I started the day out but retrieving the painted rear brake plates and laying them out on the coffee table in our family room. From there I gathered the new parts I purchased. Brake cylinders, brake shoes, new clips for mounting the cylinders and placed them in position on the plates. I am reusing the adjusters and brake shoe springs from the '57 so I placed them in the Eastwood tumbler (I think it is great to be able to add parts and walk away and let the machine work its' magic-it is like having an assistant to do grunt work) with a small amount of cleaner to renew them. The springs didn't turn out as clean as I expected so I soaked them in degreaser over night. One of the four adjuster plungers is seized. A WD 40 soak didn't free it up so I liberally applied a penetrating oil to the part and also let it set overnight. Hopefully this morning I will get some movement-if I can't free it up then I am going to have to extract an adjuster from the '59 differential and start the process over again...
I painted the front shocks red. One more coat will be required this morning. I primed a selection of shock absorber and rear axle fastening hardware ready for the chassis black topcoat.
I also contemplated how I am going to approach the replacement of the rear hub seals. It looks like I might have to 3rd party the installation as special tools are required. I know there was oil leakage on one side when I disassembled the axles so both the bearing and the seal might need to be replaced. The bearing was also dry which is not a good sign. I am contemplating using one of the axles out of the '59 as the backing plates were free of oil when I dismantled the brakes. Still a risk if the seals are not changed as the vehicle has sat for so many years. Some more contemplation and planning work is required in this arena.
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