I can’t argue that, honestly 

"The more I looked in the mirror, the more I realized how worn out everything is. Plus, everything is covered in grease, filth, and oddly enough burnt rubber..."

There, I corrected it for you! 

hey dave, long time no see.....
looking good!

The more I looked at the car, the more I realized how worn out everything is. Plus, everything is covered in grease, filth, and oddly enough burnt rubber...I despise working on dirty cars any more. Realized that it was going to be much easier and comprehensive to refresh the mechanicals if the body was not in the way.
Friday evening I pulled the body off and then Saturday afternoon. I stripped everything off the pan. Goal is to have the body back on in January. Hopefully test running by June.

Long overdue update.  Closed the deal on my new A1 exhaust while in California.
Also, my new engine left Paradise Motorsport on Friday

This is a good original empi vdm Steering Wheel there is no horn button has the usual 12 o'clock crack. The horn ring is nice. One of the black wire covers in the back is broken you can use as is or restore

I am asking on the $600 shipped anywhere !!!!!

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nice to see you again zach

nice video, thanks for the link

I've been on vacation for a little over a week and never got around to updating what was done before i left...
The bearing caps were painted, as may have been seen in the beckground in earlier pictures.


Then I started disassembling the rear brakes...




I also ground in the new brake shoes to match the drum. These had maybe 10% contact when I started sanding... Dust mask on!!




And just like that, one side was assembled!




I also replaced both parking brake cables


With the bearing cap in place and new seals installed, it was just a matter of fitting the drum, which had gotten a thin layer of black high-temp paint.



With that done, it was time to move on to the front brakes.


The drum was quite a sorry sight, to say the least... But cleanable!




Someone has definitely been here before and replaced the wheel bearings at some point...



After a soak, some sanding, and a bit of paint, that drum turned out nice too.




Once again I sanded the shoes to fit the drum. Here you can see how little contact area there is even after some sanding.



As you can see, the brake shoe is thicker in the middle after sanding. This is something I haven’t tried before… But it kind of feels like it should give better braking power right from the start. Even though the shoes will wear in over time.


With the drum painted and warm after lying in the sun, there was no issue getting the new bearing races in.


Plenty of SKF wheel bearing grease was used to fill the cavity in the drum and pack the bearings.




The brakes were assembled and installed on the car




I had bought these EMPI aluminum locknuts with hex screws to avoid those slightly annoying double nuts. But the aluminum locknuts are huge! And I don't think the center caps for my BRMs will fit over the grease cap. Whether I should cut down and reweld the grease caps, or just bash them in with a hammer, I'll end up going back to double nuts... Right now, it's temporarily tightened since I haven't mounted any locking plates.


Next time I'm in the garage, I'll bring a wheel and test it out! Should be exciting…
Until then!

Car looks great - and where you live looks amazing!