Neils Frankenstein Ute

[Blacky]

good work - ready for sunday , you should run it down the quarter just for fun - be interesting to see what times it will do ??

[Errol62]

Thanks for the update mate. I’ve had similar issues with the pedal in the past and went away from the HX hz style for comfort reasons.

I’m with you on the Venetian and it looks good. Is that the Adelaide mob O’Brien auto shades?


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[FireKraka]

Hi Clay yes it was O'Brien's in SA

[Errol62]

Good stuff Neil

FB ute driver, EK van project

[EK283]

A mechanic mate of mine would always check wide open throttle on anything he worked on, especially autos.

He showed me once how a holley carby with mechanical secondaries could still not be fully open. He used to bend to shorten the rods between the butterflies to get true wide open throttle.

All these little tricks most of us miss !! Blinds look cool.

How's the mechanical knee Neil ??

Greg

[FireKraka]

Hey Greg every time I find these little stupid mistakes of mine I just keep thinking "Rookie" I'm in the marine engine game so you would think I would get the mechanical things right.
The knee is going great it has been 5 weeks today, I stopped using the crutches after 2 weeks and it feels like I'm getting more flexibility in it every day, got to see the surgeon again next month for a check up and now I want to know when he is going to be able to do the right one
Neil

[WesternWagon]

Nice work mate
Blinds look cool


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FireKraka]

Some may remember when I was reassembling Frank that I decided to fit a set of drop spindles that I bought from CRS, I had already put it together with HR drum brake spindles that I had modified, adapter plates VP V6 Rotors and calipers and it all looked fine, then as I said I decided to drop the front down a bit hence drop spindles.
I had put CRS drop spindles on my FC Sedan but I think I had bought them when Hadfield still owned the business, never had a problem with them then.
The ones I got this time only had one caliper mounting position (Hadfield's had front or back) CRS ad said for VP brakes so this is what I bought.

IMG_0075.jpg (670.73 KiB) Viewed 813 times

When I went to fit up the standard VP rotors and calipers it looked like this.

IMG_0077.jpg (673.25 KiB) Viewed 813 times

The brake pad was hardly on the rotor, so I did some research and found that the Calais and some other models had a 290mm rotor so I purchased a set and it looked liker it had improved it some.

IMG_0091.jpg (547.73 KiB) Viewed 813 times

After running Frank around for a while now the brake pad is still really only about half way on the rotor and the brakes haven't really felt that great so I've decided to do an upgrade to VT 2 piston calipers and rotors, I thought I would share what I've found out so far.
I purchased a good second hand set of calipers and rotors, with brake lines for $300 from gumtree.
Also found because of the difference in the rotors that I needed Hub adapters, CRS were the cheapest at $295
Sat in my workshop on Sunday and thought I would try to mock up on the drop spindle with the VP rotor (Hubs were still in transit) the VT caliper bolted straight up to the drop spindle and covered the rotor very well so I started cursing why I had to spend on the Hubs.
Back in the office Monday morning and I jumped on to google for a bit of research, here's what I found and it all makes sense now.
VP Rotor - (the second ones I bought) 290mm, thickness brand new 22mm
VT Rotor - 295mm, thickness brand new 28mm
So you have to use the VT rotor and you have to use the Hub adapters because the VT rotor does not carry the bearings and wheel studs in it like the earlier rotors. The VT rotors and calipers will give me a lot more braking surface and hopefully better braking performance.

IMG_1140.jpg (4.07 MiB) Viewed 813 times

So this is what I have to fit, will do it Saturday and take some photos as I go if anybody interested.
Hope the long post isn't too boring.
Neil

[Errol62]

Just can’t believe an engineer passed your current setup really Neil, after all the hoo ha I’ve heard about. Any way good you are on the right track now. I thought Rod had retained the drop spindle business.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Harv]

Good information.

One of the tough parts of buying a "kit" (brakes, stub axles etc) is that the info is often limited. As you found out, it often becomes trial-and-error until you find out the subtleties. Many thanks for sharing here to help the next bloke.

Cheers,
Harv

[EK283]

That's awesome Neil,

So now you have bigger discs you will see improvement in stopping, the bigger the disc the more mechanical leverage you have from the centre line hence more powerful and effective brakes.

Like Harv said its great you are sharing this info.

Greg

[FireKraka]

Cheers guys I will take photos as I'm doing the upgrade and post them up next week.

Clay Hadfield did keep the drop spindle business but the guys that took over are also producing and they are cheaper that what I remember paying Rod the first time, I remember reading something a while ago that there had been bad blood between CRS and Rod re the spindles CRS had been putting it about that Rods spindles were inferior in hind site I think his are/were probably better.

As for my brakes they were a lot better when I first put them on and have deteriorated with the 4K kms that I have put on Frank, that extra bit of pressure I've had to apply has glazed the rotors and I can see some blue spots so I'm pretty sure the upgrade is going to improve them a lot.

Stay tuned

[Harv]

Bluing a rotor is not good news... that's up over 300C.

Cheers,
Harv

[Blacky]

be interesting to see the wear pattern on them when you remove them mate

[Harv]

be interesting to see the wear pattern on them when you remove them mate

At least the rotors won't have a lip.

Cheers,
Harv