Dr Jekyll's Ph1 172 Progress Thread

[Jekyll]

I picked up the HiSpec brakes up friday direct from there unit. There were nice guys and it was nice to speak to the chap who i'd been dealing with. Excuse the poor quality iPhone pics.

@AlexW came down as he wanted to bleed @RyG brakes and use some of my fluid and i needed to sandblast a few things for @ventura car that Alex is doing a few last bits on so all was good. After a quick McDonald's and the bleeding of Ryan's brakes, we set to work on mine. First problem was that the nylocs that hold the caliper onto the mounting bracket was slightly catching on the hub so we improvised with a disc sander:

And then they fitted

However we came across another problem, well 2, naturally. Firstly the current braided hoses on the front were a little tight once extended due to the different shape on the HiSpec's and that the hole in which the hose feeds into is in the center of the rear of the caliper, whereas on standard calipers it's at the top. It also turns out that we are leaking fluid on the connection, due to the caliper being a little too far drilled for the current banjo. Sadly a copper washer wasn't enough to solve the issue. There was some light though. Luckily we had a cobra rolling chassis at my work and it turns out that the braided hoses that it uses on the rear brakes can be fitted with the correct ends and banjo bolts. The downside was it was too long. My work get the braided hoses made at Pirtek so i took the hose down there and have ordered the same as below, only shorter

Lastly i've resprayed the rear caliper carriers to match the new front calipers. Once the hoses have been made i shall pick them up and we will tackle it again!

 

[AlexW]

b*****d thing.

 

[Jekyll]

Drunken Goldfish :rasp:

 

[Stefan.]

Those calipers look the business!

Nice! Any different to the willwoods you had on the BG?

 

[Jekyll]

Those calipers look the business!

Nice! Any different to the willwoods you had on the BG?

Thanks Stef

The mounting brackets are different and the caliper seems slimmer, from looking at pics of my old BG's Wilwoods. The Wilwoods had the lug holes built into the caliper for the brackets, where as the HiSpec's bolt separately on as you can see. The HiSpec's do look better quality i think.

 

[dmallett]

So jealous. So very jealous lol

 

[Fantom]

They look fantastic

 

[Mr R.]

Mark ive been scratching my head and for the life of me I don't remember any Nyloc nuts, where are they??

Why did the need to be ground down?
Shouldn't the kit be made to fit or does your car have the wrong fixings and that's why there was a problem?

How comes the kit doesn't come with longer brake hoses, bit silly if you need to fit then use the car.

 

[Jekyll]

So jealous. So very jealous lol

They look fantastic

Thanks guys. Hopefully they'll be fitted Friday so you can see them Steve. Still meeting at Bishops Stortford services at 1pm?

Mark ive been scratching my head and for the life of me I don't remember any Nyloc nuts, where are they??

Why did the need to be ground down?
Shouldn't the kit be made to fit or does your car have the wrong fixings and that's why there was a problem?

How comes the kit doesn't come with longer brake hoses, bit silly if you need to fit then use the car.

The Nylocs are what hold the mounting bracket to the caliper itself. Once all bolted up the nyloc are a little proud for the mounting points on the hub, so we just shaved a bit off the hub so it all lined up correctly.

They do a full kit or seperate parts and seen as I already had discs and braided hoses I thought I wouldn't need them. I didn't think I'd have an issue with my current lines tbh. The current hoses have the thread built in on the ends, like a 1 piece hose and was a tad too short once fitted under full lock. The new ones have a seperate banjo bolt which feeds through the braided hose end, which I think is a better design.

Heres a pic of the underside of the caliper:

 

[Mr R.]

Cheers for clearing that up mate, I understand now.

 

[Kyle 86]

Hi specs look superb mark

 

[dmallett]

So you get these cheap and want to get me a set? :rasp:

 

[AlexW]

Mark really loves his brakes.

 

[Jekyll]

Haha! Btw im not actually kissing them, im removing a bit of pipe that was left on the nipple after bleeding them.

Honestly!

 

[Mr R.]

Is there any review on these yet mate?

I fancy the 6 pot kit they do with the alloy bells.

 

[AlexW]

Kissing.

They're pretty good Scott, Having to grind the hubs is annoying, as is f**king about with the brake pipes, but that TBH is more down to the design of the original Renault tat.
They fit well, look good and Mark is never going to find the limit of them, nor would I expect you too.

Quality is very good, which is the bit you want to hear.

 

[Jekyll]

Picked up my braided hoses from Pirtek this week. Not the best pics but you get the idea

I also bought these off @Gaz85 which arrived promptly:

All for the grand some of £15 posted! I wanted the mirror caps to replace mine as one of my current ones had a few deep scratches in them and i plan to smooth and respray the ph1 gear knob as mine is scratched also. The pedals i bought as a spur decision, which turns out i dont need but cant complain at getting the lot for that price!

Yesterday i started to have a play with the brakes and @AlexW popped down to give me a hand also. Swapped over my rear caliper carriers to the newly sprayed ones

I then raised the rear coilovers up 2 full turns and swapped over the mirror caps

Then we moved onto fitting the HiSpec fronts. Thankfully no dramas!

I also turned down the front coilovers 1 full turn before we bled them. I may do another full turn down yet.

And then it was complete so Alex left and i gave it a quick wash.

Will probably give it another bleeding after a few miles of driving and as said earlier i may drop down the front a tad more.

 

[AlexW]

I look how I felt.

We'll have to bleed it and sort the handbrake, then I'll see what I think of the stopping power.

 

[Jekyll]

Sounds good to me sugar

Tbh Scott ive yet to drive it really since they was fitted. I literally left work and was in saturday afternoon shopping traffic and drove it home and its not moved since! Quality looks very good, prettier than the Wilwoods. Basically Alex hit the nail in he's earlier post.

 

[AlexW]

Fit Hi-Spec Calipers he said, It'll be fun he said, We'll do it once, and never touch it again he said...

 

[Mr R.]

Not going well?

 

[yeecup]

What's wrong with the brakes? Btw that deep scratch on the wing mirror happened when I was driving to newcastle airport for summer hols, a lorry in front threw up a huge stone which I could see bouncing down the motorway towards me right towards the windscreen, I swerved and somehow managed to avoid disaster, it hit the mirror. Made a right noise, I actually thought it had hit the front wing and expected a huge chunk/dent in it, but got off lightly. Anyway keep up the good work.

 

[rs 1an]

I do love a good brake fitting picture Mark & Alex, i seems to remember similar problems when you fitted the Bg182s brakes Mark

 

[Martin.]

Having to grind the hubs? Don't know if I could be bothered with the hassle.

They look lovely though.

What's wrong with them now?

 

[Mr R.]

Having to grind the hubs? Don't know if I could be bothered with the hassle.

They look lovely though.

What's wrong with them now?

They would be going back if I had to grind my powder coated hubs.

 

[Poopensharten]

Give it to me

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Mark thought he was a superhero in his awesome new onesie and HULKED the caliper clean off.

Beefcake y0.

 

[AlexW]

Having to grind the hubs? Don't know if I could be bothered with the hassle.

They look lovely though.

What's wrong with them now?

They would be going back if I had to grind my powder coated hubs.

With shot blasted and coated hubs, they'd maybe clear fine, the massive build up with rust certainly doesn't help.

The current issue is the lines are too long and rub on the wheel at full lock.

 

[Mr R.]

Oh that's not the end of the world then.

 

[AlexW]

Oh that's not the end of the world then.

Certainly not, I'm just bloody bored of messing with Marks brakes...

Fitting all the refurbed calipers, discs & pads = one late night.
Re-bleed = Few hours next day
Then fitting Hi-specs the first time = another late night
Back to return to standard after the above the next morning...
Then refitting the calipers with new lines = another morning.
Then yesterdays couple of hours...

And then I'm going back in the morning to hopefully help for the last time!

If the brakes don't feel f**king amazing when I drive it once its all done, I'm going to kick Mark square in the balls.

 

[Mr R.]

Bad enough doing a job twice, we should know.

 

[Djw John]

Is now the time to say I doubt 4 pots are worth it?

 

[AlexW]

Bad enough doing a job twice, we should know.

Your car was a pleasure, Marks car is just a pain.

Is now the time to say I doubt 4 pots are worth it?

Certainly not on marks car!

 

[Mr R.]

Is now the time to say I doubt 4 pots are worth it?

Not just yet.

 

[AlexW]

I'll drive it and then probably think my car stops and feels better.

Next thing it needs will be a larger Master Cylinder from a 406 V6 Coupe.

 

[Jekyll]

It better be the last time! All because my refurbed ones started to discolour.

Never again!

 

[Djw John]

Not just yet.

Ok, I'll wait a week or 2 then.

 

[Timmsy]

Only just got round to reading the brakes bit. Any reviews as yet Mark? Dr Jekyll

 

[AlexW]

Needs another rebleed IMO, but certainly not got the feel I like so far.

 

[Jekyll]

As Alex said, they work fine but could do with another final bleed. Lines have been cut down now and are all good. The response is good just a tad too much pedal feel so that will hopefully shorten after another bleed. These have been on my car for a while now and all seems good though. The look cool too
With my discount I got the brake kit for £384 and I did a few favours for my boss which instead of paying me for, we agreed to take the price off so the total I paid was £255. Can't knock that!

Gave the wheels a good clean up last night as they were filthy. Washed, fine cut on the inside, polished then waxed them. I won't be using my car much next week but I'll be tight for spare time so I'm just cleaning up bits here and there for CSS.

Gave the coilovers a clean up, lowered the front a bit and adjusted the damping so it's a little harder as I felt the ride was a tad too soft. I've done a few miles on these BC coilovers now and they still look and perform brand new. Having the coated struts keeps them fresh looking.

I adjusted the handbrake as it felt a little slack and forgot how much of a ballache getting to it was on a low car! I also adjusted the exhaust to sit better too. Will try and give it a good clean this week.