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On Aurelias, early cars can have just the drums removed (usually with just a little help from a hammer) whilst leaving the hubs in place whereas later cars where the drum is very securely attached to the hub itself require that the hub and drum are  removed in one piece.
To do this one uses a puller which  screws into the thread on the hub where the large castellated nut has been removed so there is no concern about putting any pressure on the brake drums themselves.
If one is changing brake shoes or wheel cylinders the hub itself really needs to come off anyway to gain proper access.
Photo to follow.
Chris

Hi Neill,

When will you be issuing the club passes as I’m not sure if I registered my attendance.

Bob

Here are the fixings:
- slot for bow ends
- hooks for the front fixing strip from side to side

You can see the indentation from the bow in the sound-deadening material, which is thin - hence my though about thicker replacement material possibly contributing to your inflation/collapse problem (more likely caused by low pressure?).

I suspect your bows are fine, but you could make new ones by cutting spring steel if not. I can provide a thickness measurement if you take that path.

Yes, the nut is off. Getting a puller that fits is the problem. We cwill get there.

That's very helpful thank you very much William. I didn't realise that they are flat sections. What do they fix into at each end? Presumably it's a channel, but does it have cutaways or ports to accept the bows? Do you think that a round section replacement would be able to 'lock into' the side channels?
I'm a bit worried that if I use carbon or fibreglass it may pull the sides into a funny shape.
AS you say, I was hoping that removing the side trims and the window surrounds would enable me to access them without taking out the screens.

I hope these are helpful. All the bows (the originals I'm sure, as is the headlining) seem to have the same angle of bend on the end but be pretty straight apart from the ends - when at rest at least.

The headlining is out of my S3, I'll photograph the bows and post a picture here.

Will and I disagree about the screens! You will have to remove the internal trim around the screens certainly, but, in my opinion, not the screens themselves. And the full length side trims that pass under the interior lights of course... which means side panels must come out too. Quite a lot.

It grabs all for studs with the wheel nuts and presses on the center of the stub axle.

Will be ordering the SPAX dampers on Monday so if anyone else is interested get in touch as we are only ordering a batch of 5 pairs. I had an opportunity today to see up close the original dampers and they are heavy duty bits of kit so we will see what SPAX come up with.
Clarkey

It would be nice to see your puller set up on a drum as mine is not ideal but has done the job without damaging the rim of the drum.