This weekend was dedicated 1/2 to the coupe and 1/2 to the ute.

The half dedicated to the ute was to deal with the broken washer on the radius rod bracket.

What a total P I T A !!!!

Ok so the plan was the following. Buy a generic bushing kit with washers off of Rockauto. Which I did. Grind/clean the area for the new washer. Take the washer and temporarily epoxy it to the radius rod bracket. Then tack weld the washer in place.

First I found I had to drill the washer to enlarge it to fit over the sleeve on the assembly. I ground the brass looking coating off the washer with a wire wheel and hand grinder.

Epoxy set the washer. Welded the edges....nothing. Welded more edges, nothing. The welds did not stick. I made a total mess of the bracket and had to start over from scratch since the washer was ruined and the radius arm bracket was full of fouled welds.

3 hours of grinding later I got the surface back to bare metal and flat. This time I decided to drill two little holes in the washer to plug weld it on. 1st attempt, the welds did not stick. Had to redrill the holes, grind/clean yet again. 2nd attempt same!!!

3rd attempt for some reason I got one weld to stick but not the other. Then I welded a "bridge" from the washer to the bottom of the radius arm bracket. That seemed to be the only thing keeping it on there.

2 hours of grinding the surface of the washer flat, Painted and now ready for install.

The photos do not do my pain any justice. Maybe I should have used a really strong epoxy instead and not even bothered to bring out the welder!

Comparo, new versus old



First time getting the surface clean



What a mess !!!!!!!!!



Finished product





This was the 1st attempt washer



Comparo first attempt and factory washer

Months ago i had a shop pack the front bearings and install my king springs.

Also had the rotors machined.

Installed the radius rod and bushings today. That was the last piece of steering to be completed.

Ages ago i bought a pair of RCAs from techno toy tuning.

I had a very difficult time installing the strut and i see no way i can fit an RCA in there. So i dont think i will use them.

I am using King spring superlow as the springs.

Also realized i cannot get a brake caliper with the strut installed. So i have to undo half the work i did today.

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Since i sacrificed my race seats to the Avacodo i bought a pair of excellent black B110 Coupe seats. They are not ute seats so not as roomy but they will do until i can import some ute seats.

I installed new seat belts. They are military surplus Humvee. Test fit the seats and the new seat belts are a little short. Seat belt extenders will fix this.

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I seem to recall this method to get the caliper on/off with strut installed:
* Loosen one strut bolt
* Remove the other strut bolt
* Rotate strut so that you have enough clearance to insert caliper bolt
* tighten caliper
* rotate strut
* install strut bolt

New calipers arrived in the mail

Did I order the wrong ones?

Bolt spacing is 8 millimeters too short and it does not Center itself on the rotor

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looks like 75mm caliper bolt spacing

The paper shows 1.4 liter B210, which uses the LARGE brakes unlike A12 powered vehicles

Yes what I need is brake calipers actually 83 or 84 millimeters

84mm caliper bolt spacing:
* B110
* B210 with 12" wheels
* B310 with 12" wheels

88.9mm spacing was used by the larger brakes (e.g. 13" wheeled sunnies)

Might have found a friend on the west coast willing to supply me brakes 😀😀😀

The ole ute is gettin dusty these days.

Progress made.

Seat belts installed.
Rear loom repaired, there was some crusty wiring to repair. Retaped the loom and installed.
License plate lights installed.
Front and side indicators bulb changed cleaned amd installed.
Shock absorbers. Excel G replacements from oz installed.
Need some m12 split washers.
Go fast rocker cover bolts installed

that's all i can remember at the moment.

The shock upper mounts were covered in Raptor liner so i had to buy an m12 1.25 die ans rethread them. Clearance was a pain but my trusty big ass adjustable wrench did the slow job okay.

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"Ice ice baby!"

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