Amazon: Brake System Upgrade

[Bartezz]

Any news?

[dheming]

I decided to modify the upper brackets so that they would be more streamlined and less overkill:







Installed:





I made a tool to help me better align the outer holes to be perpendicular with the bracket itself:







After re-centering the outer holes with a rat tail file I then used a step drill to enlarge them out to 1/2" to get ready for the spacer tubes that will be welded in soon:





Cut a piece of the DOM tube to do some test fits with. The bore was too tight for the 5/16" bolt so I had to lightly drill it out using the lathe:





Test fit from the inside. I still have to drill out those last two holes then it's on to the other frame rail:




Thanks for looking.

[dheming]

I've got a question for you guys. How hard is it to pull out the fuel tank from an Amazon estate?

[Andy the Aussie]

Originally Posted by dheming

I've got a question for you guys. How hard is it to pull out the fuel tank from an Amazon estate?

Easy.....

You undo all the screws around the perimeter from the top, unplug the sender and remove the rubber sleeve from the tank neck to the filler and pull her out..

[dheming]

Originally Posted by Andy the Aussie

Easy.....

You undo all the screws around the perimeter from the top, unplug the sender and remove the rubber sleeve from the tank neck to the filler and pull her out..

Excellent, thanks.

[classicswede]

One everything is undone you can jack the car up off the fuel tank if it has not been removed before. Sometimes you just have to pick out the sealant to get it to break free.

[dheming]

Thanks for the info guys, the fuel tank came out with minimal complications:




With that out I could finally start welding the spacer tubes into the frame rails. To get as much welding penetration as possible I beveled both the tubes and the holes in the frame rails:






On to the welding:






Inner frame rail. Some of the welded rings sit quite proud due to the various curves in the frame rail. I did the final flattening by hand using a file to ensure the bracket would sit flat across all four bolt holes:




Primed and painted:




So all the welding, sanding and painting is done on the four frame rail faces. Now I'm moving on to the upper coilover bar fabrication.

[dheming]

Next up are the four horizontal tabs that the coilover will bolt to on each side. These also determine the spacing of the two cross tubes which is why they get made first. I have no access to a mill so they get made by hand using a combination of drill press, angle grinder and hand files. Cutting this 4130 chrome-moly definitely has a different feel compared to regular mild steel:








Still have quite a bit of shaping work left to do on these four tabs. After they're done the next step will be to cut the two cross tubes to length and then tack them in place to the frame rail brackets. Once sufficiently tacked together I will unbolt it and carefully bench weld it all together while trying to minimizing distortion. I've been staring at drawings of this coilover bar for many moons now and I'm looking forward to finally seeing it put together in real life.

Thanks for looking.

[dheming]

I spent some time working on the tabs today:





Almost done with shaping and then I can give them a heavy bevel to get ready for welding.

[dheming]

Made a big step forward yesterday. I finally got the upper coil-over crossmember cut and tacked together in place between the frame rails. Holding the first tube in place while TIG welding laying on my back was a bit of a mofo, but after I got that first tack weld done the rest went together smoothly:





Here is one of my short coilovers hanging down from it to give some perspective:







Out of the car and ready to start the welding:









So far so good. I'm happy to be moving forward on this finally.