Front Brake conversion and rear brake overhaul.

 

During the restoration of my mini i decided to upgrade the brakes on the front end of the car to improve the stopping capabilities.

 

There are several ways to do this

1.  Cooper S callipers and Discs, most 10" wheels will fit over this arrangement.
   

2. Alloy 4 pot callipers and Cooper S discs, again most 10" wheels will fit over.
   

3. Alloy 4 pot callipers and non-vented 8.4" discs turned down to 7.9", less wheels will fit but because of the larger discs, greater friction area therefore better brake efficiency.
   

4. Modified Metro 4 pot callipers and Vented discs turned down to 7.9", pretty much the only wheel that will go over this is the 10x6 Weller.
   

5. Alloy 4 pot callipers and vented discs turned down to 7.9", more 10" wheels than for option 4 but choice is still limited.
   

6. Others, which are not built for the job but modifiable, are the Honda and Fiesta MK1/2 callipers. .

 

Option 1-5 are expensive, using Metro parts are an option although Metro's didn't ever make it over to Sweden, so to do this conversion it would mean that i would have to import the hubs from England and as they are heavy items it would be expensive.

 

I have looked around at different options in to doing this as mentioned above and i have come to the conclusion that i will use Honda Civic callipers and discs as these fit on to the existing hubs, and the parts are available here in Sweden.

 

There is only one problem with doing this conversion i would need to get a plate made for each side to mount the new callipers on.

 

This you can see on my mechanical page

                                                                                             
here they are in real life                 and now they have been sand blasted and painted in epoxy primer and black top coat.

After a trial fit the brackets were found to have a hole drilled slightly in the wrong place so this was adjusted and one of the holes had to be countersunk to allow for the calliper holder bracket to be mounted flush.




The callipers and pad holders are taken from the front of a 3rd generation Honda civic (1984-1987) with solid disks, they have been sand blasted and then primed and painted in the same colour as the rest of the car.


The disc's are machined down from the standard 230mm to 200mm in diameter


Before


After

Then disaster struck i assembled everything together and bolted it all to the car and stood back to look at my new brake setup and thought i needed to test fit a wheel, well imagine my shock when i discovered that the wheels that i have bought for the car are too narrow to fit over the brake setup.....
After a few choice words were said to myself i had to decide what to do next..

My options were now as follows

1. Keep the wheels that i have and get spacers to make the wheel fit.
2. Get bigger wheels probably 12"and keep the Honda setup
3. Get a new brake setup probably a Metro/Ford Fiesta setup and keep the wheels that i originally wanted

 

Fitting spacers means the wheels will come out further and stick out past the wheel arches which are now moulded to the body and painted i could remove the arches i have but then i would have to repaint the car.

 

Bigger wheels are a viable option but it is not what i had planned, my plan was to fit disc brakes AND 10" wheels.

 

A new brake setup is the only solution.

 

After looking round on the usual places to buy parts from (non of which suited my budget), i looked on the mini forum in the classified ads section and found someone that was selling just the setup i needed and within my budget so after a few e-mails forwards and backwards the deal was done.

Pictures of this new setup to follow.

 

Rear brakes

I have already sand blasted and painted the back plates and handbrake arms

Now that the sub frames are mounted to the car i can start to rebuild the rear brakes

New rear brake shoes

Hand brake arm gaiters

New hand brake cables