Poor life choices - C4 content

I think those calipers look fine. What to look for on the caliper, pitting around the ring of material that holds the seal, the fluid pressure is actually pushing the seal out, and if that ring of material is weakened by corrosion it can then break. Once that ring of material breaks the seal is no longer retained in the caliper.

Good point about the caliper bores. I'll check the pistons more closely tonight & see if they're smooth. Pistons + seals are still way cheaper than calipers, so that would be a preferable option.

I just dropped $327 for brake parts from Rockauto.

I applaud your ability to not let the lack of V8 rumble impede your progress. I always find myself just needing to "hear it run" when I get a new project car. Then when it runs, sometimes I ignore stuff that I should fix for too long.

As it is, you are getting to know the car, fixing known problems, etc. That way when it does run, it'll be READY to run. Commitment. Good plan!

In reply to ClemSparks:

Exactly! Once this thing fires up I'm going lose all patience until I'm driving it. Then I'm going delay tearing it back apart to fix something. So I might as well take care of the things I already know need addressed: brakes, bushings, interior, top, suspension, etc.

It's an SBC after all; even though I have basically zero knowledge or experience with them, there are plenty of people who do. So it's great knowing there's such a large resource I can fall back on when I encounter problems.

Do these caliper pistons look ok? I can't really feel any grooves, but these will see some pretty high pressure.

They look fine to me. I've run much worse than that.

In reply to gearheadE30:

Great, thanks!

Day-18(1.5-hours):

I cleaned up and honed the two calipers from the left side. They're still a bit dirty, so I might give them one more go.

After I pick up another 3M abrasive disc...

Here's a question: I'm thinking about removing the parking brakes - being an automatic I don't really need them, and I'd like to shed 150-200lbs (pre-swap). Any reason I should keep them?

E-brake turns!!

Personally, I like the extra redundancy in something as important as brakes. It's also kinda poor practice to rely on the parking pawl in the trans on a hill, everybody does it but you're supposed to set the parking brake and then shift to park.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

And as I once learned, putting the trans in park won't hold the car once you remove the drive shaft.

It's Those "Little" things in Life we Learn from!

Stampie wrote: In reply to BrokenYugo: And as I once learned, putting the trans in park won't hold the car once you remove the drive shaft.

What he said!

Stampie wrote: In reply to BrokenYugo: And as I once learned, putting the trans in park won't hold the car once you remove the drive shaft.

And when you have a rear wheel drive vehicle and jack up the rear end when you're on a slight incline.

Ok, I'll keep the emergency brake in place. Just for you guys.

Stampie wrote: In reply to BrokenYugo: And as I once learned, putting the trans in park won't hold the car once you remove the drive shaft.

Wow. This is absolutely, completely something I'd do and not think twice about as my vehicle is rolling down my driveway into oncoming traffic and I'm crapping my pants wondering what happened.

Filed for future disaster avoidance. Thanks!

In reply to golfduke:

You should have seen the then younger and skinny me trying to stop a 70 Cadillac Sedan DeVille from rolling out the garage aimed at the neighbor's house across the street.

I cant tell from the gauge pictures if there is a bunch of discoloring on them but with that Tenths number on the odo being red I would take it as being 163K.

My buddy has a 89 with 350K on it with just regular wrenching so I think this one is just getting broke in!

In reply to MulletTruck:

The picture isn't very clear, but it's definitely a zero before the six.

Day-19(4.5-hours):

I cleaned & sprayed the underside of the targa top with Rustoleum-dip(I don't remember what it's actually called), then reinstalled it on the car after it had set up - mostly to protect the top from further damage, but also the keep crap out of the interior.

I picked up and cleaned a bit, because I had crap & tools all over the place. I also spent a bit of time with the driver's side powered seat track, but found more damage so I'm going to watch for a manual seat track to replace it with. That decision made, I cleaned all those parts off my other workbench.

So I decided to tear into the engine. I pulled the alternator, air pump & brackets, and was working on the A/C compressor, but there's one tricky bolt I didn't have any luck with.

Here's the problem-bolt, it's the circled one on the right and it's basically behind the pulley. There isn't enough room to get either a socket or box-end wrench between the pulley lip & around the head, and my 13mm open wrench just flexed & slipped around it.

Stampie wrote: In reply to BrokenYugo: And as I once learned, putting the trans in park won't hold the car once you remove the drive shaft.

Not even if the drive on lift is level. After driveshaft removal on a large truck, hitting your head on the front bumper hard is enough to make it move that 1/2 inch that it fits on by, dropping it off the lift at the back and creating some very dirty boxers and sketchy solutions.

petegossett wrote: Day-19(4.5-hours): I cleaned & sprayed the underside of the targa top with Rustoleum-dip(I don't remember what it's actually called), then reinstalled it on the car after it had set up - mostly to protect the top from further damage, but also the keep crap out of the interior. I picked up and cleaned a bit, because I had crap & tools all over the place. I also spent a bit of time with the driver's side powered seat track, but found more damage so I'm going to watch for a manual seat track to replace it with. That decision made, I cleaned all those parts off my other workbench. So I decided to tear into the engine. I pulled the alternator, air pump & brackets, and was working on the A/C compressor, but there's one tricky bolt I didn't have any luck with. Here's the problem-bolt, it's the circled one on the right and it's basically behind the pulley. There isn't enough room to get either a socket or box-end wrench between the pulley lip & around the head, and my 13mm open wrench just flexed & slipped around it.

You need to pull the PS pump pulley to access the bolt. Not smart engineering unless you never intend to remove the pump. Thanks GM.

Edit: never mind. Just realized I'm on the wrong side of the engine. Duh.

In reply to vwcorvette:

I actually tried to pull the A/C clutch/pulley...now I have no idea how it's supposed to come off, but since it has a nut on the end of the shaft I figured it went on that way? I couldn't get it to pop free with my 3-jaw puller, so I gave up. The instructions online stated that I'm supposed to remove that 13mm bolt, but I guess I need a better 13mm open-end wrench, or a much thinner box-end one. I thought about grinding down my cheap 13mm, but I figured it would probably just break.

It'll be a few days before I have a chance to attack it again, so maybe I'll think of a different plan by then.

It's common to grind down a wrench to remove the cooling fan off old Volvo 240s. I say go for it.