So, MOT sorted by the skin of its teeth, loads to do before tomorrow morning, panic has set it due to a little mishap with the pedal box...
How many of you fitted metal spreader plates between the pedal box and the bulkhead? Here is something for those of you with pinto engines to think about.
I didn't see this coming 8 years ago when I re built it... The holes are supposed to be there... the crack around the edge is not.
Seems the proximity to the manifold has weakened the fibreglass of the tub a little
Well a lot actually :)
A metal spreader plate on the inside would have eased the load on the area and this may not have been quite so severe. This is going to be a fun evening..
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Cheers Steve. That'll be me £43 lighter then :)
From my view, new pistons, and with my experience with stainless steel, no its not worth the extra.
Stainless steel pistons and seal kit = £67
Chrome plated steel pistons and seal kit = £43
Is it worth the extra expense as it seems to be the housing that suffers from the worst of the corrosion behind the dust seal.
Seal kits are reasonable @ about £14 so again is it worth all that work using the original pistons and taking the risk of a leak?
Your thoughts gents?
Update.
Green painted calipers now put back together, one has been blasted and stripped down again. Pistons popped, all cleaned out and checked. There is slight pitting on one piston and I'm not happy as it's through the chrome and into the base steel. Pricing up stainless piston repair kits later. Its a right pain taking it all apart, cleaning, refitting, blasting, more cleaning, stripping down, more blasting, cleaning, blah blah blah... If I wasn't fitting the spacer kit I wouldn't bother.
Bigger hose employed and no noticable improvement - conclusion = restrictive moisture trap / regulator. Bypass employed and now the box is leaking sand and gas as it pressurises faster than the vent can let the air out :) extractor now compulsory as i have green/black grit up my nose and its mainly powdered glass (ouch) on the positive side it destroys paint and rust with alarming rapidity so caliper 2 should be done in half the time.
Thats why I asked about volume not pressure, pressure is secondary if you haven't got the volume to support it. Ade, 14 cfm should be fine, may need bigger hose, nozzle. Nice looking set up, noisy? I never noticed :-))
Thanks Paul.
I am currently using recycled glass which is a very pretty green and razor sharp but causes a fair amount of dust and I think it's powdering on impact.
I use Honite in my blast cabinet. A soda/lime glass bead, from Gyson International, a 25kg bag will last me about 12 months, and the cabinet is used most days.
Grade 10 will give a semi polished finish @ 85psi, ideal for painting.
Pink calipers look like scrap, good luck
I have an airline to M10 x 1mm adapter and then use the regulator to slowly increase the pressure. To do that I have to bolt them back together...
Had a few problems with my donor calipers. It would seem that a bit of moisture crept in and has corroded the rings on the pistons... all four are solid.
Plan B was initiated and the calipers I was going to trade in for new ones have now been split only to find ...
All four are now soaking in Dave T's special mix (50% unleaded / 50% diesel... don't ask!)
Funny thing is three different manufacturers between four calipers and I know there are two more different on the green leggy... none are ford / fomoco or girling...
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