Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

Today's project.

What's left of the original dash.

Screws from both donor L2 and the original were corroded and crusty. So I stripped them back, black etch primer and light coat of satin u-pol acrylic?

The same deal with the stop pins on the temp/fuel gauges. Fuck they were crusty as, 50% larger from the built up of oxide

They look better now.

New unit all done. Has all the acrylic glass cut and polished, everything cleaned out with dust and oil residue. Transferred the speedo/odo unit to the donor

Also replaced the odo gear and gear carrier with a really neat kit I got off a guy that supplies genuine gear and 3D prints a new carrier and carrier gear as a one piece. Perfect! Looks like it was done on a high res SLS printer and in durable nylon. Cherry picked the best globes from both as some looked on their last legs as those were all black inside.

Done! it's too VSH, my eyes are burning.

[v6bucket]

No Ideal, I recall XF having tiny pads also equivalent non existent brake performance. We had an XF about 15 years ago, also the ute XF in the last 2-3 years that was sent to scrap the brakes were always shit on them, only recall EF-EL getting decent performace.

I think he is refering XF vs VB-VS pads ? but even the E series falcon wasn't much bigger than the VN pad, VY over all of those is like 2x the area. I once seen the cheapo VT pads with 50% less pad vs the backing but honestly only see one like that once, all other pads I have seen are the full material pad.


Actually, yeah according to these pics, VT ones are way larger.

http://planetsoarer.com/ford/brakes/index.htm

OK i think pics might help here. I dont want to go too far off topic but try these. There is a big difference, while you look at the catalogue and yes it seems not much change, look at these.

Large pad VT , XF pad, VB-S police pack pad. as you can see even the xf pad is large over the police pack vs pad. the bonus on the XF pads is that there is a huge support for different compounds than that in the commodore range. The VT-VZ caliper is crap, there is just no way of putting it, purely crap, flexes leaks and does not wear the pad right. (sure your mum and pop vt-vz slaveodore will not have a problem, but push the caliper and the early girl calipers are much better. I am actually working on putting VE calipers onto the VL, and once this has happened I will be able to do it for my mates VT and my VY. then we will see brake performance. I just cannot justify the alcon caliper price and the $450 per set of pads. The Xf pad in this shot is crumbling, but keep this in mind, Winton, 48 degree day, 60 track temp, 65 cabin temp and no duct work to the calipers. They did awesome for a trackable pad. This was after 89 laps. I was not taking it easy either.

IMAG0006.jpg

IMAG0007.jpg

IMAG0005.jpg

Let me just put this in perspective. I have helped build an identical VL commodore to might from a suspension setup etc. He has VT fronts I still run the v8 VL calipers (ie 290mm rotors) under hard braking I will out brake him. and I can compress the 12kg springs int he front by 80mm (at the front lip of the Walkingshaw bar).

Just for further information. The standard pad is identical whether using a VN v6/early 6cylinder caliper and rotor (260mm ish) or 290mm rotor. The XF pad will not fit with a 260mm rotor as it is too big. so yes hangs out fo the bottom of the caliper towards the centre of the rotor.

Hope this helps.

cheers
oldn

PS: I hope people appreciate this, A this has just taken me 35minutes to compile, B I had to go to the shed (it was raining), C I had to find all of my pads. Please excuse the rotor shot, my car has not been out since labour day weekend.

cheers
oldn64

I appreciate the info What numbers for the pads? The DB1078 don't look like the pads you have shown. Sorry for the thread steel.

[oldn64]

Today's project.

What's left of the original dash.

Screws from both donor L2 and the original were corroded and crusty. So I stripped them back, black etch primer and light coat of satin u-pol acrylic?

The same deal with the stop pins on the temp/fuel gauges. Fuck they were crusty as, 50% larger from the built up of oxide

They look better now.

New unit all done. Has all the acrylic glass cut and polished, everything cleaned out with dust and oil residue. Transferred the speedo/odo unit to the donor

Also replaced the odo gear and gear carrier with a really neat kit I got off a guy that supplies genuine gear and 3D prints a new carrier and carrier gear as a one piece. Perfect! Looks like it was done on a high res SLS printer and in durable nylon. Cherry picked the best globes from both as some looked on their last legs as those were all black inside.

Done! it's too VSH, my eyes are burning.

Hello Vlad,

bloody nice job. I too am starring and drooling. Love how the ODO is all lined up. These units usually did not line up 100% and seeing you have replaced the gearset will have removed the worn problems of these dashes.

who is the guy selling the gearsets on ebay? would love to reach out to him (I am a ex speedo repair agent) so interested in the newer tech these days. I also have a VN V8 cluster here i wish to do the same with (also have NOS v8 tachos here somewhere)

it is awesome to watch this come together.....

Cheers
oldn64

[oldn64]

I appreciate the info What numbers for the pads? The DB1078 don't look like the pads you have shown. Sorry for the thread steel.

No that is for the XE early XF and is a girlock caliper. You need the one for the PBR caliper. (DB1075). The falcons have more compounds available and with the slight modification these pads will fit for all 290mm rotored single piston girlock and PBR caliper. You can use a HQ pad as well but the effort to modify to get them in sort of outweighs the fact that the pad material are not available for the HQ either.

I get mine pads from GSL motorsport in Queensland and there are a number of pad options available to you. For heated road use and ocassional track use I would use QFM A1RM's they are approx $120 for the set and are an awesome pad. (when i originally looked for pads these were not available for the commodore pad plate, they might be now but obviously are the smaller pad area.)


If you need particulars I could create a DIY pads modification thread. My next pads should be here soon.

Sorry for the off topic Vlad was not intentional.

Cheers
oldn64

[immortality]

I appreciate the info What numbers for the pads? The DB1078 don't look like the pads you have shown. Sorry for the thread steel.

No that is for the XE early XF and is a girlock caliper. You need the one for the PBR caliper. (DB1075). The falcons have more compounds available and with the slight modification these pads will fit for all 290mm rotored single piston girlock and PBR caliper. You can use a HQ pad as well but the effort to modify to get them in sort of outweighs the fact that the pad material are not available for the HQ either.

I get mine pads from GSL motorsport in Queensland and there are a number of pad options available to you. For heated road use and ocassional track use I would use QFM A1RM's they are approx $120 for the set and are an awesome pad. (when i originally looked for pads these were not available for the commodore pad plate, they might be now but obviously are the smaller pad area.)


If you need particulars I could create a DIY pads modification thread. My next pads should be here soon.

Sorry for the off topic Vlad was not intentional.

Cheers
oldn64

If you could start a new thread witn any info you wish to share it would be much appreciated. There is also a brake upgrade thread which may also be another good location for this info.

Cheers

[vlad01]

Kits are here.


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Complete-Se ... m570.l1313


Yeah I never touched the obo numbers other than blowing them with air to get the dust off. They were already lined up not that I really had issues of them not being lined up? sometimes they do go funky on a large set of digits rolling over together but only for a few ks and they settle in line anyway, it's only the lash in the gears accumulating.


As for the pads, I never seen a VT pad like that before, even the smaller padded ones had much more than that. That seems dodgy as! Though the area is not really related to stopping power directly but rather heat management, but too small for the caliper size they will overheat the material easy, also not last as long, probably the latter (cheaper to make, doesn't last = sell more and for higher profit)

All the ones I have had personally were the full area of the backing.


Yes there already is a brake upgrade/info page. Probably needs updating as some of the info is a bit dated and wrong in some areas.

[v6bucket]

I appreciate the info What numbers for the pads? The DB1078 don't look like the pads you have shown. Sorry for the thread steel.

No that is for the XE early XF and is a girlock caliper. You need the one for the PBR caliper. (DB1075). The falcons have more compounds available and with the slight modification these pads will fit for all 290mm rotored single piston girlock and PBR caliper. You can use a HQ pad as well but the effort to modify to get them in sort of outweighs the fact that the pad material are not available for the HQ either.

I get mine pads from GSL motorsport in Queensland and there are a number of pad options available to you. For heated road use and ocassional track use I would use QFM A1RM's they are approx $120 for the set and are an awesome pad. (when i originally looked for pads these were not available for the commodore pad plate, they might be now but obviously are the smaller pad area.)


If you need particulars I could create a DIY pads modification thread. My next pads should be here soon.

Sorry for the off topic Vlad was not intentional.

Cheers
oldn64

I am also interested in the brake info.
Nice instrument cluster, Vlad.

[oldn64]

Kits are here.

As for the pads, I never seen a VT pad like that before, even the smaller padded ones had much more than that. That seems dodgy as! Though the area is not really related to stopping power directly but rather heat management, but too small for the caliper size they will overheat the material easy, also not last as long, probably the latter (cheaper to make, doesn't last = sell more and for higher profit)

All the ones I have had personally were the full area of the backing.


Yes there already is a brake upgrade/info page. Probably needs updating as some of the info is a bit dated and wrong in some areas.

Yep the whole reason for this is heat management and compound availability, meaning I can handle the heat I use them for. Trust me when I say I am not gentle on these things and pull a car up in approx 70m from 180km + depending on the track, they get a great work out. The VT's dont last and yes there is about three different pad sizes with the VT, BUT they use bucket loads of fluid, the caliper flexes and moves around, the materials are terrible to make it stop and the fibre destroys itself quickly. I am workign with a brake manufacturer at present to get better pads for teh vy and mate VT plus a couple of other people who I race with to actually get these barges to stop.

The best package I have used/seen (when I say used it was on a mates car) was the brembos from the VE with an appropiate disc (special order two piece) but man did it pull up and great pedal feel, what is even better is that the original 1" master was used without changing the master etc etc. My plan is to start with the VE SS caliper and run it through a VS master without booster. This should pull a VL up easily as it only weighs 1020kgs currently and should loose another 220kgs once i have pulled some more things out of it. Then the cage will go in (approx 70kgs) so I should have a great nimble vehicle which will look after pads and generally be very quick. Not that it is too slow currently considering what is in it.

We used brembos from a WRX STI on a EVO3 lancer and a mark 4 supra as well. You can get some really awesome packages without spending stupid money. Or doing what UPC does whihc would not actually pass engineering. The engineering that is supplied is for components not the kit which has been very disappointing, I even contacted him for the bedford as I only wanted the hubs so I could put my discs and calipers on, but did not want to help, only required different bearing sizes in machining, saving me lathe time.

He is now looking to produce alcon knock offs which i am very nervous. I cannot say too much more as there could be legal implications.

all in all brake are very important and when you need to stop you want to know it will. I actually encourage everyone to get out to the track in a car to understand how hard you actually can stand on your brakes. It can be the difference between life and death. plus you get to have alot of fun while learning how to use a car

cheers
oldn64

[vlad01]

Pretty sure VT-VZ pads have been available in A1-RM for many years, also there is a few other non listed compounds that are more aggressive and that's just from QFM. But that said, they will perform worse on a light car unless you get aggressive to get heat in them as they cool off too much to work well on pre VT chassis, they work well enough but not as good in average driving with stock sized brake of the same compound, but push them on the track the VT upgrade with A1-RMs or similar will outperform up top but you need some serious hp and speed to get them there.


This was an issue on HQ's car when he upgraded to VE brakes and QFM pads, was way worse than the stock HQ brakes with the same QFM pads until he changed to standard off the shelf run of the mill pads, then it stopped real good! It was just impossible to get the heat into the VE brakes on such a light car that the pads/rotors never could heat up in the first place to work in order to heat them up (infinite catch 22)


For a light car with VT sized brakes for track use I would go for the A1-RM HF40 compound. Much higher cold bite and hot bite than most of their other stock and race compounds so it will allow them to work cold and get them hot enough to work hot as well.

Few other new ones listed here at the bottom.

http://qfm.com.au/


Anyway I think it's enough on the brakes, that can go in the brake thread. Just a giant wall of text now on here lol

[oldn64]

Anyway I think it's enough on the brakes, that can go in the brake thread. Just a giant wall of text now on here lol

LOL, yes i did try not to off track the thread Vlad, i am sorry......

am suprised that a hq is termed light...... you need to be careful with HQ's as the caliper puts alot of pressure into the pads that when replaced by commodore calipers actually and usually results in a backwards step. but yes more on the later, back to the regular tuning......

cheers
oldn64