Neils Frankenstein Ute

[Errol62]

Headers look great Neil.


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[FireKraka]

Hi Billy;
You know there are more things important that work mate

$330 all up mate which I thought was really reasonable; I had mine painted with VHT white paint that had blistered when I first ran my engine, the only thing they asked me to do was clean the carbon out of the inside, they suggested cans of oven cleaner and fill up the inside of the pipes and then wash out.
Not sure of the process they use when I asked him he said it was a secret

Neil

[BILLY BLACKARROW]

Neil
Retirement is great didn't get out of bed till 9am today.

[FireKraka]

At the moment I feel like I'm taking 1 step forward and 2 back.
After not hearing back from Castlemaine Rod Shop, surprise surprise, I decided to bite the bullet.

I'm using VP brakes from the donor car (waste not want not ). After a little research I found out that the VP had 2 different size rotors, standard was 270mm and the Calais etc had 290mm so my assumption is that CRS have designed there drop spindles which the description in the ad just says 'for commodore brakes' for the 290mm rotor.
Purchased a set of DBA 290mm rotors, fitted them yesterday and this looks a lot better.

IMG_0619.JPG (580.34 KiB) Viewed 443 times

Neil

[EK283]

Hi Neil,

I know what that feels like but I normally do 3 steps back and one forward especially with aftermarket products.

Do me a favour and look into the top of the calliper peep hole and make sure your disc edge is level with the pad material, if not something is still not right.


Regards Greg

[FJWALLY]

looks better but still a lot of rotor braking area exposed - your pad should be 100% touching the rotor - I think your still a good cm or more too far away from the centre of hub

[59wagon]

Hi Neil, remember when you came with me to look at the VP drive train? The guy said he’d put V8 rotors on but didn’t realise the calipers needed changing, and you could see the part of the rotor that wasn’t being used - he later got me the larger calipers. Could that be the issue - you have V6 calipers but need V8 ones?

Cheers,

John


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[ehsv6]

Time to measure the radius of the caliper mounting bolts, cf your original kit. My bet as everyone wants bigger that the drop spindles have been drilled to suit VT onward. I also note from their website they have only drilled one set of holes whereas the pics show two for different calipers.

The price has come down significantly either they have over estimated the market or people are buying of Rod Hadfields Stubtech business.

Cheers Keith

[59wagon]

Hi Neil, remember when you came with me to look at the VP drive train? The guy said he’d put V8 rotors on but didn’t realise the calipers needed changing, and you could see the part of the rotor that wasn’t being used - he later got me the larger calipers. Could that be the issue - you have V6 calipers but need V8 ones?

Cheers,

John


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Just checked my stuff and got it ass about - it was a while ago . He’d put V8 (or series 2 VP) calipers on and kept the series 1 rotors (270mm). He later got the series 1 calipers for me.
You can see the difference below with early on top and later below



...and the unused part of the pad due to the smaller rotor



I measured from the centre of the piston to the centre of the mounting bolt hole and the V8 is about 7mm longer.

Neil, I don’t know if any of the above is relevant but, if you think it is, I’m more than happy to drop the calipers off at your joint to check the fit.

Cheers,

John


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[FireKraka]

Really appreciate all your comments guys this is why I love the forum, plenty of constructive comments and plenty to think about, I will have another look at it today when I'm in the shed.

John I will give you a buzz when I get a chance I had thought that I may have to change calipers but not sure what to probably VT as has been suggested but don't want to outlay any more cash until I've figured it out.

About the drop spindles, the photos in the ads do show calipers mount holes on both sides this was to allow front or back mount racks and I questioned this as well, on the paperwork that comes with them it states that they can be fitted to either side hence no need for both sets of holes.

My new problem now is because of the drop my steering arms are fouling, I'm not sure what arms I have on the front but they bend downwards and in, I know this subject has been discussed before so will do a search and check out what I need to change to my FC sedan has drop spindles and no fouling, I will check it out also.

After all of that I did have a win I got my headers back in and amazingly without damaging the coating, got everything back together and started the engine, got good oil pressure on my now working gauges and even my tachometer worked

Again really appreciate the comments guys.
Neil

[60Special]

Hi Neil, you should speak to Brodie as he is setting up steering geometry on my van at the moment. He will have advice on calipers and arms or parts.

[FireKraka]

Cool thanks Trevor will do. How is Broome going mate?
Neil

[60Special]

All good mate but missing my FB’s.

[ehsv6]

Hi Neil

Yes this forum is great
I think you have all the bits you need just swap spindles left to right etc and sit calipers on undrilled section and if mark up new position drill & tap accordingly. Even go back to your earlier disc. Location should be same as my earlier comment with the smaller disc. As mentioned by someone else just need to have top of pad sitting along outer edge of the disc. The unswept inner section wont be a problem.

Re your steering arms is the weight on the suspension when checking that. I also had to use the upper mounting position for the steering arms otherwise I suffered bump steer. I'm running V6 conversions rear rack and HR steering arms.

Wagon59 the top calipers (no fins) shown in your pic are rear calipers.

Cheers Keith

[59wagon]

Wagon59 the top calipers (no fins) shown in your pic are rear calipers.

Hi Keith, you got me intrigued so, not knowing much about brakes, I went and checked the front and rear calipers on the VP sedan I’ve got rotting away in the back yard. The ones I showed above (no fins) are the same as the fronts on the sedan and the rears are quite a bit smaller and different shape - the distance between the pivots is about an inch shorter on the rears and the hose goes in at a different spot.



Something else I learnt today was that when they changed to the larger rotor, the pads remained the same - the extra braking power comes from the extra leverage with the pads being further away from the rim centre.


I hope I’m not hijacking your thread Neil

Cheers,

John



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