Safety Fast September 2017

I got the following by email. It refers to Roger Boy’s excellent article on painting wheels. ‘Just got round to reading your article in Safety Fast!, June, about your suggested method for re-painting wheels with the tyres in situ. The next time you wish to do it: get a 1-1 1/2” paint brush and a tub of liquid heavy soap – Swarfega is fine. Paint the tyre walls with a generous application of the soap just before painting. Take a little care to brush reasonably accurately so as to get the soap just snugly around the rim, but on the rubber. Then spray away or brush with care. After the paint has dried, just wash off with water – perfectly painted wheels and clean tyres!
Paul de-Ville’

Further to my missive about boiling brake fluid last month, the saga continued but is now, hopefully, finished. I discovered
a water leak from the bottom radiator hose. I have no idea how old this hose is, very old I suspect, and set about swapping it for a new one. I use MGOC Forlife coolant in my system. I shan’t go into its advantages here but will comment that I wanted to save as much as possible and reuse it. A strategically-placed plastic washing up bowl caught more than just a dribble and the swap of the hoses went smoothly with a dollop of Castrol LM grease, making the unions a bit easier to achieve. I removed the nearside front wheel to more readily get at the bottom hose jubilee clip. I’m not as flexible as I was and scrabbling around under the front of a low slung car is getting more difficult…However, I am glad that I did as I discovered why my brake fl uid had boiled. The outside caliper piston was seized! I had not realised this as there had been no apparent change to the braking characteristics of the car. Luckily I had not needed to do any harsh braking or, I suspect, I would have found out rather more quickly! So, a visit to Tim Kelly, an exchanged caliper and a new set of Mintex pads later and the brakes are fine. Whilst bothering Neil Hyatt when he was on point duty, as it were, at MGLive!, he said that he had changed his brake fluid to DOT5 as it is less prone to hydroscopic tendencies. ‘In for a penny in for a pound,’ thought I, having discovered the cause of my problems. DOT5 has replaced DOT4 in my braking system. The pedal is softer. I have
heard that is the case and the new pads are still bedding in, of course, though the car does stop as well as it should, particularly as it doesn’t have servos.