Quick question regarding fitments...

N

Nojuego

Registered
Ok so I had bought new rims because my old ones were corroding so bad they deflated overnight. I'm now having a problem with the caliper bracket contacting the wheel toward the hub. Is it safe to grind down the bracket to fit or would it be better for me to look into bigger brakes in hopes of fitting everything right? I was thinking I could find some GT or Cobra brake calipers/rotors/hardware/etc. at a junk yard and maybe that would free up the space I need to fit the rims.

The rims in question are here: http://www.performanceplustire.com/...manufacturerID/8/wheelDataID/14259#prodAnchor

The car is a 95 LSC.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Grinding on the bracket is acceptable to a limit. If it is just rubbing, you can grind the bracket to clear by 1/8" or so.
 
It's digging in a bit. It looks like i'd just have to grind into the chamfered part in the middle. I think 1/8" looks about right the way it's digging in. I'm eventually going to convert to the bigger cobra brakes so would it be easier to just grab them now or would I have to grind those to fit as well?
 
You're right JP.

You can grind an 1/8" off of the caliper, but I wouldn't do anymore. The housing is probably 1/4" thick. Are you talking about the nipple hump thingy in the middle of the caliper?
 
They are 18" wheels so i'm sure they'll clear the cobra brakes. I'm talking about the caliper bracket. The caliper itself clears just fine it's the chamfered or indented part in the center front(when facing it) of the caliper bracket that is hitting. I was thinking of just shaving off a bit so it can clear the hub part of the rim.
 
Again, an 1/8" or so on the bracket will be OK to grind. I knew exactly what you meant - it is the same fear I have on a brake swap I plan on. I want new wheels and new brakes but am unsure what the combination will suprise me with.
 
Are you talking about the nipple hump thingy in the middle of the caliper?
Click to expand...

Yea I was referring to this comment. Sounded like he was talking about the caliper not the bracket. I guess like you i'll have to just see how it goes.
 
Whatever...you talk about me like I'm not here! :D

I WAS thinking the caliper...not the bracket.

You can grind quite a bit off the bracket, on the face of it, its pretty thick.
 
Haha didn't mean any offense at all just trying to clarify what i'm talking about. Yea the bracket looks pretty thick like you said. Gonna hit it on the belt sander on my lunch break today so I won't know how well it works till much later. Thanks for all the help guys.
 
Don't have a bench, just borrowed whatever we had at my job. As far as tools for machining we only have stuff to work with cast metal. Not sure exactly what is in it but it's very soft stuff, can be bent pretty easily by hand. I was told that the bits for our dremmel tools would break if I used that so only suggestions left were our stone grinder or the belt sander. The belt sander had a nicely exposed round edge on one end and looked pretty good to work with the curved surface of the bracket so I decided to use that. The stone grinder would have worked but it would have required more care and finesse. Luckily the belt sander was pretty good and it took only a couple minutes to finish each one. Even cleaned them up a bit in an acid bath, sonic wash and a sandblaster. Looked very clean once I was done. Went out and grabbed some black caliper paint too. Got home and put them on and they worked great.
 
I was thinking of doing that. Then I remembered my camera is in about a million pieces. I'll see if I can borrow one sometime soon.
 
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