Brakin’ and Chasin’ and Polishin’ Too

Yesterday I had to slam on the brakes to prevent Lucy from running into a cube van driven by an oblivious moron who, driving 20 mph slower than the flow on I-195, decided to make a hard right into my lane directly in front of me. While the brakes whoa’d us down swiftly enough to prevent contact, the front ones shuttered and emitted a very nasty screeching sound. Must be time for a brake job.

So last night I put her front end up on jackstands and pulled the right front wheel and brake hub. Sure enough, the liners had worn down to the rivets. Fortunately, there were no grooves in the hub, just a circumferential scratch. Also fortunately, I had a new set of shoes on the shelf. Less than an hour later both fronts had been renewed and she was off the stands.

Since I was already dirty, I decided to do some Glinda tasks. I started by mounting my cone-shaped polishing head on my die-grinder and smoothing combustion chamber surfaces on the pulled head. Below are the typical results (click for hi-res). I still want to go back and grind some of the tiny bumps and imperfections. Also pictured is the cause of all this work – the burnt #6 head gasket (click for hi-res).


Bored with buffing, I dug out my tap-and-die set and chased the 3/8-24UNF threads on the top set of studs and nuts. These are the ones that sit out and typically get pretty rusty. When I was through each nut easily spun on and off of each stud. One less thing to fuss with during reassembly. Which, by the way, I hope goes on tomorrow. I’m still waiting on the new head gaskets, but if need be, I can bum a set off local Corvair guru Gary.