Surgery - part two

 So now the rears and these put up a bit more of a fight...

Disks and calipers all off pretty quickly, then bottom of the drop link was simple. Hood into the service position and the top mount bolts removed cleanly.

Next up were the 6 driveshaft bolts - also pretty simple. 

There was then some thinking to how best to continue - we  basically needed to get enough slack to get the top of the strut out of the wheel arch and we realised we had to remove a lot of the suspension to do this.

We first removed the brace arm that goes across, under the hub and arms and then the coffin arm, after marking the position of the alignment nut to try get it back in roughly the right place. Same with the trailing arm (?) - fortunately all these bolts came off quite easily.

But something had to make it hard for us and that was the top bolt of the drop link, that goes through the hub. We had tried to do the original front drop link but it defeated us and I had to take the car to a garage and we were worried we might have to do the same here.

The nut came off easily enough but the bolt was seized in the hub, like the fronts had been. After hitting it with a hammer did nothing, we decided to get the angle grinder out. Cearth cut off the other side of the link (I'd bought new ones already) and then used it to make sure we had access to the nut so we could get a breaker bar on it. With a complex mix of jack stand to take some pressure, we lent on the breaker bar and, thankfully, it relented. It took another 20 minutes of working it backwards and forwards, the impact gun and a hammer finally got the bolt coming out, with a drift and hammer to get the final inch done:

What a relief!! Lots of high fives ensued...

After that, it was plain sailing - the old strut came out with a few whacks from the hammer:

These rears were definitely in worse condition than the fronts had been, with holes in the rubber bellows and very corroded top mounts:

The new ones slotted into the hubs easily and the new drop links looked nice and shiny:

All that was needed was to replace the coffin and trailing arms, the brace, brakes and calipers and one side done, 3 hours in - not too bad.

The other side was almost identical, with the drop link feeling a little bit worse to get out but the same method worked.

Finally finished around 5pm, so a full 8 hour day (including an hour for lunch) and I'm knackered.

The short drive back showed I badly need an alignment, which I'll try get done this week. But initial impressions are good - the ride feels firmer (to be expected) but it feels taut, like it's not flustered by bumps and happily crashes through them, if that makes any sense.

A very tiring but rewarding day and saved me a grand or so in labour charges.

Surgery - part one

 So yesterday was the start of Barry's surgery, to replace all the shocks - and, spoiler, it went amazingly well.

We started on the fronts as they are much easier to do and did both sides in parallel. With a lift, car work is 100 times easier and we had the brakes off in minimal time. The drop links, because they were replaced less than a year ago, also came out very easily. One tie rod end popped out immediately while the other needed a ball joint splitter and the bolts on the top mount were easy to get out as they're in the frunk and don't get hit by the elements, so no corrosion.

Now, at this stage, the standard method is to loosen the lower coffin arm, to get more play on the hub so you can pull the top of the strut clear of the wheel arch. However, I wasn't keen on trying to get that nut loose - they're known to be difficult, so we just tried first without doing that. With Cearth hanging from the coffin arm underneath and me pulling the top of the strut, it eventually came out:

Some judicious use of a hammer and the whole strut came out of the hub:

It's not pretty in there and I would love to have time to replace all the brake lines, replace some bushes - another time.

The next stage was the scariest, building the new struts and using spring compressors for the first time - not fun after having seen videos of what happens if one of those let go. But it all went well - I'd printed out diagrams of how the struts fitted together and bought a full kit from Design911 that had every new part, so we didn't need to take the old one apart to salvage any bits.

We did have to reuse the clamps on the old strut legs (I thought that was in the kit but no) and one side came off easily, although the other side put up a fight and an angle grinder was needed.

The new struts went in easily enough and more hanging off coffin arms got them back under the wheel arch without removing any paint. Top mount nuts were simple, tightening to the marks we'd made around the old ones to keep the camber settings roughly right.

Tie rods, drop links and brakes all back in (after trimmin the lip on my disks a little - will need to change them soon) and all done - really not too bad; 5 hours all in, going slow.

We took the rear wheels off to think about doing the rears but decided discretion was the better part of valour and we'll do that in a couple of weeks time. The bottom of the rear drop links came apart nice and easily but there's a lot more stuff to do at the back and I didn't want to use up all of Cearths weekend on me.

On the drive home, the steering felt lighter and it seemed to ride the potholes better but maybe my imagination. I'll try a decent run out later...

All in all, a fun day that went much better than I expected.

It's a Fair Mile

 Sorry to my legions (legions, I tell ya!) of fans for the radio silence recently - nothing to panic about, just a long holiday and nothing hugely exciting happening.

I popped over to the Fairmile meet in Cobham on a glorious Wednesday evening - this meet is once a month but gets a bit samey, so I spread my visits out. This evening was a 'green Porsche' special:

I like the private plates - some are very inventive but this is possibly one of the best:

Finally also found a car in worse condition than Barry - and I like his new badge:

Lots of other beauties:

Including this £1m+ 918, driven by a young TikTokker (my son tells me) who married a rich songwriter and just buys cars and makes videos on them. He certainly can't drive - he had to be helped by marshalls to reverse the car. But it is a beauty:

Although obvs not as beautiful as Barry:

This weekend is a biggie - major surgery to replace both knees and hips. Not me (although might be a good idea) but Barry - replacing all the shocks and springs. I've previously mentioned the waywardness at the limit on twisty roads and with 106k miles, the original shocks must be knackered and would explain the dodgy handling, so replacements are due.

I've bought all the parts (£1700) and Cearth has kindly offered his garage and expertise (he has done this before on his Boxster). I'm very worried about this - watching the YT videos on the process, it isn't simple, although Cearth seems to think nothing of it - he reckons it will only take a day but I'll be amazed if that happens - we shall see....