So recently won this little lot on ebay, for those not familier with it, Godspeed sell a custom made floating disc/alloy bell kit for the standard 4 pots that performs as well, some say better, than the STi Brembos. It comes with mounting brackets that reposition the calipers and spacers that widen the caliper so they fit over the new larger and thicker discs. To make the most of the larger disks, much larger modified pads taken from an Aston Martin DB7 are supplied.

My kit came with the caliper brackets and spacers already fitted to a pair of quite tired looking calipers


Discs and bells are in very good condition and will just need some cleaning-up. New disks are 32mm thick, these are 31mm (probably due the DS2500 pads which are heavy on discs) but have plenty of life left for my commute and A road blasts...



Ferodo DS2500 pads it excellent condition, just require a bit of spit and polish...


Calipers looking tired and in need of some TLC


Some people think a lick of paint is a refurb! Even the seals have been over painted...


Removing the seals revealed corrosion and a set of stainless pistons added to the shopping list...



First 4 pistons just prised-out with little effort



The 2nd caliper was a different story, all 4 pistons were almost solid so a liberal helping of WD40 and an over night soak helped, but still snapped the ends off 3 screwdrivers getting them out. I now have a set of new screwdrivers and some pry bars for the next time LOL!

Bottom half of the bores look fine, no rust, but top half is rusty and will need to be cleaned-up and treated. This layer of rust is what binds onto the pistons and stops them coming out easily.


DB7 pads (top) are quite a bit bigger than the standard pads. Only modification to the DB7 pads are the holes for the slider pins are moved closer to the corners



Jobs to do will be to finish stripping the calipers ready for the powder coaters and rebuild with new piston and seals, source new stainless slider pins as Godspeed only supply crude split pins, strip down the discs/bells and replace the bolts...

 

Some progress with the refurb

discs and bells split


cleaning-up the bells




discs cleaned-up nicely


calipers now stripped and ready for the powder coaters, I've left the brackets in place so they get a coating of paint as well.


ground the Godspeed alloy spacers down so they are flush with the caliper halves

 

Making a good job of it.
I'd have a Dremel or similar on the interior surfaces where pads will slide, clean back to bare metal, don't paint too thickly.

I've often wondered about long stainless cap-headed bolts and nylock nuts for the retaining pins. You can buy stainless sleeves that extend them.

 

Cheers Alcazar. The calipers are at the powder coaters now, this is the 3rd pair I've had done and have always been a top job, paint not too think so hoping for a nice fit for the pads. I've got some 6mm stainless bar on order for the pins, CDF wanted £26 per pin for machined ones...lol

 

You going to machine 'em yourself?

 

I'm going to use a domed rivet snap tool at one end to form a 'mushroom' and drill other end for the retaining clip, easy...apart from the fact that stainless steel is hard as foook...

 

You can get stainless R-clips off ebay.

 

I was going to use standard pin retaining clips as I thought these were stainless?

 

Calipers back from the powder coaters...

This is the third set I've had done now and always a perfect job from Pentland Powder Coaters.




The brackets have some protection now, will probably over paint these in black



Bores nice and clean now


Got the stainless bar for the pad pins, all the way from Cyprus...


Next-up, painting the disc bells..

 

Jeez, those are thickly coated. I hope the pads still fit..and the inlet pipes and bleed nipples?

You going to pick out the SUBARU in white?

 

Doesn't help that the pics aren't great, too much reflection which makes them look gloopy! I always run a tap through the bleed nipple and banjo bolt threads to clean them out so not worried. Yep, I'll will be picking out the logo in white

 

OK, keep going.

 

Looks good, quite a rare old set up now. Doubtful they'd work better than properly set up STi Brembos when pushed hard though. Won't be far behind I'm sure!

I find picking the logo out in silver makes the caliper look "more expensive" (for want of a better phrase) that painting the logo white!

Not the best pic.......

 

I'm NOT a massive fan of Brembos, despite having them on my classic, both front and rear.

I find the hype that surrounds them means they rarely live up to expectations, and to design a caliper made of alloy, which will be held in place with a steel bolt tightened into tappings in the alloy, then sell it to a country that dumps tonnes of salt on it's roads, is criminal.

My rears had to be almost torn off for pad/disc replacement, after the bolts bound up in the threads and tore them out. They had to go to Ian for helicoiling. WHY don't Brembo cast the stainless inserts in place????

They were fitted by myself with grease coated bolts, but are, IMHO, unfit for purpose.

Both my lads have them on Renault Sport cars. The pins holding the pads in place seize EVERY time, usually distorting on removal, but hey, £17 to Brembo for new ones.

 

Yeah someone made a good point on here when comparing the Brembos Vs Subaru 4 Pots, the Brembo calipers are about half the weight! So unsprung weight isn't as good with this set-up, but still looking forward to getting them fitted in the spring and trying different pad combos, some interesting options out there now I know what pads to buy and they're a fraction of the cost that Godspeed charge.

Yep, wish they would do away with rock salt on our roads and use the corrosion free alternatives! BTW, tried the pads in the calipers last night after you queried the paint thickness...they wouldn't fit dam it! Never had this issue before so it maybe that the DB7 pads are slightly wider so less tolerance.

 

Grind the pads, not the calipers. I'd then treat the ground edges with gun-blue.

 

Agreed, bad design flaw. My mate has his bolts loosened and greased at every service and he doesn't suffer with them seizing at all! Going to do the same myself after I've re-furbed mine

 

Nothing to do with the pad size , we have seen some EBC pads that have loads of paint on them which needs sanding down on the edges of the pads , it will probably be the powder coat thats been applied in that area on your calipers too thick causing the pads to be tight , I would leave the powder coat in tact and relieve the pads so they slide in with 2 fingers
Cheers Ian

 

Thanks Ian, the pads are used DS2500s and don't have any paint left on the sides, I'm going to compare the width with some standard 4pot pads and take it from there, don't fancy having to trim every pad down so going to try gently filing down the powder coat.

BTW Ian, my next purchase will be some stainless pistons/seals etc. I can get these on ebay from BigRed for £119 delivered, can you do any cheaper?

 

HI
We have never had an issue fitting DS2500's so i'll say its down to the thickness of powder coat on the insides of the calipers where the pads slide in.
The only pads we have had to clean off are EBC's.

We can supply you pistons and seals for £110 delivered
Cheers Ian

 

That's great Ian, I'll be in contact next week to order a set. Cheers

 

I'd go with Ian's too, made specially in-house.

 

Right, so I filed down the 'pooled' areas of powder coat that were stopping the pads being slid in with ease



Took it back to bare metal


The benefits of using an RAL colour (in this case Traffic Red 3020) is that you can order paint that is a perfect match, so gave any bare metal a light coat of high temp traffic red to stop any future corrosion. You'll also notice that I have painted inside the lip of the bore that is exposed to atmosphere and tends to be the first part to corrode when moisture gets past the seals. I might have to thin this down with emery paper slightly to get the pistons to fit but it should be fine as the pistons only fit tight to the inner seals, not the piston bores themselves.


next step, order the pistons & seals...

 

They only rust on the inside should the seals fail...... I think you may find you need to remove that paint

 

You were right, tried an old piston and wouldn't fit So have removed the paint...

 

Slow progress with these as too many jobs to do around the house and garden but I'm getting there...

discs cleaned with wire brush and bells re-painted




reassembled with stainless cap screws & nuts, torqued to 80lbf-ft


home made stainless caliper pins have turned out ok, although the domed head could have turned out a bit more 'domed'. Stainless is a bugger to work with, even getting it glowing red with a propane torch then using a rivet snap only mushroomed the end slightly, but there's enough to do the job though. Had to use HSS-G drill bits to drill the stainless bar for the retaining pin hole. I had originally bought 6mm stainless bar but was fractionally too small, turns out 1/4in (6.35mm) is the correct diameter.

 

Looking good.

Will stainless cap-head screws be strong enough? The tensile strength isn't as high as normal steel screws.

 

when you say 'normal' steel do you mean mild steel? 304/316 stainless has higher tensile strength than MS, but lower than high tensile steel. Don't see any issues to be honest.

 

I'm hoping the torque setting is a typo ??

 

oops yes, was typing from memory that was the torque setting for the caliper bolts I think. Remind me again what these are torqued to Ian, was it around 7Ibf-ft?