Godless Commie
09-09-2010, 05:34 PM
My brakes were pretty worn.
Cool.. Time for a new project.
I got a hold of the famous Corrado G60 rotors for the front, and the much larger sport rotors for the rears.
This setup uses the stock calipers and same exact pads as the standard brake setup.
The only thing is you need caliper bracket extenders / adapters for all four wheels, and a pair of centering rings to install the front rotors properly.
I looked up the adapter set, and promptly found out they were ridiculously expensive: almost 350 bucks with shipping!
That's when I said COOL! Time for a bigger project:)
OK, before I go to deep in this story, let me tell you this..
The car stops like it hit a three foot thick concrete wall with the bigger brakes.
Anyway, I shamelessly installed myself in a friend's machine shop for a few afternoons (the guy owns a production facility and tries to make a living manufacturing zinc coated bucket handles - by the million - when I am not pestering him with my projects).
I made templates from a mdf board to get the adapter shapes as the first step.
Then, I had some steel stock plasma cut. I selected 15mm, and 10mm production plate steel for the fronts and rears, respectively. They charge by the pound, including the leftover scrap, and the price is a whopping 60 cents per pound. All four pieces came to about $20, including the computer guided plasma cutting (They weigh the cut pieces along with the leftover scrap).
Back at the shop, we laid the cut pieces on the surface grinder, and once they were perfectly leveled, started removing material to get the offset just right.
The rears require no offset, so they were a bit tricky. We drilled 18mm holes and pressed in mushroom bosses to get the depth right.
I went to a machine shop for the mushroom bosses as well as the centering rings. The whole thing took about 20 minutes and that much in dollars..
There was of course some trial and error, but it was a satisfying project.
I could have some machine shop bang them for me, but the whole thing was actually enjoyable.
We zinc coated the adapters and painted them flat black to prevent rust.
I used EBC greenstuff pads all around.
Despite EBC's warnings for a bedding in period for a few hundred miles, I was dying to test the new brakes, and just laid on them after only 50 or 60 miles. The result is... wow.
One drawback about not bedding the pads in properly is pad squeal.. That's what I got for being impatient.
I will remove and rough-sand the rotors tomorrow to re-start the bedding in.
Pics to follow.
Cool.. Time for a new project.
I got a hold of the famous Corrado G60 rotors for the front, and the much larger sport rotors for the rears.
This setup uses the stock calipers and same exact pads as the standard brake setup.
The only thing is you need caliper bracket extenders / adapters for all four wheels, and a pair of centering rings to install the front rotors properly.
I looked up the adapter set, and promptly found out they were ridiculously expensive: almost 350 bucks with shipping!
That's when I said COOL! Time for a bigger project:)
OK, before I go to deep in this story, let me tell you this..
The car stops like it hit a three foot thick concrete wall with the bigger brakes.
Anyway, I shamelessly installed myself in a friend's machine shop for a few afternoons (the guy owns a production facility and tries to make a living manufacturing zinc coated bucket handles - by the million - when I am not pestering him with my projects).
I made templates from a mdf board to get the adapter shapes as the first step.
Then, I had some steel stock plasma cut. I selected 15mm, and 10mm production plate steel for the fronts and rears, respectively. They charge by the pound, including the leftover scrap, and the price is a whopping 60 cents per pound. All four pieces came to about $20, including the computer guided plasma cutting (They weigh the cut pieces along with the leftover scrap).
Back at the shop, we laid the cut pieces on the surface grinder, and once they were perfectly leveled, started removing material to get the offset just right.
The rears require no offset, so they were a bit tricky. We drilled 18mm holes and pressed in mushroom bosses to get the depth right.
I went to a machine shop for the mushroom bosses as well as the centering rings. The whole thing took about 20 minutes and that much in dollars..
There was of course some trial and error, but it was a satisfying project.
I could have some machine shop bang them for me, but the whole thing was actually enjoyable.
We zinc coated the adapters and painted them flat black to prevent rust.
I used EBC greenstuff pads all around.
Despite EBC's warnings for a bedding in period for a few hundred miles, I was dying to test the new brakes, and just laid on them after only 50 or 60 miles. The result is... wow.
One drawback about not bedding the pads in properly is pad squeal.. That's what I got for being impatient.
I will remove and rough-sand the rotors tomorrow to re-start the bedding in.
Pics to follow.