Tuesday 7 February 2012

Bleeding the Brakes and a Colour Taster

First bleeding the brakes.  Now as I knew that I would most likely be on my own to do this, I purchased a kit that you fit on to the fluid reservoir and then apply pressure from one of the tyres.  The system actually works really well.  The pressure pushes the fluid through the pipes and within a very short time, the front brakes were sorted.

On to the rears and this is where the fun starts.  The zero uses what I think are Cosworth rear callipers and they are actually fitted upside down and this means that to bleed them properly, avoiding air locks, you have to remove the callipers from the car, but keeping them connected, if that makes sense.  So far so good and the process of bleeding the brakes was uneventful, like the front brakes.

The problem for me came when I tried to fit the callipers and brake pads back on to the car.  The off side fitted without a hitch, the nearside was a complete bar steward!!  I think the pressure had pushed the piston out a couple of millimetres and that was enough to stop it fitting.  Now I don't possess the various tools required to push pistons back in so I had to resort to drastic measures.  Now I must say that I am not proud of what I have done, but needs must when the devil farts in your face!!  Just so I could get the calliper back on, I ground down the pads.  The calliper is back on but it will need new pads fitting before it can go in for the IVA and the stringent brake test.  I will get GBS to do this for me when I take the car in as I am sure they have the required tools to do the job properly.

Now on to better things.  If you have been following the blog, you may remember me saying that I was going to have the car painted.  Well, it wasn't practical at this stage to try and get the whole car to the paint shop, but I was able to take in all the removable panels and I had a call today from my son in law to say that the panels were ready to be collected.

Naturally, I duly obliged and they are now home with me.  I am keeping them in the flat for a few days to fully harden and I will do a separate post to give the full details.  However, my friend Hammy, another Zero builder, was after knowing what the colour was I had chosen so here is a taster.


The colour is Ford Imperial Blue and I think it looks the dog's danglies.

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