A8 brake upgrade is on the car:) - Page 2

Heheh, if you want/need em when I upgrade my rears, they're yours:)

Thanks for the links man - I saw the ones on ECS, and I'm gonna compare them.  If I can get them in a day from Advance, I'll do that, rather than wait 2-3 days from ECS, but we'll see what the deal is.  And NP on the garage/tools.  I'm down for turning wrenches any day:)  Besides, maybe we can do a trade-off - I may need your smaller hands to assist in my CTS swap (should be here tomorrow) - my holiday-hams-for-hands might be a bit tough to wedge in there for the whole thing lol.

haha, np man i'l bring my special hook i made to do it too. only other thing we need is a long flat head screw driver and we're golden

Well I've got plenty of those, and I even organized my tools again into my rolling cabinet (bought a nice 150-lb ratcheting torque wrench too, if you ever need it).  Hell, depending on the day, maybe it'll be time to tackle the valve cover gaskets and valve cover detailing (not sure yet if I'll paint or polish them - gotta see 'em off the car first and see how complex the surface is to get a feel for how long it'd take to polish them).  

not sure what polishing is but sanding and paint shouldn't take more than an hour. and is that ratching torque wrench the thing that is rly long and hose things you can turn at the bottom of the handle? if so, we'll need that for the torque specs for the clutch. might be good to use it on the valve covers too so you odn't crush the gaskets too much. also if you need sealant over the gasket too i have some audi oil pan silicone gasket that i bought for doing my oil pan. holler if you need it

This is polishing (pics are from my Z) - mirror-like finish that resembles chrome, only is far more durable since it's the metal itself, not a plating on the metal.  It takes some time, more than paint does for sure, and it can be a pain to keep up, but it looks so good when it's shining.



 

Yeah, the torque wrench is exactly what you described.  I had to get it because my existing one disappeared a couple years ago into the ether, and I have no idea what happened.  I didn't want to risk warping the brake rotors with unequal/incorrect lug torque, or risk any of the other possible issues from that, so I just went ahead and got it, and yes it'll be needed for your clutch job (the impact wrenches will aid tremendously for that as well).  Sounds good on the sealant - never hurts to at least have it on hand.  Did you order it or get it at Empire?

unfortunately empire, needed it right away at the time lol. what do you have to do for polishing though?

Heh, a lot.  Clean it really well first off, and then it's a painstaking process of sanding with continually-finer grits (I usually start with 120 if it's not too rough a surface, but has texture - you have to get it smooth).  If it's already smooth, I'll start with 220, then go to 400, then 800 to remove fine hairline scratches.  After that I hit it with a couple grades of steel wool, and then a reinforced flannel wheel using Vernier's rouge, and finally a finishing step of White polish with a loose flannel wheel.  There's some stuff called Zoop seal that you can use to seal in the luster and you usually don't have to repolish it at all for about three years, but it is hugely expensive (like $120/pint or some ridiculous number last time I looked).  I'm probably going to just paint them and save the hassle of first doing the polishing, and second keeping it looking like it should when it's polished.