Here is a home made tool for removal of the caliper seal and clean up of the grove it sits in. It's made out of a short small guage piece of copper pipe (3/16 or smaller softer metal) curved to fit in and pounded into a flat on the end.
I was told that exposing the rubber seal to solvent, gasoline, wd 40 or any thing other than brake fluid, disc brake assembly lube or soap and water will ruin it. Had plenty of all three ofthe latter, so no non-recommended products were used.
For brake pads, I first measured the selection of pre-owned for flatness with a guage and picked the best ones.
The other tip I was shown was to clean the glaze off the brake pads. This is done by rubbing them down on the concrete in a figure-8 pattern until they have a fresh surface. You can see the before and after in the remaining photos, the glased pads show a reflective surface. (top pad on photo 3.)
Photo 4 two pads before.
Photo 5 two pads after. Flecks of the metallic component of the pads becomes shiny and visible after the glaze is rubbed off.
