Slow and Steady Wins, Right?

Progress on the IROC has been hard lately. I’ve been trying to bleed the rear brakes and remove the brake fluid that is highly questionable in age. I purchased a cheap vacuum bleeding system from Amazon, but it was of no help at all. I don’t really have a helper at the moment, so the solutions I have been looking at have been restricted to solo options. Then I discovered gravity bleeding.

That fluid should be almost clear

I had the bleeder valve open for almost four hours today. I’m going to open it again tomorrow for the entire day. Hopefully it will be clear then.

I’ve decided to put off replacing the brake lines now, and will put that project off until next fall. I will then paint the calipers and wheel well areas.

Sadly, I’m still working on the rear and have the entire front to do!

On another note however, I finally got my spare tire situation figured out. The 3rd Generation Camaro / Firebird has a very interesting option for the spare tire called a Stowaway Spare, and mine has it.

I had the tire, but it wasn’t installed – and the parts required to mount it were missing. eBay came to the rescue on that, where I got those parts and the tire inflator.

Spare Tire Mount Parts
GM Stowaway Spare Tire Inflator

Not too long before my father passed away, he was messing with the original one in the car. He was trying to figure out how to refill it. This is basically a CO2 canister used to fill the tire up, as it comes deflated but mounted to an aluminum wheel. I have asked my stepmom to look for it, it was in much worse shape than this one but it was original to the car, an important thing to me.

These canisters aren’t cheap to replace or find. This one cost me $100 – but with the shape it was in I couldn’t resist. I then went to work and got it all mounted. I had great difficulty mounting the canister to the wheel (how it is supposed to be). Mounting the spare in the compartment was a piece of cake though.

Snug as a Bug

Now I’m questioning where these two foam pieces go. They were in the spare tire compartment. I’ve done a lot of searching and haven’t been able to find any specs of information on the internet regarding those foam pieces.

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