I've been enjoying my week off over Christmas, and luckily getting a couple of hours in the garage too!

Yesterday I removed the rear brake calipers, as they were pretty corroded. They aren't in the best of shape so I might use the ones of the dead 540i sitting on the drive. I know these are good as I was driving it daily till it packed up completely in September. I decided that whilst the rear axle is partially dismantled, I thought I'd go the whole hog and re-con the parking brake at the same time. On the 5-series this is a small brake drum inside the brake disc.

So Today I removed one of the rear brake discs, and found lots of corrosion inside it. I cleaned this up with a wire brush and it all looks very useable. In my haste to remove the rear axle assembly from the donor I had cut the handbrake cables, and have now found that I may not be able to replace the cable conduits. However all is not lost as again, I have a 540i sitting on the drive which may have to donate it's trailing arms.

The other thing I've done in the last 2 days is fabricate the base and front hoop of the dash/scuttle assembly, complete with fixing brackets. I've ordered a rivnut tool from CBS which I will use to fix the assembly to the chassis. The nice thing about this is that by pure chance, the dash instrument binnacle fits perfectly between the steering column and the dash hoop. Brilliant!

As always, I've taken some pics and will post them up soon.

Happy new year for Friday!!!