Some very significant progress on the Machino Bambino!

Have been working on the brake end points (brake lines, calipers) and have restored the calipers. I still need to check out the compensator at the rear of the car – this is some kind of contraption that I’ve never encountered – but essentially there is only one brake line exiting the master cylinder bound for the rear wheels and it obviously splits at some point (at the compensator and has a strange apparatus that is attached to the body and the axle.

Anyway, more on that weirdness later, but here are some restored calipers:

ALL the other time I’ve had has been devoted to the suspension. Let’s just say that some fire, penetrating oil, hammering, bending, pulling, clamping, more fire, more hammering – all of that needed to disassemble the upper and lower control arms, remove old ball joints, and remove old bushings.

Many thanks to the folks on the forum for guiding me through this.

I’ve finally managed to complete disassembly on the front, and have my shortlist of parts I need for replacement, and have cleaned and painted with POR-15 those parts that needed it.

There have been times when I needed to exercise patience – to walk away from a puzzle, or a discovery of some welded thing that shouldn’t have been done, or some aspect of disassembly that just wasn’t happening.

During one of those times, I went and cut new carpet for the interior, installed it, and installed the (repaired) driver’s seat.

Sometimes you just have to do something that is achievable and you know, looks kinda good.