Following up, I freed my stuck slider. To my surprise, it doesn't look as bad as I thought. Some flaky crust at the boot end, for sure, but the majority of the length looks clean. And the free play after a light cleaning seems no bettor or worse than the other (upper) pin. Upper pin looking properly greased, and all.

I noticed the boots are OG Girling, and aside from the one I burnt with the torch, are pliable and intact. Issue must have been an oversight on the grease for the one stuck pin.


So I did it this way: Pulled caliper off, but left bracket on car this time.
Just to have something in progress while I stepped away to change into work clothes, I peeled back the boot and shot some PB in there. Was expecting to end up soaking the end of the bracket off the car.
Used another Vice Grip with different jaw style. Gave some rotational force (less than the other day), and found it moved a bit. More PB, and gentle back and forth until it rotated more. Shot PB a total of four times as I rotated the pin 360 deg.
Once it felt fairly free, I tapped the plier with a hammer (lightly), and the pin slid out. I flushed the hole out with more PB, and am heading out to blow it dry, and smear some Naval Jelly in there (and on pin).

Clean that out, reassemble with fresh Sil-Glide brake grease, and will be good to go for a few days until I get replacement boots.


Thanks to Dave and Bill for encouraging me to press on with the extraction. I'm glad to have veteran fellows to learn from.

-Wilson