Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

March 2005

3/7/2005 - Over the weekend I decided to purchase a pair of refurbished T-Bird calipers at Autozone. After going into their computer database, we found a pair for $70.99 ea. The total after core returns, was $153.69 (each core was worth $70 and each refurbished unit was $70.99.) PN: C278 and C279 by Fenco

.What I like about this refurb was the fact they included both rubber boots for the slider pins, and a set of copper crush gaskets for the brake line. I loosely assembled one of the spindles, greased up the slider pins and put the dust boots. The second spindle I simpl put on the caliper bracket.

I also purchased the Jeep Master Cylinder, #10-1896; this is coming on 3/16/05 (next week) and this unit, after core, cost $ 36.93 (core is $13.)

3/13/2005 - I had a little problem wanting to "silver" for the brakes instead of "red" but ultimately, I discovered I really do like red after all. I bought a few cans of brake cleaner and proceeded to remove the oil residue from the calipers and proceeded with painting them red using a 1/2 can of PlastiKote I had from a previous project:

3/16/2005 - Picked up the 84' Jeep Master Cylinder today. It came with a fairly long push rod which might come in useful in making an adjustable pushrod! I'll ping the FFCobra forum on this but it would be nice to be able to make an adjustable rod.

3/17/2005 - After scanning the forums, I was convinced I could make my own adjustable pushrod from the one supplied with the Jeep MC. In fact Breeze sells one with a core for $30. But since I do own a tap & die set, I figured it was worth a try. The first step was cutting out about approximately 2" from the center. The donor pushrod is 6" long and the Jeep pushrod is 8.25" long. After removing the 2" section, I have an overall length of 6-1/8" to 6-3/16". If need be, I can slice off a little more if needed or I can extend the rod using a treaded hex tube similar to the one Breeze uses. The only thing left is to get the hex-tube. A 3/8"-24 appears to be the correct TPI based on what I've seen. Just to be extra sure, and to get some much needed practice, I used the 2" section I cut out and threaded both a 3/8-16 and 3/8-24 die onto either side. I will take this with me to the hardware store for comparison.

3/23/2005 - The past weekend I was able to modify the pushrod for the MC as well as paint the MC with POR-15 (right).

The only unfortunate thing with the MC was the adjustable rod; the threading was a degree off but it will probably still work fine, just not exactly as I would of liked. If I come across another pushrod someday, I'll probably try it again; the rod is a pretty solid piece of steel so I think it'll do just fine.

Today, I was able to remove the pistons, seals and dust covers from the PBR calipers; I am now thinking of doing them in powder coat instead of the Plastikote rattle can spray. I need to get a price quote first. Here's one of the disassembled calipers:

3/26/2005 - Today's task was to sandblast the PBR brakes. After an hour or two, got them ready for paint; spent a good 45 min. masking off all the machined areas and decided at the last minute to simply paint them using the Plastikote. I already paid my money for another can so there was no point in wasting it. What I did do was take a heat gun to the caliper and after each coat ( 2 -3 coats each caliper ) and tried my best to "bake" on the paint so to speak. I spent about 15 minutes after each coat; the heat gun is pretty hot as some of the masking tape would actually begin to singe and whisps of smoke would eminate from those areas! Hopefully this helped create a better bond to the aluminum.

3/30/2005 - Over the last few days I have been struggling to get the dust boots onto the calipers. Sunday was my first attempt and just wasn't sure how it was suppose to go in or the order. I did figure the seals are the first to go in. Pinging the forums, it was also determined I used brake fluid as a lubricant. But I was still dogged by how the dust boot could be installed easily. The first post suggested I put the boot over the piston first and as I discovered later, this part is true. However, the next step involved using the C-clamp to apply pressure while I twisted the boot about the piston and slowly wedge it's way into the groove reservered for the lip of the boot. Next I tried using a dull screw driver to force it in; this didn't do much good. I spent well over an hour on the first caliper and the paint job is pretty much ruined due to the brake fluid. But I finally figured out how to get it in a bit better.

While putting the boot onto the piston is the right step, the key is to have the boot hanging at the bottom of the piston. You then begin to manuever the lip into the groove using a dull screwdriver, while keeping the piston just slightly above the bore (not inserted into the bore.) Once the entire lip was in, I used the piston and slowly rotated it in, so it would push the boot well into the groove for a good seat. Then I shimmy up the lip of the outer boot over the groove on the piston to complete the seal. Then with a piece of wood, I simply compress the piston "square" into the bore.

I didn't take any pics of the process but just to prove this works well, tonight I tackled the 2nd caliper and both seals were on in LESS than 10 minutes!!! Very little mess from the brake fluid this time around. I still have one piston that I tried using the push/twist method and I will need to blow that one back out so I can do it RIGHT for the last piston.

3/31/2005 - Done!!!! I got home early today and fired up the compressor; I blew out the last piston and within just a minute, the dustcover was installed. After compressing the piston's in for a final time, I sealed up the line hole and the tightened up the bleeders and sent both calipers for a good washing with "Marine Clean" and a sponge and hot water. After a few minutes of washing and rinsing, I dried up both calipers, masked off the pistons and dustboots and everything else I didn't want painted (bleeders and area where the brake lines mate), and gave them both a final two coats of paint to touch up the areas exposed to the brake fluid. Here are the finished assemblies: