The Morbidmobile Blog

[TomSaintJames]

The only real complaint i had with the 17" steel wheels was how the car suffered from small bumps and lumps in the road, undulations and speed bumps etc were fine though. Bring on the squishy 15" armchairness! I collected the wheels on Wednesday, the seller was at work but said it was fine to pick up there. However, when I turned upa 10:30 they were still on the car , luckily the guy worked at a tyre fitting place, so was able to put his 740GLE on the ramps to take the wheels off, he had a set of steels in the boot. Now this is the funny bit, after I got home I had a message to ask how far away I was (60 miles) as the steel wheels wouldn't fit at the front due to offset issues, they came from a transit so were ET50 something! He wa sa nice guy though.

I had Tues/Weds off and started on reassembling the rear axle/brakes etc. As with most things in life I never got as much done as I hoped/expected! I did manage to use my new wire wheel set to take all the rust of the disc backplates, it took me a while to realise the smaller diameter wheels were much better to use as they were stiffer, and you could really get them to dig in to get the rust off. I went a bit OTT on one side and made a hole...

I can't find my before rust removal pictures, so only have post-rust removal and cleaning with white spirit, then post primed. I didn't take all of the old paint/primer or whatever off, some of it especially on the lower areas was still sound.





The drivers side was the worse of the two, there were a few holes after my slightly overenthusiastic de-rusting, not sure if this is due to corroded metal or user error though! I didn;t taek any more off here as I think there would be a fair few holes.



I put 3 lightish coats of etch primer on, then plan to stonechip. Does anyone recommend a top coat over the stonechip? If so any recommendations?





I thought i'd have the calipers off and do the pads and brake flexi's at the same time, however I am going to have to grind/cut the flexis off of the support braket, then maybe drill the hole out as they have rusted into one lump! As the bracket isn't very strong (nor does it need to be I guess) you can't get much force onto the flexi. Ho hum! Luckily the solid brake lines came off nicely, it helped of course that Luke cracked these off when he was here

I'm hoping to get some more done today if it doens't rain, the OH has jobs for me too though!

[360beast]

Looks good Tom!

I'd put a coat of VHT paint over the back plates now to give them some heat protection as the calipers can get quite hot. It should be alright with a couple of coats of stonechip but better to be safe than sorry.

Are the ends of the flexis rusted to the brackets? Try soaking them in wd40 for a bit and then put some grips on the union and wiggle it back and forth until it starts moving, then as you move it side to side try pulling it out of the bracket at the same time. I don't remember them being that bad when I cracked the unions off, the ones on the 940 GL were a lot worse and they came out fine after a soak and a wiggle.

[TomSaintJames]

I'll give that a try Dave - thanks!

[360beast]

Originally Posted by tomsaintjames

i'll give that a try dave - thanks!

Dave! 😋

[Laird Scooby]

What Luke said! ^^^^^

I'd suggest if you use stonechip on the dust shields, only to do it on the inboard side (nearest the diff) and not where the handbrake shoes mount, use VHT paint only there so as not to build a thickness up.

Have fun doing the back brakes, don't forget to slacken the hadnbrke adjuster inside the car before trying to fit the new shoes or you may not get the hubs and/or handbrake cables on. Check your A-frame on the left hand axle tube as well.

[TomSaintJames]

Originally Posted by 360beast

Dave! 😋

LOL, it's taken me this log to realise it was Luke offering that advice, not Dave! Sorry buddy!

Idiocy over, I can now tell you about my exploits from today. I feel like a small win was achieved which goes a little way to restoring the faith that I have in my own abilities after I spent HOURS trying and failing to get the adaptor plate lug nuts off!

To be honest I’d expected to get all the rear axle stuff done in the 3 days off I had last week, but as always there are obstacles and distractions. Husband/dog/family/shopping etc, all the usual So todays exploits saw the dismantling of the rear calipers and stone chipping the disc guards - and in good time too, we had rain yesterday and there was a smattering of motes of rust starting amongst the primer.

The 1st challenge was getting the calipers out of the way, so I could fiddle with them whilst the stonechip was setting/drying. Taking LUKE's advice (!) I soaked the flexi pipe-bracket unions several times, the brake line itself came off super easy, but the damn flexi's were fused to the bracket. The driver’s side came off with a couple of gentle hammer taps, but the passenger side put up more of a fight - several vice grip wiggles, taps and more soaking was required for it to come out.

Before I started stonechipping I thought I'd de-rust and prime the flexi support brackets as they were very crusty, if solid. I seem to have lost a lot of photo's somewhere too...

Drivers side flakiness.


Flexi union hole de-rusted for contrast, the rest is flaky af!


The rest of the bracket de-rusted and primed, I didn't go to town quite as much with these as with the disc guards, hopefully just enough to get the etch primer biting.


Now the calipers are out of the way I brushed all the crumbly bits off the handbrake spacers and primed them with two layers, once dry these went back on to avoid any uneven surfaces here (thanks DAVE!), actually now I'm reading and writing this I think I may have missed Dave's point and gone and built a thickness up where he suggested not to?





With these in, I went ahead and sprayed the disc guards with stonechip, this stuff is way nicer to work with than the primer, more of a focused spray pattern perhaps, it went on the primer luverly though - all except one area on the passenger side - I think perhaps a drop of brake fluid got blown here, I hadn't stoppered the brake line 100% so once it is all dry i'll take a few layers off here, clean, prime and the rest.





In between layers of primer/stonechip etc I had a go at the calipers. I noticed a few things right away (below). Do I need to look at caliper piston refurbing or even new/used calipers here? What is this turning into...

-Caliper piston bellows are split in several places (not good)
-There are crispy bits inside where the bellows are split (definitely not good)
-The flexi-caliper union is rusted to hell
-The bleeding nipples look even worse!
-Drivers side brake pads are as thick as new but the passenger's side are more worn, and importantly unevenly worn too.
-Slider pins are very crusty but came out nice and easy after all the jimmying and manhandling I had to do to remove the flexi and bleed screws…







To get the flexi's off the caliper I ended up having to cut the hose so I could hammer on a twist-grip socket, they came off with a medium amount of brute force, I was concerned they were rusted in! I had been soaking these unions (and the bleed nipples too) for hours today though.



These little buggers next!



I was most concerned about getting these off, they are bent, already slightly rounded off and very rusty. The first attempt with a 12mm spanner rounded them off completely. So out come the ol' faithful twist-grips again! I dug out my hacksaw and chopped the end of the nipple (!) off so the socket would fit, then VERY carefully tried unwinding,



One came off all of a sudden, I was being about as careful as I ever have been to avoid snapping the damn thing and it worked! Of course, with caliper slipped and I lost a reasonable amount of knuckle skin, but who needs that? The next nipple though was REALLY rounded off, so much so that the twist socket was too big and couldn't grab anything, the next size down didn't fit as it was way to small - solution? Make it fit! Hacksaw out again to chop two sides of a hex so it would go on a bit, and then smash the socket on with a hammer! Success.



So, we are the point of finishing the stonechip (with a small bit to re-do), VHT paint, torque up all the rear axle and related bolts/nuts, rebuild the brakes and reassemble. Then it can sit on its own wheels at the back and shove over, the phat Lexus can have its driveway spot back and everyone will be happy! I am certain I have lost about half the photo's I took, a shame as although we all like to see crusty photos I also use this blog to remind myself what has been done and when, also to check back on all the advice that people have contributed - thanks folks!

Of course, seeing the state of the rear brakes makes me think about the fronts... From memory the only time I've ever had to do an emergency stop in this hearse, the drivers from wheel locked up solid almost instantly, this makes me think they also will need looking at. Yay! The brakes need to be in GWO thought to stop the 2.5 turbo power! We'll see when it comes to it, the wheel bolts probably need replacing (they've been chopped so the spacers fit) and the front calipers may well want upgrading as they'll be doing the majority of the work.

The rear axle was collected today by Steve, cheers fella that's £120 up and many many more £ down... It WILL be worth it though. The 1st drive when it's converted and back on the road is going to be awesome!

[360beast]

Brilliant work there Tom, you'll be ripping engines out of Volvos in no time at all, I really enjoyed reading that update.

Those brackets for the flexis are only thin flimsy things anyway so don't worry about them, you will be amazed how much a thin layer of metal can puff up as it rots so it will look worse than it is.

For future I would definitely get a few of these

https://www.toolstation.com/abracs-p...kaAgvyEALw_wcB

They are an absolutely brilliant bit of kit and will strip rust off stupidly quick, I use them to clean very rusty suspension arms ready to be refurbished.

I would say that someone has cheated out or been lazy and only replaced the pads on one side of the car, potentially why the front wheel locked up too as it might have new pads in that caliper but not the other one!

They definitely need refurbishing, I phoned up big redd in Worcester a few weeks back and for the same calipers to be refurbished with the expensive ceramic bake on paint it was about £190 but if I took them in with a headed bit of paper I could get trade price of £148 so that gives you an idea of price for refurbishing the pair.

[TomSaintJames]

Thanks for that Luke, it did feel good to win against the calipers! I'll rab a few of those abrasive brushes as there'll be bits on other cars I will want to restore now I know I can!

I'll have a look at local caliper refurb peoples, should be someone close by me. Yea, it'll be interesting to see what the fronts look like...

In other news the tyres on the new wheels are busted, the guy told me he was into drifting his MX5 and I probably should have looked closer at the 740 tyres, some of them have patches of rubber misisng, score line and one is very worn on the inside. I thin k2 of them are reasonable, so will just replace them for now and see what the MOT man says later on. They'll be fine for just sitting on the drive but probbaly not so safe on the motorway etc, I'll put some pictures up when I get a minute.

The advert - "5 X 15 inch Volvo alloys, all have new tyres 5x108 pcd for swaps"

[TomSaintJames]

Small update today, I took the passengers side disc guard back to metal as there was some weird reaction going on with it.







Sorted! I posted the rear calipers off to BIgg Red last week, I hadn't heard from them all week so thought i'd ring and check, i'm very glad I did as apparently I didn't get all the brake fluid out of them and they'd leaked onto the paperwork inside meaning Bigg Red had no clue who or where they came from! BEside the fact each caliper was bagged and sealed inside the box etc.

I should get them back this week, so in prep for that I put the 1st coat of VHT black on the disc guards today. The can says to wait 10 hours between coats so i'll do another tomorrow after work and a third Weds morning. I'm off Thurs so hope to get the handbrake stuff back on and the discs, then torque all the axle/rear suspension bolts and nuts to spec. Once I get the calipers back and installed it can sit on it's new wheels! Hurrah.

It's such a difference at our place between the front garden and back, the front is NE and the back SW, the patio is a proper sun trap so I keep having to change layers each time I move working from the front to back. It has been really nice mooching doing jobs in the sunshine recently, long may it last!

[TomSaintJames]

Painted





Tidied the 'workshop',



Tyres, two are just about usable but 2 are borderline illegal. I messaged the guy this morning, these tyres may have been new but that was before he went drifting with them! These two are the 'usable' ones, some slices and chunks of tread missing, but at least there is some tread! They still have the little rubber bobbles so probably are newish, just abused.



These two are pretty much on the wear indicators and have bald inner edges. Not great!



I'm hoping to hear from Bigg red about the calipers today, either way I can get the handbrake stuff back on tomorrow if I can rememer how it all goes!

Should I torque up the rear end (axle, shock absorbers etc) with load on these components? Either with wheels on the ground or axle stands under the axle? There are axle stands on the body jacking points just now so no load.

Treated myself to a Teng set of 3/8" and 1/2" torque wrenches, they came in a box and everything