New brakes at last

Got the car back from the garage after 5PM on a bank holiday weekend!

They made new brake pipes and then when they swapped the calipers over because some idiot had firtted them to the wrong side they were able to bleed the brakes.

I have only managed 12 miles but they certainly work but the pedal doesn't feel any different. Obviously they need to bed in but the real proof of the pudding is if I can brake hard repeatedly without any brake fade.

There's also alot more brake fluid to be displaced in the calipers now so I would probably nreed to change the master cylinder too - not something I want to do in a hurry.

Brakes

Fitted the upgraded brakes - good news is the components fit and they are fine with 13" alloy wheels.

Bad news is I have no braking on the front - issues with weeping brakepipes etc.

No time for me to fix it so professional help needed on Monday!

In competition

Competed in an autotest yesterday - came nowhere but thoroughly enjoyed it. As this was a Production Car Autotest it was a team game - the driver and co-driver needed to work well together and we didn't! I could have been quicker if I hadn't enjoyed sliding the car around so much too! Car looks great tho! The sunroof is the only thing that spoils the looks of the car really but that will be gone next year.

Duct and protect!

An addition to the sumpguard and extremely cheap. Following on from advice on a TR7 forum I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. By using a section cut from an old blue barrel I have closed off an area below and to the front of the radiator. This should duct air into the radiator so helping cooling and also fills a gap between the sumpguard and front valence to give added protection to the rad.

The bees knees

The bees knees - a shot of the calipers, pads and the disc in the middle. If this set up isn't a major improvement I don't know where to go next!

A bit tight!

Tight clearance with the caliper against the wheel though - you can just see the bleed nipple and my goodness it's close to the alloy wheel!

it does show that this must be the biggest set up possible and still use a 13" wheel.

Dry run with the spares car

Dry run - all bolted up to my spares car. I could then make templates for the new brake pipes I will need. This shows the clearances though against the track rod end.

A bit of a difference!

A bit of a difference! New on the right, pathetic old set up on the left!

Outer side - hub mounted to adaptor

The outer side - the hub bolted to the adaptor which is bolted to the disc!

Inner side of disc - mounted to adaptor

Rear of disc - for those interested in the detail. This is the BMW disc showing it mounted to the adaptor from the rear

Weight loss improves performance

This is the steel girder I have cut out of the rear bumper - now the car only has the steel ends either side with the plastic cover in the centre. Another bit of weight taken out of the car. No money yet for raising the power output so the power/weight ratio is being improved by removing weight where it's possible

Bump and grind?

Grounding out - why I needed to raise the ground clearance. It's not that easy to see but the nut on the right has been ground down flat to the exhaust clamp and was only about 1mm thick! The new suspension, raising the exhaust as far as I can and turning the new clamp so that it doesn't "hang down" should stop this recurring - I hope. having an exhaust fall off is not something I want to encourage!