The Limits of the F150

Let me tell you about my weekend/truck/life....   So last weekend was to be a blast.  I had a long weekend and I had set up a number of things that I planned on knocking out while I had the time and energy to do so.  First things first, I had to go over and finish the job of painting my Aunt's shed/garage.  She is the reason I have the opportunity to work on the Triumph so as part of my payment to her I agreed to paint her shed.  Some further background on the weekend was I was planning to spend it doing brakes.  I know that the Jetta needs new pads (has anyone seen the 2011 Jetta, barf), and the truck was making some noise in the back end and I was going to check it out.  Well I figured that I would just try to push the truck one more so I could pick up my paint supplies and I would trouble shoot it at home.  Well guess what, the truck made it to the job but couldn't make it home.  That pesky noise had compounded itself into a full blown non-moving-down-the-road-anymore problem.  So I muscled the car back into my aunts driveway, jacked it up and spun the back wheels to discover that the sound was actually on the passenger side.  I pulled the tire and the drum and all the brake parts hit the ground.  I was somewhere between laughing and crying.  I had two options, tow the POS or fix it in place.  This was my first experience with drum brakes and it was to be an ugly one.

So I had to make three trips to get all the appropriate parts I needed only to run out of daylight, and I had to call in John O from the reserves with the right tools.  WARNING, anyone doing drum brakes save yourself the bloody knuckles and the inherent shit fits and go and get the right tools to land the springs before you even start.  That being said I am now a drum brake expert.  Here are some more excellent photos:

If anyone notices those are the drivers side drum brakes and the passenger side going from top to bottom.  The passenger side is my first attempt at the rebuild and if you have a keen eye you can see that I have the lead and lagging shoes backwards.......  I got it figured out eventually that was my first time.    Whew.  On a good note I made a tool upgrade on the Triumph.   I bought a Ryobi Corner Cat DA Orbital Sander.  The thing kicks significant amounts of oxidation butt and I am very pleased with the progress that is being made on the body work.  Drivers door is done and I have moved to the trunk:

That is all for now.  Over and out -NA
 PS shout out to my main man Alex and his new dirt bike...........fail.