MatosTaco's Build Thread

Thanks going to put one together real soon I get so into my mods sometimes I forget to take pictures lol

 

Wow I think I need a 3D printer now, it makes these projects so nice!
What are you going to do for the emergency/ parking brake ?

 

I plan to tee a hydraulic e-brake into the rear lines, still need to figure out the fittings for all of that though.

 

Good idea that will be a really clean set up!

 

I made the needed adjustments to the design and went ahead and printed one at full thickness. This allowed me to fully mount the caliper and verify the fitment of the caliper is proper. I am now happy with the bracket design and can begin the work of transferring it onto steel sheet. Of course, the hardware in the pictures is not what I will be using in the end, those are the bolts that held the calipers in the Zl1.
20210331_145523 by Jose, on Flickr

20210331_145506 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Currently printing templates of the bracket to trace onto steel plate. I may end up getting these laser cut once I am happy with everything.

 

While I am cleaning up the battery area, I figured I may as well replace the broken positive contact cover. This had bothered me for years whenever I would work on or around the battery area. Unfortunately, I would forget about it once the hood was closed. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. Well, no more. I couldn't let that blemish take away from my new battery bracket. I found a the cover for sale on Ebay, being sold by a Toyota dealership of all places. $12 well spent.

Here is the new part and part number in case anyone needs it
20210402_143119 by Jose, on Flickr

Out with the old
20210402_145613 by Jose, on Flickr

In with the new!
20210402_150326 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Got the templates made and traced the design onto 0.25" steel plate. I drilled the holes out on the drill press yesterday.
20210402_160404 by Jose, on Flickr

You can see they line up perfectly to the holes on one of the prototype brackets I made
20210402_160356 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Got the basic shape of the bracket components cut out today using the angle grinder (which totally sucked to do). I will finish the shape tomorrow using a bandsaw and benchtop grinder. Unfortunately, both of these tools currently still reside at my parents' house (I need to make room in my garage for the bandsaw and I need to buy my own benchtop grinder).
20210403_201305 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Paid a visit to my parents today. While I was there, I took advantage and ground the brackets to final shape on their benchtop grinder.
20210407_153002 by Jose, on Flickr

Here is what the final assembly will look like in metal
20210407_155758 by Jose, on Flickr

Here are the parts progressing slowly (I would take breaks and switch which piece I was working on; they would get really hot and I forgot my gloves)
20210407_155812 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here are the final ground parts next to the templates
20210407_175331 by Jose, on Flickr

As you can see, they are pretty much spot on
20210407_184403 by Jose, on Flickr

I can't wait to get this all installed
20210407_184429 by Jose, on Flickr

 

I guess I'm a proper surgeon with a grinder. Can't wait to get some CNC machines so I don't need to perform so many manual surgeries though lol!

 

Just put in an order for all of the hardware I will need for my brake brackets and calipers. That, and some slightly thinner metal that I need in order to properly space the bracket. Once that comes in, I can weld the brackets together and install them on the axle.

 

I got some slightly thinner metal sheet that I ordered for the brake brackets. Managed to make the final spacer pieces needed. Tomorrow, I plan to assemble the brackets tightly just using bolts and doing a test fit of the caliper. If I am happy with it, then I will weld the bracket together.

20210412_233319 by Jose, on Flickr

 

I was finally able to test fit the calipers using the metal bracket. For whatever reason, despite all my other hardware arriving from McMaster, the 3/8-24 nuts I need to hold the brackets to the axle won't come until early May. Of course, Lowes and Home Depot don't carry the fine thread stuff so I was stuck for a bit. Luckily, my local Autozone had them. There was literally one pack left and it only had 4 of the 5 nuts it was supposed to bring. Clearly some dude couldn't be decent enough to fork over the $3 for the whole pack he needed and he just stole one smh. Oh well, I only needed three for my test fit and the missing one got me a 10% discount lol. I wish I had thought to forget what Ford used on their stock bracket and simply used the closest metric bolt to the hole size, an M10.

Anywho, it is nice to finally see the caliper mounted with the metal bracket
20210415_152819 by Jose, on Flickr

20210415_152821 by Jose, on Flickr

 

It initially looked like the caliper wasn't properly centered above the rotor, but a quick adjustment got it set right. If anything, I can also add a thin washer between the caliper and mounting bracket to shim it out slightly. We will see where everything ends up once the bracket is welded together.
20210415_152833 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Once the brackets are done, I can clean and paint everything, including the calipers.

 

looking real good!!!! I will be joining the diff club soon just a few more things to get

 

I think you forgot to type under there lol

 

Lamo oooooops lol