The bastard child.

[westy 614]

So I threw the suspension at it to see whats what.

Some guard work to do

Trailing arm bracket. Some trimming needed.

And a crap up skirt of a really grubby rear

[Guest Simon*]

Some guard work to do

Some trimming needed.

LOL

Some understatement employed

[Andrew 30]

Wicked - looking really nice. Where will you cut the traliing arm?

[Guest Ari Gold]

You're a crazy bastard. Haha.

What does the wife think?

[QuickSilver 0]

How many grinding wheels have ya gone through ?

[Guest Ari Gold]

Probably don't want to spend the money but a 3 pedal or a two pedal setup like this would work very well...

http://cardwells.co.nz/Documents/3pedalad33.pdf

or

http://cardwells.co.nz/Documents/Pedalassemblies11.pdf

Heath, what do you know about running a pedal box with triple masters (clutch / twin master brake) with no vaccuum boost and large (4 piston smallest) calipers? What size masters front and rear would one be looking at to make un assisted braking even remotely comfortable for a fast road / track car?

Obviously with a dual setup you can get rid of having to use a proportioning valve and can use a balance bar to change bias as conditions change, but is there any worry about having the masters below the calipers? Especially in a floor mounted setup, I imagine there would be less concern with an under slung setup.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated

[CamB 48]

Its not hard to get a good unassisted pedal pressure with the right master cylinders as long as the brakes are uprated diameter as well (more leverage). I've driven an E36 M3 up and down the road with a dual overslung (through the bulkhead) master cylinders and Evo VI (I think) 6 pot Brembos and the pedal felt pretty good, and I'm sure it would feel great when used in panic, err, I mean anger.

[DRTDVL 0]

Heath, what do you know about running a pedal box with triple masters (clutch / twin master brake) with no vaccuum boost and large (4 piston smallest) calipers? What size masters front and rear would one be looking at to make un assisted braking even remotely comfortable for a fast road / track car?

Obviously with a dual setup you can get rid of having to use a proportioning valve and can use a balance bar to change bias as conditions change, but is there any worry about having the masters below the calipers? Especially in a floor mounted setup, I imagine there would be less concern with an under slung setup.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated

Wouldn't have a clue personally... thats a project later down the track...

I know it's a very common setup for the uk pug boys... many of them make their own... We use clutch cables so there isn't a need for a clutch master... From what i've read it's all about getting the master cylinder size correct...

There is a lot of companies that will on an exchange bais make a pedal kit for your car so it mounts into the factory locations... it gives you a lot more clearance as you loose the booster... I know one of the 206 guys found that the factory booster had a vaccum assist feature that if you hit the brakes hardish it would think your emergancy braking and would apply full brakes even when you didn't want them... It particularly became a problem after he removed the abs and it caused him to lock up a few times unexpectedly.

[Guest Ari Gold]

Its not hard to get a good unassisted pedal pressure with the right master cylinders as long as the brakes are uprated diameter as well (more leverage). I've driven an E36 M3 up and down the road with a dual overslung (through the bulkhead) master cylinders and Evo VI (I think) 6 pot Brembos and the pedal felt pretty good, and I'm sure it would feel great when used in panic, err, I mean anger.

So basically as long as you match the brake masters to the piston diameter in the calipers, (within reason) you should be good to go?

Does anyone know where I could find an online calculator or indeed a way to work out how to keep factory f/r bias (to start with) as I know the current and planned piston caliper sizes, just need to know how to keep it all close to spec.

Though in saying that, how much does a booster really boost? I know a factory setup compared to a completely custom brake setup will be like comparing oranges to apples, but I just need a rough guide!

Also, sorry Tony this is pretty OT, mods wanna clean this up into a little mini thread, that would be tops.

[Nobimmer 694]

In all seriousness Tony, I have a carton of 4 inch grinding discs if you need some. If you are over the shore sometime come grab em.

[westy 614]

Grinding wheels seem to disappear round here. The 1mm ones I've been using are great and seem to last a little better than the cheapo 3mms. Can always do with more ha.

I dont mind the pedal box convo, was curious myself but if you want it moved out I can.

As for the trailing arm I'm looking at trimming as much off the side as I can and covering the rest with body work. It looks like I can get it down to approx 20mm and if I'm clever it may hide ok behind the panel.

I did contemplate cutting the arm and moving the pickup inboard and I may still do but at this stage I'm trying to avoid that.

Edited September 7, 2009 by westy

[CamB 48]

I am pretty sure both Wilwood and Tilton have equations etc on their websites somewhere.

I suspect nothing beats experience though - find someone with the same calipers and see what they did.

[DRTDVL 0]

Ugh i'll see if i can remember the guys name... it's something like biltron or bitron engineer/automotive they are just by Hi Velocity on the shore, my mechanic's been taking my car there to sort out the brake problems we where having... He does a lot of rally car work so he would be a really good source of info...

EDIT:

Thanks to Google street view - the name is Berton Automotive... 4 Parity Pl, Auckland, New Zealand

Address is approximate

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&sour...,204.66,,0,4.35

Edited September 7, 2009 by DRTDVL

[westy 614]

So I took the rather drastic step of measuring the setout of the car with the new front and rear suspension!!

Layed some cutting paper under the car and dropped the important locations onto it with the most accurate bubblestick I could find.

After spending an age setting the front to straight and fiddling with the rear trailing arm mounts it turns out that, to my endless relief, the car is well within the 3mm tolerance that I set (plucked out of mid air).

And one more hammer for Simon.

[Greg111 13]

Coming along nicely!

[Guest Simon*]

Nice! So gash I love it

There's nothing quite as satisfying as dishing out a good bit of poundage. That's a pretty small hammer though Tony

[Guest Ari Gold]

[westy 614]

One divine hammer!

[*Glenn* 854]

Am I right in presuming the final colour is going to be "RED" Tony ? Maybe Imola Red ?

Was just making a prediction from looking at the front end picks

Well done on all the measurements

[westy 614]

Its a leading contender although the primer on the front is only to stop the surface rust untill I get into the paint prep proper.

[greenday-rulz21 4]

This is by far my favourite project atm. She's coming along great Tony.

Am I right in presuming the final colour is going to be "RED" Tony ? Maybe Imola Red ?

Imola Red = Hottest BMW red around.

[Guest Ari Gold]

The red is just primer / rust inhibitor I imagine?

[westy 614]

Some opinions please...

Not to bad, is it horribly obvious, can you even tell?

Bear in mind there'll be some shaping and a bigarse flares required.

I think I can work with it....

Ta.

[bravo 34]

Why don't you do an m3-style widebody?

It's really hard to see what it really looks like in the photographs. Some bg flares and maybe side-skirts would make it blend in to the background I think.

[Guest FrantiC]

yeah, i bet from the back with the small rear valance of the pre F/l models, the wheels stick out like dogs balls.

m3 widebody wouldn't be a bad idea though.