Sunday, April 23, 2017

Yes Virginia, there is a Mustang in the shed!

Well, after 3 years of hibernation, I finally cracked the shed today and spent some quality time with SusieQ. It was a glorious Spring day and since I've finally fixed most of the broken stuff around the house after 3 years of zero maintenance, it was time to do some wrenching again.

And though I've not worked on the car during my absence, that hasn't stopped me from thinking about it. One of the things I've decided to change is upgrading to front disc brakes. The car came with drums all way round and I had thought it 'quaint' to leave it that way. But after thinking my wife is probably going to drive this car more than me, I just couldn't send her out with 4-wheel drums. So that's the first thing on my list.


After much research in Australia, the Cobra upgrade seems the most bang for the buck. But unfortunately Vintage Venom is no longer producing their kit (my preference) and neither is Street or Track - so my choice seems limited to Steve's Mustang. I liked the Venom kit as it was a single-piece billet aluminum part while Steve's kit is two-piece steel. Probably could recreate Venom's bracket for myself. Let's face it, it's 6 bolt holes and an odd-ball shaped perimeter. But...all these kits have been road tested, and again, if my wife is driving this car, do I really want to experiment with her life? As an engineer, I fully realize that the devil is in
the details and what seems elementary on the surface, most times is anything but.

Vintage Venom Front Brake Cobra Adapter Bracket








Steve's Mustang Front Brake Cobra Adapter Bracket


So while I percolate this bracket dilemma, I'll start cruising Ebay looking for Cobra/Mach1 calipers. I see they come in both 38 and 40mm piston diameters but unless she plans on racing this thing at Watkins Glen, I don't think she is going to notice +/- 2mm of piston diameter. I plan on powder coating them to match the car so I'm just going to track down some used ones and pull them apart for powder coat then rebuild. So not much progress but at least some - one bite at a time right?