Its winter, it’s cold and it’s wet. I think years and years of standing besides freezing, windy, wet kart tracks has made me value the warmth of indoors over the winter months more than I ever did when I was younger. However, these climatically challenged days during the early months of the year are often the best time to maintain and titillate the various vehicles I have at my disposal. You see there is no pressure to “go for a walk” or “have a nice day out”, because fortunately my good lady feels the cold even more than I do, and the only place she wants to be is stuck indoors in front of one of her many games consoles.
The only down side though, is that I have to head outside and freeze my giblets off whilst clouting which ever car with a large hammer. For a while now I have been searching for a reasonable priced, local workshop type facility, in which I can play with the ever increasing fleet. The garage which I have at home, whist large and spacious, is filled with detritus such as a work bench, tool chests, karts and on a more domestic and boring front, washing machine and dish washer. Also, it has been ear marked. Once where this was seen as my domain, monster chops (my affectionate pet name for my good lady), has decided that “if we removed the garage door and fitted a full height glass window / patio door, it would make an amazing room – in fact an amazing games room” for her!!! Never has the saying “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine”, ever been more apt!
Sadly my grandfather died a couple of weeks ago, leaving my nan by herself. She is in her 80’s and has decided to give up driving and their car, a pristine Mk2 Astra 1.8 CD has been passed on to my uncle. This leaves her garage and enclosed driveway now redundant. It was suggested by my mother that I use the garage, so I could “pop round” on a regular basis to keep an eye on her. Now, when it comes to being able to work on a car in the dry and relative warm, who am I to say no! Joking aside though, it was seen as a good idea so that my grandmother wouldn’t think she was being checked up on. So for the next couple of weekends, I will be cleaning out the years of half used paint pots and wood off cuts.
It doesn’t help me though at the moment with my current maintenance job, the brake callipers on the 968 Clubbie. I won’t bore you too much with the details, but Porsches of a certain age were fitted with a lovely all alloy four pot brake calliper manufactured by Brembo. Whilst effective when new, the ravages of time, road salt, brake cleaner, heat, etc, etc, etc., have taken their toll and caused the calliper to oxidise. Unfortunately this oxidisation isn’t just cosmetic. It creeps in under the stainless steel slider plates which the pads move on and bends them, effectively gripping the pads and reducing the braking efficiency.
So, off they have to come and a good clean down they have to have. However, as always, it is never that simple. Seized rusty screws and nuts that round off, despite having the best fitting spanner ever, have caused me to give up on the restoration process myself. Instead I have sent them to a nice gentleman at a company called Bigg Red in Worcestershire, who assures me that this de-grotting should not be a problem, and all for a reasonable price. I wait with baited breath.
Once returned all I then have to do is bolt them back on and decide which pads to go for. I am fancying something gnarlier than the standard Porsche supplied parts, even if they do make a bit more noise and dust. And you never know, I may be able to fit them in my new garage (between tea brakes with my nan), that’s if the people at the local tip, sorry, refuse recycling centre let me in more than once!