Finishing a COMPLETE Suspension Overhaul on SC Targa. Brake mounting bracket help,plz

UrQuattro · UrQuattro's Garage

Hey everyone,

It has been a long time since I have been active on the forum. There was a whole time there where I had basically collected, albeit slowly, all of the necessary pieces I would need to revamp and simultaneously upgrade the suspension on my car.

I've also got a Stratton ducktail waiting for me to get around to having it painted as well as a carrera 3.2 style front valence w/ front lip spoiler (also in need of paint), which I'll be getting done very soon.

Thanks to the very helpful people on this forum I've been able to collect the parts necessary for the basics of the build, and I was waiting for my friend who has the fortune of possessing a lift in his machine shop to have the time to help me do the project.

Well, we finally got at it about 7 weeks ago, and I'm going to be picking it up tomorrow or Tuesday.

Anyway, so, here is what I've done, with my good friend's help (really he did all the work, as he knows these cars way better than I do, and there was only one set of tools, heh)
Here is the list of parts that were put on the car as part of this AMAZING (I can only fantasize at this point... I don't know what it drives like. No idea at all. Hehe.but I bet it will be amazing.)

Raised the spindles 25mm (I figured it to be the best compromise. I am running 17" wheels - Zuffenhaus 3 piece Fuchs, but I didn't want to go too crazy, or I would be running in to issues with clearance during everyday driving and such)
22/28 Sway-Away torsion bars
later carrera 3.2 sway bars
Rebel Racing adjustable sway bar drop links, to eliminate preload
Bilstein sports front and rear,
turbo tie rods - yes, the good ones,
Rebel Racing bump steer kit,
monoballs front and rear
modified upper strut bushing housing to allow more camber up front
Rebel Racing control arm bushings Rebel Racinf spring plate bushings (these are beautiful pieces of hardware by the way. As are the fronts)
front strut brace
brey-Krause combo harness bar/targa bars
Braided Stainless brake lines

To top it all off, the car was just aligned and corner balanced by Hayden at WEVO/Windrush yesterday.

My friend is picking it up from Hayden tomorrow I believe, and will be going over all the various nuts and bolts with a torque wrench to make sure everything is all kosher.

So, hopefully in a couple days I will have a nice reaction post to send out to y'all on the interwebs via this forum.

I took some pictures during the process, but not that many to be honest, and I'll post them when I'm on my computer, not my iPhone, since I can't from this thing.

The pics of the car back together might have to wait a little bit because I have to re-polish the wheels. They got all dirty and have a bunch of putting and water spots on them. I'll make another thread about that asking for advice.

But once they are done, I'll send out some after pics of my car.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Oh, and it was a damn good thing that I replaced all of this stuff. Nearly every single part I replaced was completely worn the hell out. One of the tie rods was so ba that it just flopped around limply and had a ton of play. All of the shocks were leaking oil, two of them severely, the brake lines were starting to crack a little bit, and the bushings were in awful shape.

And to think that the last shop I had trusted my car with said that it was in ok enough shape for me to have spent 7 weekends last year at the track pushing the hell out of it. No wonder it was difficult to control if I wasn't PERFECT with my inputs or missed an apex by 5 feet.

I DO still need new brakes though. So I need to figure out the best solution for replacing the stock callipers.

I was thinking Boxster S callipers up front with ??? In the rear?

Who makes the most affordable set of brackets for these calipers, or... Actually... Does anyone have the info I would need to cut a set of my own out of some aluminum? My friend would be able to take care of that for me, I would just need the offset info and all that.

Thanks in advance!

Michael

will hung · 03-26-2012, 04:44 AM

Your upgrades sound really good. You'll be very pleased with the improvements.

In regards to using Boxster calipers, it's been covered before.

The Boxster calipers don't offer enough performance improvement to make it worth it. Either rebuild your existing calipers, or upgrade the fronts to Carrera calipers. Then replace your rotors, brakes lines, and fluid. If you go to the track and find you need more brake, upgrade the cooling to the above system. If that's still not enough, install a multi-piston caliper setup that uses much larger rotors.

UrQuattro · UrQuattro's Garage

Well, that's kind of why I was thinking of the boxster S brakes. They seem to use a much larger rotor.

It's just that with the amount of time I will be spending on the track, and with the easily cooked rubber seals VERY cooked on the stock calipers that I bolted back on to my car for the short time being, I'd like to go with a different setup.

And even if I went with the typical caliper/carrera 3.2 rotor setup, I'd at least get a better looking set of brakes that are MUCH easier to deal with when it comes to pad changes (and rotors, given that I can unbolt the caliper from the bracket instead of the spindle, where the lower bolts are a PITA if I remember correctly... Or was that the rears...)

Either way, it would be an improvement over the stock SC brakes, and if I were able to get the needed info about the mounting brackets, going to the boxster setup wouldn't be THAT much more expensive.

The other thing I was thinking about was maybe going with 993 brakes. I have a set of them on my '83 Audi UrQuattro and like them very much. Though, on that car I also switched the stock hydraulic assist with a tilton dual master cylinder setup.

The question is, what is the biggest I can go and still fit the stock spare tire with? As far as my wheels, there seems to be PLENTY of room under the zuffenhaus 17x8's that are sitting under the front fenders for some larger brakes.

Hell, now that I think about it, would a full sized boxster S setup even fit under them?

I dunno. I am aware of the fact that addin some ducting to the front brakes would solve any overheating issues I would likely have on the track. But I dunno. It just seems to me that cast iron calipers would be much more likely to overheat compared to a nice aluminum caliper, given the heat transfer qualities of each material.

Anyway, yeah. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks again in advance, and thanks for the input so far.

Michael

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by UrQuattro

Well, that's kind of why I was thinking of the boxster S brakes. They seem to use a much larger rotor.

It's just that with the amount of time I will be spending on the track, and with the easily cooked rubber seals VERY cooked on the stock calipers that I bolted back on to my car for the short time being, I'd like to go with a different setup.

And even if I went with the typical caliper/carrera 3.2 rotor setup, I'd at least get a better looking set of brakes that are MUCH easier to deal with when it comes to pad changes (and rotors, given that I can unbolt the caliper from the bracket instead of the spindle, where the lower bolts are a PITA if I remember correctly... Or was that the rears...)

Either way, it would be an improvement over the stock SC brakes, and if I were able to get the needed info about the mounting brackets, going to the boxster setup wouldn't be THAT much more expensive.

The other thing I was thinking about was maybe going with 993 brakes. I have a set of them on my '83 Audi UrQuattro and like them very much. Though, on that car I also switched the stock hydraulic assist with a tilton dual master cylinder setup.

The question is, what is the biggest I can go and still fit the stock spare tire with? As far as my wheels, there seems to be PLENTY of room under the zuffenhaus 17x8's that are sitting under the front fenders for some larger brakes.

Hell, now that I think about it, would a full sized boxster S setup even fit under them?

I dunno. I am aware of the fact that addin some ducting to the front brakes would solve any overheating issues I would likely have on the track. But I dunno. It just seems to me that cast iron calipers would be much more likely to overheat compared to a nice aluminum caliper, given the heat transfer qualities of each material.

Anyway, yeah. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks again in advance, and thanks for the input so far.

Michael

W/ 17" wheels you can go as big as 993tt or 996tt but you don't need to. These are very large, very powerful brakes w/ lots of thermal reserve, 993RS are the same size as the 993tt and have better bias for 911s, I don't like the bias in 996tt at all. I have 993RS on both mine and they work great on the track but are way overkill for street use

930 are a very nice step up from where you are now and are pretty much a bolt on after the rear calipers are modified, not as powerfull as 993RS but hugely better thermally and torque wise from stock

Boxster S are good too, these are the same as 996 brakes. The only one I know to be fitting these is Steve Timmons

I'd fuhged about regular Boxsters