's shop where they do all the alignment work and exhaust work. Got an alignment and MY STEERING WHEEL IS STRAIGHT NOW. lol. Got it back and drove it around. Works fine. My brakes are both weaker and stronger. They feel more solid now but you have to press the pedal closer to the floor to get power. It's strange and will take a bit to get used to. They will work fine as is, but at some point I'll want to upgrade to the larger master cylinder.

 

Awesome!!! I wish I had a lift when I did mine. Keep it up!

 

Nice work, did you spring some beer's for your friends after the swap was done?

 

no. you guys have them backwards

 

Uh, no...
itinerant = HCF's well fed hobo
trustdestruction = go magic!

And SPLAT, instead of giving him beer, I gave him the old trailing arms with almost new brake shoes.

 

Nice work! I can't wait until mine are installed. Now you can drive around town and show them off!

 

I am disappointed with this last batch of paint. The cans all say don't wax or thoroughly wash for a month, supposedly so the paint can properly cure. Well... as the days have gone by the paint has "cured" lighter and lighter. Day 1, the color match was 95%. Now, it's closer to 85%. The lips have a distinct bronze tone to them in direct sun. You can especially tell the difference at night where there's not much light to work with.

I dunno what's up with this paint. The base coat looked SPOT ON when there was no clear coat on it. I don't know if I should have just slathered clear coat on it 6 or 7 times or what. It's driving me nuts. I'm hating my paint more and more every day.

 

When do you plan on having the car professionally painted?

 

well the paint COULD be from the previous accidents... you said your cars had a few wrecks that you can see flaws, well when the painted it then the paint they used could have been slightly off as well. so it might not be different than stock. but if its only a slight shade most people would never notice it... hell my trucks front grill people at work didnt realize that it didnt match and its been a few months since i rattle canned it the color i thought was close. i know to me it looks way off and bad but most people dont notice it until you point it out. i wouldnt worry about it to much..... but if it really buggs you then remove your fog light bezel and cut a piece thats behind them off thats painted and take to a paint shop that can computer match some paint for you and just buy a quart of real paint and clear and redo them...
i plan on just buying silver paint for my civics front end now and im just going to cut a chunk outta the old hood for them to match