Brake bits, and the leadup to the Big Brake Day

A couple of weeks from now I have a deadline to meet with the Red Lady. John the Mechanic is doing a day's work with me on Feb 7th, the goal of which is to have a fully functional brake system by the end of it. To facilitate this, I've been on a shopping errand today, to get the parts I'll need to have ready for the big day. As usual, I've made this task seem bigger than it really turns out to be once I get involved in it a bit.

A recurring theme with the car in the past 6 months is re-learning my own plan and inventory. The master cylinder, booster, and rear brakes were all purchased together way back in april 2004, nearly 7 years ago, so it's little surprise it now seems a bit unfamiliar to me. With experience and hindsight, I probably could have accomplished as good a result as I'm going to with less money than what I've spent on this brake system, but there's no use lamenting that now. On the plus side, the parts themselves are quality bits and they'll end up providing great stopping power.

The calipers on the rear brakes caused a bit of a grumbling discourse from the grandfatherly guru at Martin's Clutch and Brake this afternoon (I assume the guy in question is the namesake patriarch of said establishment) which was both somewhat amusing and somewhat insulting. I either didn't get, or have subsequently lost, banjo bolts to fit the calipers that came with my USA-purchased rear brake kit. The calipers used are from a '80-'85 Cadillac Eldorado (and other similar vintage American GMs) and at the time I purchsed them, I remember making the assumption that the calipers would exist on an Aussie car too, probably a VN-VS or something like that. Apparently they don't, and Martin somewhat derisively informed me that he hadn't seen the calipers before. He commented that I could have had a locally produced caliper that would do the job just as well and wouldn't have a weird metric banjo inlet (yes, metric, on an old Caddy, it IS wierd) but the essence of this is that he didn't have the banjo bolts, which he says are a metric 10mm x1.5 thread. Subsequent research seems to indicate that they are in fact readily available, but time will tell on that one.

Despite all this, I think I'm almost ready for the big day, at least as far as supplies go, but I still would like to mount the pedal and master cylinder ahead of time. The more I can get done before the day, the more I can get done on the day, so I'm hoping I can also accomplish a fuel line by the close of business on Feb 7th. At any rate, things are moving along nicely. More soon.

Total Spent Today: $186.10
Time Spent: About 2 hours