Bit of a premature update. I've almost lost mojo with this and almost considered just buying a cheap driver shell and breaking this, but I'm soldiering on. As soon as I got the car in the air I discovered this...
Yes thats a very rotten subframe, right next to a wishbone mount. Very safe. NOT.
So I carried on and started on the rear brakes. 1st one was the drivers side rear, which I was already aware of it having a stuck handbrake that didn't work. 1st disaster was me trying to wind the bearing into the disc with the hub nut. Bad idea. I stripped a few threads off the nut. Poo. Luckily I managed to bash the bearing in with a hammer and socket, and there was enough thread left on the nut to tighten it to my satisfaction, plus theres the split pin for good measure, so I'm just about happy with that. So onto the other side. I lost my 8mm allen key socket, so removed the other side carrier with a torx bit which was ok, but the passenger side didn't appreciate this. And rounded them off. Double poo. So I moved onto the fronts which went smoothly, apart from ebay sent me the fat pads for solid disc equipped cars, so the pads don't fit. I stuck the new discs on with the just about usable old pads until I get hold of the correct ones next week.
Anyways back to the stuck off handbrake on one rear caliper. I managed to sort of free it off, but it now works but sticks on and won't return. I've moved the return spring round a bit to no avail. Poo again. So a new caliper will be required. As I've left it I now have new discs on front with old pads, and one new rear disc and pads. Not ideal, but its drivable again until I can sort it all out ready for the MOT.
Have some useless pics of my rear brakes.
Thats the old passenger side rear, with the dead carrier bolts.
And thats the new rear set up with the none working handbrake.
Now I'm off to sulk/kick the crap out of my car.