We have a brake - just the one, but it's a start.

As promised , some pictures of our refurbished braking system. The offside rear brake is now complete, bar plumbing in a new copper brake pipe to replace the one we had to cut off to remove the old cylinder.

 

The back plate has a fresh coat of paint, hammerite on the back and a coat of gloss black on the working end, enough to protect it without affecting the movement of the working parts.

With the new cylinder in place the existing shoes have been cleaned up and pressed back into service as there is plenty of life in them. 

All reassembled the drum has been checked for any ovality and is fine and within tolerances, so after a wire brushing and a quick coat of paint its back in place. VHT silver makes it shiny and new looking again.

And now for the same treatment to the nearside rear. Again the brake pipe tore off with the removal of the union joining it to the cylinder, so new brake pipes will be require don both sides. I have a length of brake pipe left over from my Chrysler le Baron project of a few years ago, so I'm treating myself to a brake flaring tool set so I can make up the new pipes myself. The tool will no doubt come in handy for fitting the hydraulic handbrake conversion to our Nissan Micra Autotest car as well.

With the nearside rear brake now stripped and painted it can be similarly re-assembled tomorrow, so by close of Monday we should have two working brakes.