Amazon: Brake System Upgrade

[redcar]

love this thread. the 2 dereks are seriously knowledgeable.. wish i had a garage, so i could have a play around like this... keep it up!

[dheming]

Originally Posted by Derek UK

There are many suppliers of custom Mustang II type front ends which can give you virtually any combination of track, brakes, springs and steering.

This is a pretty common mod for American muscle cars and classic trucks, both of which are rather wide by Amazon standards. I wasn't sure if the Mustang II setup could be modified to work properly for such a narrow car. I'll have to do more reading.

Originally Posted by Derek UK

Add an OD to the list if you're ever going to drive it outside of the city limits!

Phase 2 will involve replacing the drivetrain. Not sure what specific engine yet but at the very least it will be a modern DOHC. An I6 from the 960 would be great but I'm pretty sure I'd have to mod the firewall, which means redesigning the heater/fresh air system, which would mean moving the battery somewhere else. Transmission will definitely be a 5spd of some kind. A T5 would be ideal but I'd have to mod the trans tunnel to make it fit. The Ford T9 would fit without cutting but I'd have to import one to the states, adding to the cost. There's a few narrow Toyota transmissions I'm looking into also.

Edit: I forgot to say that phase 3 will be cosmetics: interior, body work, glass, seals, and paint. I'm thinking about British racing green.

[Derek UK]

52" track kit from here. Probably need to shorten the steering rack to suit.
http://www.welderseries.com/blog/tag/mustang-ii/

Ford T9 box from here. Complete with 175bhp turbo 4cyl if you like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur_XR4Ti
T9's being used for MGB conversions so you can keep an eye open on those sites.

Unless you're having a good A/C I think you'll cook in the Ca sun with BRG. Even more so if you go for the matching black interior.

Good luck, keep it going.

Derek

[dheming]

Man it's been a while since I've posted here. Life and school have their way of interfering with auto projects. I recently moved into a private shop with a good friend so I'm finally out of the damp dungeon that is known as American Steel Studios. As such I'm finally beginning the next phase on my beloved estate. I used my AAA to flat bed transport her to my new place. To get her rolling again I had to reinstall the stock rear suspension. Today I got her back up on jack stands and removed all that stuff. Ahh, it definitely feels good to working on this project again.

I have a question for all you who have done the 1800 axle swap into the Amazon. Do you just swap the axle flanges between the two axles? Spline count and diameter are the same, but I just want to make sure:

[940_Turbo]

It depends on the age of the car and which gearbox you're using. If you use the box out of the 1800E (big flange) I find it easier to use the big flange prop. Especially if it's a late car with a rubber centre bearing prop.

If it's an early D type overdrive (small flange) it's easier to swap the flange on the axle to a small one.

You'll find you need to extend the lever coming off the handbrake slightly to get the handbrake to work properly.

[Oilline]

I needed a new prop to suit the Ford Type 9 gearbox any way so i got it made up with a flange to suit the P1800 diff.

[dheming]

Thanks for the info guys.

Made some more progress yesterday. In order to take accurate measurements for the design of the upper coilover mount I cleaned up all the mating surfaces on both frame rails:







Also got a template made up:





Precision cut a PVC pipe to find the exact width between frame rails:

[dheming]

Got the upper shock mount studs removed today. I used a hacksaw handle to cut them really close to the frame rails. Then I used an angle grinder to carefully smooth them flush to the rails. This all took a while but turned out good:

[dheming]

Yesterday I built a simple roll around frame from scrap wood to hold up the axle. It took a while to make but I should have done this many moons ago. Now I don't have to drag the axle around on the floor and balance it carefully on the floor jack to get it up into the rear of the wagon. I designed it so that the floor jack can access from the back in order to raise the axle if need be:

[dheming]

Made some rough drawings to show what I'm planning for the upper coilover mount so far. I'll start with the frame rail bracket first. The 1/16" plates that are spot welded to the frame rail are not very flat at all. So to give a stable/flat surface I'm thinking about going with 5/16" plate, which might be way overkill. I may just use 1/4", got to look into it a bit more. The vertical tabs will be made from 1/4" plate. The bolt securing the cross member is 1/2" and the three bolts that will attach this bracket to the frame rails will be 3/8". The nut for the 1/2" bolt will be welded to it's vertical tab. I'm going to weld reinforcing tubes in both the frame rails and the cross member to facilitate proper clamping action. The cross member itself will be made out of two parallel 1.5" x 1.5" x 0.25" square tubes spaced 1" apart to match the spacer in the coilover bushings.





Here is the side view. The upper coilover bolt is 1" off center to give some clearance away from the frame rails.





Here is the detail of the cross member. The tubes will be 1/2" ID x 3/16" wall. Alignment is crucial so I'm going to borrow someones milling machine to do these properly.