Ditching the drums
Fresh from taking first place in the Blackpalfrey 12 Car Rally on 22 December 2013, and knowing I would not be competing again until 5 February 2014, the time had come to swap the front end drum brakes for the Midget setup I have been preparing over the past few months. I decided to build up as much as I could on the workbench – with a warming coffee to hand – to keep the rolling around on the ground malarkey to a minimum.
With the stub axle built up and everything done up finger tight, I then turned my attention to the wishbones. I carried out a full fitting of the SuperPro poly bushes just to make sure they understood what was required of them. Anyone who has fitted tapered poly bushes in cold weather will know they need fettling until they submit and fit into the opening they were
I had a set of bespoke brake hoses made up for the A40
designed for. Warming them up with hot water certainly helps.
Back at home having won that battle, I sought input from fellow MK1 disc converters on the A40 Farina club forum. One suggestion I got was that the stub axles should be fitted with the calipers to the front of the stub axle – on a Midget they side to the rear – which will then allowing me to use the flexible hoses from a Midget.
With a bright and surprisingly mild day arriving, I headed off and within one hour had the nearside front stub axle and wishbone off the car, allowing me to carry out some rubbing down, rust prevention and paint application prior to the fitting of the freshly built up stub axle. Pleased with my results I posted on the club forum that evening, not only to show off my handiwork, but also to ask about adding additional strengthening to the body for anti-roll bar mountings. An hour later a regular and helpful contributor pointed out that if I wanted to use an anti-roll bar, then the calipers needed to be at the rear of the stub axle, otherwise they foul the roll bar. ‘Better to find out now with only one fitted,’ I thought, but still swore quietly to myself.
The next day I swapped the stub axle over and, thanks to a very prompt delivery, took the opportunity to fit some uprated and slightly lower, front springs that I sourced from helpful Midget specialist, Kim Dear ( www.magicmidget.co.uk). Kim suggested I start with some 360lb springs, with a free length of nine inches. He told me I could exchange them for a different length/rate if I found they didn’t suit the car, so long as they were in a re-saleable condition and I pay the postage – superb service in my book.
Knowing I was going to have to get some brake hoses made up to suit the car, I looked at the best route. Opting to take the hose from the caliper to the lever arm, and then into a bracket I fabricated that sits atop the lever arm damper, I carefully measured up the run length and placed an order to have a set of bespoke braided hoses made up.
Awaiting brake hoses and with a day at college on the horizon, I took the opportunity to make a robust mount for the stopwatch and trip meter, having access to a sheet metal folder at college. With tutor Bernie keen that we develop fabricating skills on our own projects – which is a great way of encouraging learning – I managed to get the piece cut, folded and drilled to take the Brantz units in between filling and rubbing down the wing I was repairing. Who says men can’t multi-task!