Suspension and Brakes

Well I thought it was time that I did my suspension and brakes. Jaws got me a really good deal with repco on some gear. Below is a pic of it all unpacked on the floor of my garage waiting to be installed...

From left to right we have - 2 new front slotted rotors, 2 2nd hand slotted rotors, Monroe gas gt shocks rear, adjustable panhard rod bar, rear ultra low king springs, front super low king springs, Monroe gas gt shocks front, new wheels bearings and benedix performax brake pads all round!

SUSPENSION

The suspension wasn't too hard to do with the help of Jaws. We did the rear first You start out by jacking the car up and removing the wheels and leaving the diff hanging by the suspension. You then remove the rear shocks by undoing the bolt on the diff and then undoing the bolt at the top (in the boot - under the rubber cap). The diff will drop down and you can freely remove your springs (they will just pop out) and undo the panhard rod bar (2 bolts which hold it in). You then reverse this procedure to put all your new stuff in! The picture below shows the rear end with just the new shocks in place - still to put in the springs and panhard rod bar.

The front was a bit harder than the rear, due to the spring being wrapped around the struts. The easiest way to do this is remove the strut and a arm in one go. You need to undo the steering arm from the hub, Then undo the nut on top of the swaybar mount, undo the nut for the z bar, loosen the nut on front of the z bar and remove the nut and bolt which holds the a arm to the body. After this has been done, you then undo the 3 nuts in the strut tower and strut (with hub and a arm attached) should just 'drop' out. The next picture shows the strut after it has been removed. You can see my ultra ultra ultra low custom ;) springs. I was replacing these because the front sat too damn low and it was illegal.

This next picture you can see the difference in height of the springs....

To get the old strut out, you need to undo the bolt at the top of the strut tower - before you undo this use spring compressors on the spring to stop them flying away! (and injuring someone). Then remove the top of the strut, the rubber cap to hold the spring in, and the spring. Then undo the nut holding the shock in place and slide it out. You then repeat the procedure in reverse and there you go. Here is a pic of the new shock installed with the new spring in place.

Reverse the procedure of getting the suspension out, when putting it back in. Start with doing up the 3 bolts in the strut tower and work your way from there. Here we have the new suspension all in and waiting to be bolted up. Just do the same way for the other side.

BRAKES

The brakes are very important in doing a conversion (or for any car for that matter). So for the conversion, the only requirement was to fit a vn booster with vn front discs and calipers. I wanted to retain a small size so I could still use 14" wheels (hint hint slicks). I have a light weight set of 4 here which can be used as stockies if need be. I decided to go for dba slotted rotors all round and benedix performax pads. Fitting is relatively easy. Just remove the 2 bolts on the calipers to remove them. For the rears, after the calipers are off the disc will slide straight off. For the front, you need to remove the pin which holds the nut on there, undo the nut and slide the disc off. It is advisable to get a new set of wheel bearings for the front. Here is a pic of my fronts done..

I decided to got a bit wild and paint my rotors and calipers.. I think it looks pretty good :)