Taking A Brake: Double Trouble

Tonight's adventures began with another visit my buddy Darren with his MK4 Turbo'ed VR6. Our objective was to finally complete the installation for his 13 inch RPI Wilwood front brake kit.

During last evening's installation, an unexpected situation occurred when an important brake line fitting sheered apart. At the time, we decided to temporarily bypass the fitting as Darren needed to drive the car to work the next day. Without it, the brake line will become overstressed when turning sharply and sheer apart from the caliper. Tonight's primary objective was simple: replace the temporary fitting bypass.

Darren informed us that he had spent most of today pricing out the part. He became quickly frustrated as he was quoted $37.00 CAN from Ron's Parts Inc for an item that should cost no more than a few dollars. With no success in finding a lower price, he purchased a new set of brake lines with the fittings built into them from Momentum Motorparts for $70.00 CAN.

Once completing the installation, we turned to our second task of replacing Johnny's rear rotors and brake pads.



While working on his car, I noticed heavy scratches and oxidation in his paint. When asked when he last clay-barred or waxed. He replied, "Clay bar? What is clay-barring?" I immediately stopped in my tracks and got out my Mothers Clay-Bar Kit and some Meguires Cleaner Wax. I used his hood as a demostration. After 15 minutes of elbow grease, I had waxed 1/2 of his hood with and the other 1/2 without claybarring. The finish result was obvious. The side without clay-bar appeared just as bright and glossy, but felt rough like sandpaper. The side which I applied the clay-bar felt silky smooth. I told him that clay-barring makes it a lot easier to apply and remove wax due to less friction/surface area from dirt embedded into the paint.