Weather half decent tonight, so made some small progress.
Firstly I tried some paint I had mixed out to see the colour match. It is shit. Should be good enough to do the wheel arches though.
Next was chopping more metal out of this wheel arch. I eventually got to solid metal that isn't pitted.
Before
After
This all looks complicated, but it's not that bad. Just many bits that make up this and will require quite a lot of sections to complete it. Will be fiddly for sure.
Next step on this area is to get the card out and start making templates. Then I can get the steel cut up and shaped. Welding on should be a relatively painless exercise - providing I don't catch the car alight.
Took some time to remove underseal off the drivers floor. There are a few holes in it, but I'm pretty sure I can get away without using a panel and fabricating it out of sheet steel. Won't be perfectly accurate but this isn't visible most of the time and it's quite a simple, flat area. At the moment it's in need of doing. If I did give a good stamp in this area, I'd have a Flintstones car for sure.
Also this is going to be the first time I'm welding with interior, engine and other flammable things still in the car. On the Austin 1100 I had stripped anything remotely flammable out (apart from underseal), so could weld freely without fear of setting all the things alight. My plan is to stuff some fire blankets down in the wheel arch behind the holes to catch any splatter, sparks and flames.
Finally tonight I thought I'd have a look at the drivers front caliper to see the state of the pistons. The inside pad definitely has more material on than the outside. Pulled the pads out. This was quite a fight as the retaining pins were rusty and the pads were corroded enough on the side that it needed a pair of pliers to persuade it to come out.
Dust seals on the pistons appear intact
Reasonable amount of meat still on these pads
However they're pretty scruffy
Retaining pins aren't much cleverer either
While I was at it, I stuck my piston retract tool in and wound till it clamped the disc. This allowed me to pump the pedal and check that both pistons move.
As both did and moved to a fair amount, I'm reasonably happy that they're in working order at the moment. Obviously not got a pot that seized solid. I'll do the otherside too and see how they perform. I may still need replacement calipers as the bleed nipple looks like it may give a fight.
I gave the edges of the pads and pins a quick sand down. Went back together really well and without an issue. Key thing is that the pads just slid in, rather than having corrosion stopping them and snagging.
I do really like these fixed calipers. So much nicer to work on than the sliding calipers that so many modern cars use.
Discs have areas of quite a lot of pitting on. I can't imagine this will be helping give a smooth brake action. This could well be a cause of the front brake fluctuation advisory on its previous MOT.
If the brakes still give trouble and before I condemn the pads, discs and calipers, I may try new pads and fitting kit at least. Mintex ones are cheap enough to be worth a punt trying to see if it resolves some of the issues for now and give a bit more of a reassuring feel. Brake fluid is in need of an urgent change too.