Right rear break drum finally re assembled

Finally! I've got the right rear breaks back together. I don't think I've mentioned it in this blog yet, but what caused Lady to sit for so long was that the slave cylinder on this wheel died while it was sitting for a winter and I didn't make time to repair it. Before you get judgmental, I had just had a new baby and time was tight :-)

 

Right rear breaks finally assembled

I got the parts for my birthday back in May but the wheel cylinder wouldn't screw onto the end of the break line. Turns out this was due to what I've come to understand is normal flaring on the end of the nut. This flare prevents the nut from going into the hole in the cylinder far enough for the threads to meet up. To make sure that the threads weren't ruined, I pulled the entire line from the splitter above the rear differential. This exposed another flared nut that wouldn't go back into the splitter :-). It appeared that what I needed to do was replace the line. I don't have the tools to bend the lines or flare the nuts so I called around to various brake shops to see if they could do it for me if I brought them the old line to base the new shape on. One of them very kindly informed me that what I needed to do was to simply get some emery cloth and sand down the ends of the nuts until they fit. I spent 90 minutes in my easy chair sanding the nuts and testing them against one of my new cylinders. Wow. I got some serious blisters on my thumb and fore finger spinning the facets of the nuts. This last Thursday I was able to put the line and cylinder back in. Finally Friday night I was able to put in the pads, springs, retaining clips and bleeder screw. One down. I'm currently sanding down the nut on the brake line on the car. There's not a lot of clearance while it's on the car. Hopefully I'll have the other side done within a week or two. Then I can bleed the system and try spinning the engine.

Cleaning out the garage..

I've been wanting a new car for a while now. Something fun to drive while I spend years rebuilding my MGB. I even got within striking distance of having the money ready to go, but I've decided to get my B ("Lady") back on the road and enjoy her instead. The thing is, she's actually in great shape and I can do what I'm calling a "rolling rebuild" over a number of years (enjoy her spring, summer & fall) then rebuild something during the winter.

First step, however, is getting to her. She's in the garage up on jack stands and covered in dust, surrounded by stuff... crap... boxes... bikes and … <SIGH>… I've been slowly working on this first step for the last 2 months. Last weekend I finally got my rolling tool boxes into their intended spots and cleaned off. I even got one of them organized. A part of this was gathering all my tools from various places in the house. At this point if someone asked me for a specific tool, I could go right to it and grab it. I don't think I have adequate words to express how good that feels.

Today's mission was to empty and break down about 13 linear feet of shelving that are 1/2 of the divider between our two garage bays. That will make working on her much easier (less crowded). I managed to get it done by throwing a bunch of down right garbage out, shifting some storage stuff to high shelves in our garden shed and putting together a large pile destined for good will. With the shelves gone, I can comfortably sit in front of her passenger side rear break drum and work on it. No picture because it's currently dark, with no light in the front of the garage and the phone only takes grainy pictures with its flash.

Next plans are to get some ceiling mounted shelves to put the rest of the storage stuff on to so I can take down the remainder of the shelves and then start work on the car. First step there is new rear breaks.  AJ & I are going to paint the drums (they look much nicer through the wire wheels). He and I are both excited.

Lego Set 8039 (Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser) - Finished build

Whew. My son, AJ, finished his build of the StarWars Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser (8039) the other day. It took him about 7 - 30 minute sessions over about 30 days. He got the set for Yule. The long build time was due to his two smaller brothers who come running when they hear the unmistakable sound of a person digging through the parts pile looking for a piece. Haven, the 5 year old wants to help build and says "I'll do the next step". Orion, the 2 1/2 year old simply comes running chanting "GUY! GUY! GUY!", meaning he wants to play with the Lego mini-figures. Both of which, elicit groans and grumblings from AJ as he tries desperately to keep his pieces from being absconded with and lost. He's really good with his brothers and rarely looses his temper completely. I wish we could say the same for the pieces :-). We had to go to the bigger box of Lego pieces several times for this build to find replacement parts for bits that Orion wandered off with.


In the end it's a very satisfying build. It's rather sturdy for a play model. Having a fold out handle helps a lot. Some of the bits of trim on the side wings do fall off from time to time but he manages to put them back on. Pardon the grainy images, I took them with my phone in a hurry (It was past bed time) and my hands weren't as steady as they might have been otherwise.

I love building Lego with the boys (and my daughters too, when they want to). It gives us a chance to talk about fun things without the normal parent "stop doing that" or "do your chores" voices coming out. I get to watch them grow in their understanding of spatial awareness and following directions (two very important abilities). It's a very satisfying way to spend time together.

This set comes with a lot of neat details: An escape pod, a blaster turrent and bomb bay which drops bombs when you turn the crank. I'm sure you can find that out by reading the Amazon details section (link above), but they are AJ's favorite bits so I figured I would call them out. I would highly recommend this set for a family build due to the length of time it takes.

TTFN
D

Very cool lego sorter built out of legos.

Getting started

Wow. A blog. Um okay.
First post stuff: I'm a software developer with 5 kids and too many hobbies. My main goal in life has always been to be a good person and resultantantly a good dad, beyond that I'm into classic British cars and building Legos. My other hobbies and interests are too many to bother listing.

I have a long range dream to rebuild my 1965 MGB with my kids over a span of years, hopefully starting in 2 years. I have to clean out the garage and the smallest kid is still 2 & 1/2, so we don't have time or space for the project, yet. I figured a blog would be a good way to chronicle the journey.

Lego. I love building and the kids have fun building with and without dad. A friend pointed out there are a lot of builders out there who keep blogs on their creations, I'll probably do some of that here, too.

Blogging on a tablet is a less than ideal paradigm.