June 24, 2006

Brake Parts!

So, this week my brakes didn't come together, it was a bit disallusioning. I thought I had most of my bases covered, but of course we hit some minor and major walls. First, to install disc brakes in the rear of any car is to change alot in the braking system. One of the major mod's is to defeat the stock proportioning valve, so you can install an adjustable one and be able to control and adjust it yourself. This is important so your rear brakes won't stop before your front, making the car sling around (no fun in rain or ice). So order the plug to defeat the valve, but for some strang reason, unbenownst to my, its too small. Instead of using this plug that I paid 6 bucks for, I've decided to take the plug that came out of the valve, fill it with JB Weld, and put it back it (and pray that it will hold up against brake fluid!!!). Now, I'm just waiting for it to really dry and set for a few days.

The next problem I ran into, which was the most frustrating for the week is that the brake brackets I have for the rear to mount up my calipers don't work. Here's the deal though, the first time I put the rear end together, filled it with lube, and sealed it, I realized that I didn't have the brackets on. OK, so I took the rear end apart, again, and drained the fluid into a clean pan to reuse, put then brackets on, then put it all back together, filled it, sealed it. Then, a few days ago, I tried to mount up my rear brakes, NO GO. Wrong brackets. Well, I pulled it apart again, drained the fluid again, and will have to fill it and seal it again. I don't really mind taking it apart anymore, I mean, I'm a pro at that by now. The real downer is that the brackets that I needed cost 175 dollars. OUCH! All of this could have been avoided too, if I had known that instead of using stock lenght axles, I could have used longer axles of a 94-98 mustang. Oh Well.

The good news for the week, I have all my parts together now. All I have to do is get my parking brake handle welded together, get my front tires, put all the brakes together, bleed them, put the rear end together, and the brakes will be done!!! I have a latin test on tuesday, so I won't be able to work on the car immediately, but hopefully the brakes will be done my Tuesday night or Wednesday and that'll be a relief.

What next for Sacramental Mustang? I plan on slowing down some and taking my time with the engine. I want to clean up the engine bay, hide the wires, and paint it black where Ford missed some spots. Hiding the wires will be the trickiest part, because if I screw them up, then FIRE. Nobody wants that.

The engine has been sitting for about 1o years, so I'll have to manuelly run oil through it, but I don't think that will be too difficult. Then, I'll take the engine apart, well, the heads, camshaft, and intake are all coming off to make room for the new go fast parts.

All that's left to buy, I hope anyways, are some headlights (the lights yes, but also the whole assembly), because my car doesn't have any, and some small miscellanious parts to get her up and running. A guy in Dallas may trade my hood for a hood that I want, and maybe after doing hte firework's stand this holiday, we can get it painted.

I'll get some pic's posted when the new brakes go on!