Spring 2015
With Trackday coming up in April I needed to get everythin sorted and planned on getting new bits fitted. One of which were the Brembo Calipers off a Megane R26. After months of keeping an eye on ebay with all the sets on there either being too expensive, looked like theyd been sat in a pig shed all winter or seller not even being arsed to put photos up I got impatient and looked at other places, being the idiot I am I disscounted breakers as I'd stupidly assumed they'd be expensive or they'd be already taken off car. Quick email to Ren-Parts (used to be Clio Spares) and they had an R26 in and a pair of calipers for a brilliant price. Quick call to arrange payment and delivery and few days later I had these arrive
IMG_8502 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Next was to get the standard pins out, what a job that was. Brother had an R26 for good few years and never had problem as he did som preventetive maintenance in greasing them up, the pins in my set don't think had ever been cleaned or greased. Days of soaking in WD40 and Plus Gas and me loosing my temper and hammering the hell out of them with more force I'd ever hand to do on something cast aluminium I got them out. Quick message to
@Ph1 Tom and I had a nice set of Stainless ones on way down.
IMG_8520 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Following a clean up they turned up quite well, but they were always going to be painted black. While I was waiting for these to arrived I spotted some HandR spacers with bolts on ebay with no one bids and finishing early on a Saturday. Played it safe with 15mm for time being until i know how narrow a spacer I can run.
IMG_8503 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Mate at work said beforehand he'd machine them for me, so took him up on the offer and although I think he had second thoughts about it when he started with the fact he was having visions of something going wrong and having to buy me new calipers haha. Knew he'd do brilliant job of them and thats what he did.
Getting machined
IMG_8554 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Following being machined I test fitted them and mocked up potential smaller spacers, will deffinately be able to run smaller ones in future.
Behind Turini
IMG_8586 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Behind 2118, fair to say it's close.
IMG_8590 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Masked and primmed the calipers up with pistons and seals still in to prevent any ingress of paint. Keyed up the powder coat, wiped down and then sprayed using Etch primmer and then VHT caliper paint primmer.
IMG_8605 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Next was to get the pistons out. Made a rig out of a regulator and some parts I had and gently pushed them out with a 'custom' piece of wood. Got these out without too much trouble after a bit of playing around with the thickness of the wood. Then masked all up again to finish off.
Several coats of VHT gloss black caliper paint. Layed them on side to try to get a thick coat on outer face without any runs.
IMG_8650 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Finished off with some silver (same colour as the 'Trophy' lettering on side skirts) brembo decals courtesey of
@Ady182 at N2Graphix. Brilliant quality stuff yet again. Then some VHT clear high temp paint on top to seal.
IMG_8665 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
While I was waiting on the rebuild kit to arrive I set about getting the side skirts off to clean behind them and underseal. Managed to destroy the rusted clips in the leading edge of the skirt and unable to get new ones I ended up buying several types of chimney nuts off ebay and got some to fit after a bit of fettling on bench grinder.
Wasn't too bad considering it's lived most it's life on a Farm. Underside showed some road rash though but thats a job for another day.
IMG_8652 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Rebuild kit arrived so weekend before I was off to get things fitted I got onto it, and this is when my plans started crumbling lol.
IMG_8702 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Kit looking all nice and innocent there, got on with rebilding it all. Piston seals went in no problem, pistons a dream but the dust seals were little b****ds.
IMG_8705 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
IMG_8706 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Had scraped the grooves clean but half went in prefectly, then rest seem to go in but not seat perfectly but were held secure then odd one or two were not sitting at all while one was as if it was warpped and wasn't staying in at all.
Lots of head scratching and post on here and I got fed up so chucked in box and left until I saw brother (one of my brothers a mechanic) and ordered another set as I was expecting to have to remove all seals which seem to tear when removed and redo (had torn one when I was changing them around with the fault anyway. . . .
Got new seal few days later and saw brother and took them out for him to see (they'd been in footwell of other car now for couple of days) and magically they were all ok now, the worse one was even ok, no idea how exactly but assume they somewhow settled in?? Anyway I was annoyed but happy.
Tested the seals and piston movement
IMG_8747 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
All ready with new Stainless Pins
IMG_8749 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Quick wash and took for a spin before I started on the work
IMG_8720 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Steering didn't feel brilliant on the short run and when I took the dampers off to replace the top mount bearings which I knew needed doing I got a couple of surprises.
First was how tight the PMS top mount bearings are pressed in lol, drift wouldn't budge, 2 pairs of 2 legged pullers wouldn't so just before I gave up and took down to garage I remembered I had these beasts from where I used to work.
IMG_8730 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
These made easy work of them although the washers holding the collar to the two shafts didn't like me using them as a press.
The amount of rust on the topmounts when I took them off also is something to note to anyone using thir clio on the road and more specifically during winter as there bearings have no additional seals and the nickel plating doesn't stand up well to salt, so anyone who has these on a road car I'd recomend getting them off yearly atleast to inspect.
Have now painted mine up to give them some protection although mine wont be seeing winter salt again now.
During strip down I checked the dampers out quickly, tbh hadn't been that long since last time they were off and hadn't done many miles since but as I took spring off the second damper I was greeted to a weak rod, one had lost pressure, was surpised tbh as they were rock hard last time.
IMG_8727 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
IMG_8734 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Spent best part of following day trying to get hold of BG Motorsports and sod's law they had telephone problems. Sent them an email and less than an hour later I had their mobile number and got onto phone with them. Brilliant customer service from them and hugely helpful. Dashed down to local courier that I use with all large parts (DelSol) and they were on their way to Northamptonshire for a rebuild.
My only problem is they said due to time of year I guess they had a 2 week lead time on rebuilds and my track day was 3 weeks away.
This had meant I'd decided not to fit the calipers before the trackday as didn't want anything else giving me any more problems so these are waiting to be fitted along with the new hubs.
Also had my new boss kit delivered to finally get my Sabelt Renault Sport Steering wheel fitted (must have had this 4 years atleast now lol)
IMG_8742 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
This will be fitted along with a switch plate to do the cruise control and limiter. Thanks to @
Dan@M.A.D for this. Just need to finish off the wiring loom for it.
IMG_8745 by
KeithRoberts185, on Flickr
Thats all for now, waiting on the dampers to get back to me then few little jobs to do before a weekend watching the BTCC at Donington and then on track day after.
Diolch.