It's been about 6 months since reporting progress on BB-4RE's updating.
You might recall my goal was to re-wire the car with a new wire harness and refresh certain things that I thought it could use.
It now sports a 1986 wire harness with all the fix'ns.
I've been going over the car completely, fixing up just about everything that I thought it could use.
Last thing on the 'majors' list was the brakes.
This is how they looked up until about a week ago. The struts were a little too loose for my liking, and (in New Hampshire) they wouldn't pass State inspection so I ordered a set of springs from Matt Brannon and struts from Summit Racing. I had the rest of the parts I needed.
Here are the springs, I cut a little more than 3/4 turn from one end, then heated the cut end about 1/3 of a turn to shape a taper so it would sit into the perch better.
Here's a closeup of the taper:
And this is what they look like assembled. I DIDN'T need spring compressors to assemble, as there is (now) no pre-load on the spring.
They tighten up perfectly, just like the AIP lowering springs I bought a year ago. I expect they'll lower my front by about 3/4 inch.
Here's how they look (now) installed. Not too bad...
Strut close-up:
And the rears:
I'm still waiting for my Sumitomos but here's a photo of the rims I plan on installing on BB-4RE. These are period correct and I restored them a couple weeks ago. The CD91's look really nice on the car:
The interior is almost done, got to remove the (un-needed) Brown Wire Mod, install a radio and generally clean things up a bit.
The front trunk now sports a washer tank. (there was a power amp in it's place) Overall, she's almost there!
This car WILL be for sale in the fall. It's not a rust-free car but it'll be in really good shape. I plan on driving her as my daily driver for the next 3 months to enjoy my efforts.
You might recall my goal was to re-wire the car with a new wire harness and refresh certain things that I thought it could use.
It now sports a 1986 wire harness with all the fix'ns.
I've been going over the car completely, fixing up just about everything that I thought it could use.
Last thing on the 'majors' list was the brakes.
This is how they looked up until about a week ago. The struts were a little too loose for my liking, and (in New Hampshire) they wouldn't pass State inspection so I ordered a set of springs from Matt Brannon and struts from Summit Racing. I had the rest of the parts I needed.
Here are the springs, I cut a little more than 3/4 turn from one end, then heated the cut end about 1/3 of a turn to shape a taper so it would sit into the perch better.
Here's a closeup of the taper:
And this is what they look like assembled. I DIDN'T need spring compressors to assemble, as there is (now) no pre-load on the spring.
They tighten up perfectly, just like the AIP lowering springs I bought a year ago. I expect they'll lower my front by about 3/4 inch.
Here's how they look (now) installed. Not too bad...
Strut close-up:
And the rears:
I'm still waiting for my Sumitomos but here's a photo of the rims I plan on installing on BB-4RE. These are period correct and I restored them a couple weeks ago. The CD91's look really nice on the car:
The interior is almost done, got to remove the (un-needed) Brown Wire Mod, install a radio and generally clean things up a bit.
The front trunk now sports a washer tank. (there was a power amp in it's place) Overall, she's almost there!
This car WILL be for sale in the fall. It's not a rust-free car but it'll be in really good shape. I plan on driving her as my daily driver for the next 3 months to enjoy my efforts.
