CR3171 Finally going back together!

[Aussie Mike]

It's rolling!!!!

Another milestone tonight. It's finally back on 4 wheels. Hooray!

I blasted and painted the uprights through the week and finished bolting everything up tonight.

It was good fun putting it back together but I spent too much time hunting for nuts and bolts. I thought I'd sorted them into the right boxes when I pulled the thing apart.

Here's the front brakes back together. 343mm x32mm DBA5000 2 piece rotors that I got from Phil M after he upgraded to 360mm rotors. Like the rear I re-drilled them and machined the center bore to suit the ford pattern hubs.



Here's the front hats chucked up in my old lathe to machine them to fit.



I'm not sure if you had seen the front hubs when I made them originally. The uprights are Jag XJ6 and they originally have a rotor that bolts to the back of the hub. I machined new hubs from aluminum to run on the Jag bearings but a Ford stud pattern and offset to suit a hat style rotor.



I like the hat style rotor as I reckon they have better airflow through them and don't require removing the front hub to replace.

Here's the wheel bolted on. The brakes sure do fill up the wheel rim. There's hardly clearance for wheel weights and I reckon a 330mm rotor would be a more comfortable fit.



The paint on the upright and steering arms turned out fine but it didn't like the aluminium of the caliper brackets and there are a few fish eyes. It's a hammered metal finish but it reacted a bit too much on the alloy. Not a problem as It blasts off easy enough. However the plan is to make some new caliper brackets next winter so I'll leave them for now. The new brackets will combine the steering knuckle. That way I can remove the heavy steel steering arm but more importantly the new brackets will allow adjustment of the front bump steer.

That 17" wheel is chock a block full of brake. An 18" rim or 330mm rotor would be a better combination.



Sitting on the ground again. It's good to see it like this.





Got to get the steering rack sorted now and then look at putting the motor and box back in.

Cheers