Bolted the axle on with the rear coilovers, didn't take many pics. Spent ages tapping out all the threads - especially important on the captive nuts for the bolts from axle bracket to body, as the bolts are thread-locked from the factory, and new ones come with thread lock already applied. If you don't clean out the thread, and are using a new bolt, the bolt will bind. Carried on with the tapping:
Newly painted drum back plates, new stub axles bolted on:
New brake shoes and brake cylinders:
Finished them off with new bearings in new drums and put it all back together with some help from Yoof. Forgot to take pics, so this is the best I can do!
Might need to get some longer springs for the rear coilovers, as the arse end is a bit lower than it was before - and I'm pretty much as high as I can go on the adjuster:
Shit pic, but I bought some coilover socks. They're neoprene sleeves with a velcro strip - idea is you cover the threaded part of the coilover with them to prevent it getting wet and shitty, hopefully helping to stop it seizing. They were cheap, so I'm not expecting much!
Fitted new PPP/Bartek bushes to the adjustable TCAs. I'd initially tried these with the standard rubber bushes in the name of R&D, and the conclusion is - don't bother...
The repainted brake servo I'd done previously was a bit shit. My garage is a pre-fab, so it's damp and cold. Seemed that when I'd painted and rust treated the servo some moisture had got behind the paint. Anyway, Kiz very kindly gave me a pimped-up servo at the Club Polo RR day - so I fitted that today:
As it upset PeteG40 so much, I removed the steering arms for paint.
Dismantled the brake fluid reservoir and gave it a clean.
And clipped it back together. Have a 22mm master cylinder to plug it into, but ran out of time this evening to put all that together.
Some new brake lines from Automec. Originally they didn't have the Mk3 Polo lengths on file, so had offered to do them for a bargain £25. Unfortunately for me, someone beat me to it in giving them the lengths! I got them to make me a custom set anyway though, as I'd got the proper lengths from ETKA and what Automec had on file wasn't quite right (but should be now!). Properly nicely made in copper-nickel with brass fittings, and sure beats wasting a day making messy pikey flares myself.
