This car is nothing if not hand-made. Most everything we've done to this thing since we decided to yank the 2.3L 4 cylinder and stuff the 351W V-8 inside has been hand-fabricated; Exhaust collectors, the turbo mount, the radiator mount structure (Ikea bed frame support beam and garage door opener rail I kid you not), engine mounts, etc. So why should the rear disc brake conversion be any different?
The one major difference here is the need for precision. Unlike the hand measuring and fit checking of the turbo-to-exhaust clamp fabrication, I actually had to use CAD (Pro/ENGINEER WF 3.0). Once I modeled the bearing hub, caliper bracket and Contour SVT discs, I could connect it all together with a 0.25 virtual steel plate:
But then I still had to resort to hand fabrication techniques for a matching set of these things. 1/4" thick steel is tough stuff to work on with hand tools and a drill press:
But the finished product looks quite good:
And fortunately works like a champ. Lovely day for a Guinness!
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