Starting work on the brakes

As we mentioned earlier, we discovered (the hard way) that our brakes are completely non-functional, so we decided that due to our current ventilation limitations, that the brakes were the logical next priority. The brake master cylinder was our first target, and on most cars removing this wouldn't have been too much of an issue. However, on our early-model Morris, this proved not to be the case. As opposed to having the master cylinder under the hood, like more modern models, ours is located under the floor-pan, beneath the driver's feet!
We removed the driver's side front tire, and had a good look at the condition of the brakes, and everything seems in fairly good nick, although most of the suspension is caked in a thick layer of greasy mud.
Getting the master cylinder out proved to be somewhat of a mission. In order to extract it, we needed to remove the entire driver's side torsion bar simply to access the two bolts holding the master cylinder in! This involved jacking up the front right hand side's suspension to full compression, disconnecting the parts of the suspension from the wheel. We then lowered the wheel back down to relieve the pressure on the torsion bar before unbolting and removing it (believe me, easier in theory than in practice!). All this gave us access to the two bolts holding the master cylinder in place. As if this wasn't difficult enough, the other half of the task involved removing the floor plate surrounding the gear stick (which was held in by about 20 rusty bolts), disconnecting the brake and clutch peddles and removing the entire assembly. Once this was done all it took was the removal of a couple of awkwardly situated bolts connecting the brake lines to the cylinder, and it finally came free!
It was in pretty grotty condition, and we sat down to dissect it and check out the condition of the interior. Externally it was a bit rusty, making removal of the ring pin difficult, but once we freed it, the internals popped out quite easily. We decided to replace all rubber components, just to be safe, and since GavGav was to be away on business that week, Joel tasked himself to give the body of the cylinder a good turpentine bath and scrub...