a bit of this and a bit of that.

[mygasser]

the calipers arrived today, we just need the pads so we can offer them in position over the discs to make the mounting brackets.
in the interim we collected the mk3 zephyr and chrysler 300 estate. the zephyr needs some welding (as usual), the engine bay painting and building up to a 'driver' ready to go for paint. it's getting a ford essex v6 and auto box, if the engine runs ok that is. if not a rover will be going in instead. the 300 is a diesel and doesn't always turn over, when it does it's very slow and there was talk of sparks at the back of the engine so.....
pics tomorrow.
neil.

[mygasser]

today the brake pads finally arrived so we could get on with the caliper brackets. first we had to make 4 x 2mm shims the same shape as the pads, this is because the bmw discs are 4mm thinner than the subaru ones. yes the pistons would've pumped out to take up the gap but...... would they be too far out when the pads were worn out? better not to take any chances with brakes, so there are now shims behind the pads. the assembly slips over the disc nicely now. that's allwe got done today as we had to reattach the hinges on one of my upvc french doors after the wind caught it this morning, doh! the middle and bottom hinge screws tightened up nicely but the top was detached from the door needing a more drastic fix. we removed and drilled the adjuster plate from the hinge and reassembled it with big fat self tapping screws. we reset the adjusters as it was catching on the other door as it closed and it's all hunky doory now (doory, door, see what i did there).
neil.

[mygasser]

2 steps forward and one step back, lol. with the built up caliper slipped over the disc we offered a wheel onto the hub. due to the shape of the smoothie wheels the casting of the caliper touched the wheel near the middle. if you wiggled the wheel it pushed the caliper out roughly 5-6mm and then cleared fine. unfortunately the pads were then overlapping the edge of the disc by the same 5-6mm. back to the pc and we found different bmw discs, all the same specs except they're 300mm instead of 286mm diameter. so they're now ordered and on the way in 2-3 days. bit of a delay but it needs to be right and the bigger diameter will improve the braking slightly so a good thing really.
neil.

[mygasser]

the new 300mm discs arrived today and they are just what the doctor ordered. with the pads at the edge of the disc the caliper has plenty of room inside the wheel now. next we moved to cad work and before long we had a template to transfer to 10mm steel plate. they're now cut and drilled to bolt to 3 of the 4 holes that used to attach the drum backplates. we just have to drill the caliper mounting holes in both brackets but that'll wait 'til tomorrow as the metric fine thread cap head bolts won't be here 'til then so no rush. once both sides are mocked up we can strip it apart and paint the brackets, hubs and brake pad shims. nearly there.
neil.

[mygasser]

the cap head 12.9 bolts arrived this morning. we drilled the new brackets to suit and mocked it all up for the last time. we had to add a 5mm wheel spacer behind the disc to align the caliper with the bracket but that was the only thing required to marry it all together. last job today was to break it all down and paint the caliper brackets, pad shims and the hubs as they'd been machined for disc fitment. we'll reassemble it all tomorrow ready to go back to jason. :thumbright:
neil.

[jsf55]

Job jobbed

[mygasser]

well final assembly was almost without incident, the wheels had a couple of 'high' spots on the welds that hold the centre to the rim. a little buzz with a flap wheel and a sniff of rattle can black soon sorted that though. that showed how tight it was to fit 300mm discs and 4 pot calipers all inside a 15" wheel. it'll stop now though, lol.
neil.

[mygasser]

today we started on the mk3 zephyr's rusty patchwork inner wings. it's had shorter capri front suspension and steering fitted and a pair of spacers had been fabbed to take up the difference. we decided that as the strut top panels were like a bad patchwork quilt it'd be better to cut it all off and remake the top half to suit the shorter struts. so we bolted the spacer and eccentric top mount up under the inner wing and welded bracing in place bolted under the top mount. then we cut the top of the inner wing away and removed the spacer leaving the top mount where it needs to be. we can now trim away the rest of the inner wing that won't be needed and start to make it again at the lower height. first will be a new 'cradle' followed by the inner wing itself. it won't look odd as the strut top is quite high with the panel in front of and behind sloping up to it. now it'll be more 'level'.
neil.

[jsf55]

Plenty going on there

[mygasser]

Plenty going on there

sure is and we're not done cutting yet
neil.

[mygasser]

looks like we're trimmed back to good steel now.... finally. the hole in the bulkhead near the scuttle is standard rot for these mk3's, i've welded several over the years. with a wing sat in place you can see how much lower the inner wing will be, the strut top is usually higher than the wing and tucks up under the bonnet. clean up and make some cad templates next.
neil.