Well, started working on front brakes today. First thing I learned is that my shop manual does not have the 1985.5 brake information. Turns out I have sliding pin calipers. They were pretty easy to figure out. Now I have a few questions and pictures to share.

Here is the set up before I got started:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/

A little PB Blaster and a 13mm wrench and the bolts holding the calipers come right out; needed to hold the sliding pin head while turning the bolt. It was a narrow space where a regular width wrench was too wide. Found a narrow crescent wrench to get started:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/

You can see where the piston was a resting against the pad. Last running in 2002:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/

Caliper bracket is held on by two 8mm hex bolts. A little PB Blaster and a 12" breaker worked well. Let them soak for about 30 min before attempting:https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/

I got the piston out of the caliper and was disappointed in what I found. I am thinking that my options are limited here, but wanted to seek the advice of the group. What do you think???
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127179617 ... otostream/

Looks great to me. The piston can be rubbed withan abrasive cloth to remove thesurface corrosion. I personally took my calipers and degreased them heavily, ran them through the dish washer, then i cleaned the corrosion out of the internal chamber with a dremel and brass brush (very gently).

Turned out great.

Send them here - http://www.pmbperformance.com and never have to worry about them again.

I had my 85.5 brakes restored there for about $300, and they looked so nice it's a shame that they are mostly hidden behind the wheels. They don't just refurbish them - they completely restore them with beautiful plating. They did the holders as well, with new sliding pins. They had never done this exact Girling caliper before which apparently has a unique size seal (they had some that would have probably worked, but they weren't happy with them, so it took some time for them to locate the exact correct seals, but they can do them now no problem. Eric Shea is the proprietor and is a great guy to work with.

Additionally, those are the original brake pads, which have asbestos, so be careful with them.

>They had never done this exact Girling caliper before which apparently has a unique size seal

Fiat parts vendors sell rebuild kits for them.

vandor wrote:>They had never done this exact Girling caliper before which apparently has a unique size seal

Fiat parts vendors sell rebuild kits for them.

True, I didn't mean to imply they (you) didn't. But for a shop that was used to doing Porsche, Ferrari, etc they figured it would be a standard size, which apparently it isn't. But they ended up getting a seal kit "from a Fiat parts place in Texas" and made a note for future reference.