Brake job

...Oh maaaaan. So like I finally did the front brakes on the car. I had this whole plan in my head that I was going to set up the tripod and document everything in a photo essay. I had read the manual several times to make sure I knew exactly what had to be done. First I had to get the parts. What an adventure that was. The first store had only the pads. For rotors I had to go to the warehouse location across the river. Of course when I got there it was only to find they did not have them after all. Turns out the first store might have sold me the wrong ones because the second store in looking for them discovered the ones they did have plenty of the stock number had the last two numbers reversed. Well I needed some other supplies so I got them there and then went to store number three. At store number three not only did they have the rotors they also had the pads. Why oh why did I not simply go there first??? By that time the girls where super hungry so we went ate and then home to crash. Next day no time to lose I get out the jack and jackstands. Put the car on the stands and took off the first wheel. Looked ok there oh wait gotta take out some brake fluid from resovier. Nope can't do that the MAF sensor and resonance chamber in the way. No problem right? wrong i got the air box cover off but still had to bend and tuck intake hose and resonance chamber under engine cover. Ok so now i gotta remove the guide pins. WTF they are 7mm allen wrenches. In all my many toolboxes I have 6 and 8 but no 7mm. Best i could do was 1/4 inch which did the job but not perfectly. Got the calipers off and pryed off the outward pad. Oh ya gotta compress the caliper to make room for new pads. That c clamp I bought came in handy. Ok so now i set the new pads in the caliper but wait the inner one seems loose. Lucky for me a friend of my wife came by. Her husband is a mechanic and pointed out that on closer inspection i had two outside pads (thanks much Wayne). I probably would have figured that out but thanks to him I was saved the time. The rotor came off relatively easily. Everything went back together easily so on to the other side. Uh oh the top guide pin would not come off. I could get the caliper off if the rotor was off. The rotor wouldn't budge. I had to take a mallet to it to beat it off. With the rotor off I was able to wrestle the pads out of the caliper and then slide off the caliper from the guide pin. I put the new pads in the caliper and the new rotor on the hub. Then i called my friend who was already on the way to stop in at an unidentifed auto parts store to pick up a 7mm allen wrench. Wouldn't you know it but sure enough the allen wrench sets they sell do not include a 7mm. Plan B time for vice grips. They did the trick. I removed that stubborn guide pin put the caliper back in place greased the pin up and put it back on. I got them as tight as I could with only the 1/4 inch wrench. I don't own a torque wrench so tight as i could will have to do.
Turns out this was also true for the wheel bolts. When I finally got everthing back together i went for a spin around the block everything seemed ok so when i got back i cleaned up and Renee and I went to Langley. On the way back we noticed there was a bit of vibration on the passenger side. Shure enough I was able to tighten the wheel bolts even more. Went for a drive 5 blocks away and it seemed that the vibration was gone. Cool all done. Well until next project or picture bye for now...