Calipers from BiggRed and my running gear refurb

[pete_griff 0]

Got my calipers, carriers, hubs, hub carriers and front abs rings back from biggred this weekend - how glad am i that i sent them - they are absolutely stunning - very very pleased with them. They have had all pistons/seals/working parts replaced with new ones and are finished in black polymer coating which is even resistant to brake fluid :shock:

 

will get some pics up shortly - chazrad has kindly agreed to show me how sometime soon.

 

Also have a couple of nice pics of the refurb that i'm doing on the rest my running gear at the moment - stay tuned!...

 

 

at the moment the list goes:

 

refurbed 312mm brakes with new discs/pads

refurbed rear brakes with new discs/pads

new powerflex bushes EVERYWHERE

new wheel bearings all round

subframe/lower arms/anti roll bar/rear beam all cleaned of rust and sprayed up like shiny new

steering rack/pump refurbed with new track rods/track rod ends

new ball joints

new solid brake lines all round

new goodridge hoses for the fronts (rears already have goodridge)

new abs sensors all round (old ones were horrifically stubborn to get off, so i introduced them to the tapometer!)

[chazrad 0]

Mate, this is going to be good. Looking forward to finnaly seeing the car, and al the shiny bits.

 

I'll contact you later re meeting up tonight to sort the photos out.

[pete_griff 0]

good man, thanks very much

 

got some half decent photos this wknd as its the first time i've been properly arsed to take photos while im doing this kind of thing - glad i did though as its nice to see what you've done.

 

i should be knocked off by about 17.15, so whenever after buddy - should be free all evening

 

cheers again

[pete_griff 0]

here you go as promised - pictures of my calipers, carriers, hubs, hub carriers and front abs rings after their visit to BiggRed.

 

they are finished in the black polymer coating biggred do - check out their site - http://www.biggred.co.uk

 

i've also included a couple of pics of the refurb that i'm doing on my car at the moment - hope you all approve...

[pete_griff 0]

here are some more - uploaded those to make sure i didn't lose them

[andy 0]

Very nice, I particularly like the calipers.

[pete_griff 0]

and more...

[pete_griff 0]

many many thanks by the way to chazrad who was good enough to show me what i was doing with uploading the photographs

 

:thumb right:

[Jim Bowen 1]

great pics, they look really top dollar.

 

am going to check site for prices :!

[DanVW 0]

Nice work,those calipers look very cool 8) I know its a little way down your list but any idea where

you are going to get just the front Goodrich hoses from? As I appear to have the rears but not

the fronts too?? :?

 

I have only ever seen them for sale as complete kits though :-(

[pete_griff 0]

i phoned goodridge direct - they will deal with the public - if you are getting normal corrado hoses then just ask for fronts for a vr6, if you are upgrading to 288mm or 312mm brakes then dont forget to ask for the front hoses for a mk4 golf

 

goodridge's phone no is - 01392369090

[DanVW 0]

Nice one 8) will get on the phone to them then!

 

Cheers

 

Dan

[pete_griff 0]

if you are getting normal corrado hoses then just ask for fronts for a vr6

 

 

that is of course if you have a vr6 - if you don't then ask for the hoses relevant to your car, as im unsure if they are the same - sorry i was being a mong!

[Jim Bowen 1]

i'm hopefully refurbing mine myself.

 

stripped them down so far, still got to clean them up a bit more,then i'll be painting them

 

[pete_griff 0]

cool - nice one - while you've got them like that might be wirth getting them shot blasted before you paint them just to make sure they are nice and fresh for the paint...

 

also possibly worth running a bit of scotchbrite over the sliders to make sure they are grime-free for reassembly - hope it all goes well anyway

[Jim Bowen 1]

cleaned them up a bit more, but starting to think i may just do what you have done instead

 

 

taken ages so far

[Jim Bowen 1]

just noticed the ABS rings, i didn't know about this before :(

 

do i need standard corrado VR ones? do they work with the golf calipers?

 

i'm going to write a proper guide i think, always seem to be missing bits when i come to car, like my suspension greif i had :X

[pete_griff 0]

yeah you can stick with the standard corrado abs rings - the abs actuating system works independently of the calipers themselves.

also you can only get the rings cleaned up when you are changing the wheel bearings as the hubs need to come out of the hub carriers to get the rings off - see my pics - the abs ring screws to the back of the hub before it is pressed into the bearing in the hub carrier

 

also i wouldn't give up - unless you are as anal as me - you are doing a pretty good job of those calipers so far - it would be much easier to get them clean if you just took them to someone who could shot-blast them for you, then all you would need to do is paint them and put them back together...

 

hope that helps

[VRTrickster 0]

Ive just picked up a rear beam off bigpants baby, Im going to totally refurbish it, as you have been.

 

Looks like yours is coming on very nicely mate! Did the bigg red do the abs rings hub/hub carriers aswell, if so how much it all cost?

 

Ive just found a blaster/coater in newhaven that will do the job for around £45+ vat, does that sound reasonable?

 

The beam has already cost me a fair bit as I collected it, due to size, and ended up spending about £70 on petty, plus £30 for the beam!

 

Keep up the good work mate! :)

[pete_griff 0]

with my rear beam, arb, lower arms and subframe i have unfortunately been forced to refurbish them the hard way using a belt sander/angle grinder to remove all the rust and then clean them up and spray them after that.

 

there is nowhere near to me that i'm aware of that could cope with shot-blasting & powder coating objects of such large size :(

 

i got my calipers, carriers, hubs, hub carriers and abs rings all done by biggred - but not powder coated - done in their polymer coating which is similar, but better - you can pour brake fluid on it and it won't strip it! unfortunately as i said above biggred can only do things up to approx 1.5 foot square (ish - you would have to ring them)

 

as for the price of blasting/coating you've been quoted, yeah that does sound pretty good, certainly as far as i'm aware anyway...

[pete_griff 0]

hey all who were interested in this at the time - while i was uploading pics i thought i would finally put up the last ones of my refurb...

 

i can't be arsed to write a description about each one - if you just look at each picture you'll soon figure out what's been done/replaced...

 

also if anyone has any questions for me - i'm more than happy to answer them

[pete_griff 0]

and some more...

[Jim Bowen 1]

nice mate, great pics, this is exactly what i need to do.

 

is that a new rack from VW? hard to fit?

 

i also found that the brake thingy in pic 2 & 6 of you 1st batch seems buggered on mine, did you get that from VW too?

[Jim Bowen 1]

have you got a list of everything you have done?

 

sub frame & rear axle, did you just refurb them then?

 

am thinking of getting a sandblasting gun in the new year, was going to do it all before xmas but will have to wait. am fed up with the crappy feeling i get driving the C nowadays

[pete_griff 0]

i ordered the brake bias valve off ebay - can't remember the supplier now sorry - but they are on there for about £39.99 i think - thats what i paid for mine and it's a genuine Ate valve, so i'm happy with it - seems to work so far anyway!

 

the rack isn't a new one, i sent it away straight off the car - nothing actually wrong with it yet, but being as the car has done lots of miles and the racks are notoriously a pain to sort out, thought i would do it now to avoid complications in future - according to my friend who works @ VW though who ordered the bushes, the rack is off a mk3 golf and not a corrado, as the wrong rack bush came through to begin with, so mine may well have been changed at some point in the car's life...

 

refitting the rack/subframe was relatively easy - just make sure you get the splines and bolt recesses lined up before you offer up the assembly then you will probaly have to lightly tap the end of the universal joint on the car over the splines on the rack just with a long piece of straight bar or something...

 

as for the refurb.....

 

i de-rusted and sprayed up the: rear beam, subframe, anti-roll bar, lower arms, stub axles, rear disc guards

the steering rack and pump i sent away and have been reconed and sprayed up

has TT bushes on the front, powerflex on the rear beam and new standard bushes everywhere else

has new: drops links, track rods, track rod ends, ball joints, wheel bearings (all round), abs sensors (all round) - as the originals were so stubborn to remove (and were becoming tempromental) i thought bugger it and "encouraged" them out with the hammer

new cupro-nickel brake lines throughout

new clutch slave cylinder

reconned brake calipers/carriers/hubs with TT 312mm setup

there may be more, but i can't remember off hand - basically everything, but driveshafts, shockers and engine has been replaced (and i have got plans to replace them next year)

 

with the stub axles i covered the bearing surfaces to spray them after de-rusting them, then got a fine piece of scotchbrite and cleaned the crap off the bearing surface, especially around where the seal sits - nothing difficult or complicated, just time consuming. basically the same sort of thing with the rear beam - nothing new, just refurbed.

 

sandblasting guns are good - my friend did the gearbox on his scirocco with impressive results - just obviously make sure you sufficiently protect anything with moving parts as sand + moving parts & grease = :( !

 

hope that helps...