-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Finally it was time to do brakelines on the rear axle. The first step was straightening out some 3/16 steel using my DIY vise straightener. Here's an old photo of using it on the 3/8 fuel line.



And here's a video straightening the 3/16"

I've had nothing but trouble in the past using cheap autoparts flaring tools. I can't remember the last time I needed to do an inverted flare, but I do remember having problems with the tube slipping and the flare being off center. I decided to invest in a better tool so I picked up an Eastwood Pro Flaring Tool. It has a slick little multi-operation turret and lever/cam operation. I have heard nothing but good about it and after doing a few flares on it I am very happy with the output.

Here is a video doing my first flare with the Eastwood tool:







I did the driver's side first and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

The process I followed for bending these is pretty much the same as what I did for my fuel lines a few years ago. I started by making a short sample piece of tube, marking the start point for the bend relative to a start point on the bender. I also marked a reference distance from the end of the tube and measured after flaring to see how much was used up in the flare (1/8" in this case). This sample piece helps me with layout and deciding where to cut the tube in the future. I can hold the piece up to where I want to route a bend and transfer the bend start mark to the new tube. Hopefully the pictures following help explain it.







If you look above, you can see how I transferred the center point of the bend on my sample tube to the new tubing. Then I used my protractor to determine the angle of the bend and carefully replicated it to get things where they needed to go.





I am really pleased with how the lines turned out. Experience and good tools have really payed dividends in this area. I added stainless steel spring wrap protection before adding the last fitting and flare. I think the results look pretty darn OEM.

With that done, I had a friend help me heave the axle off my workbench and put it on some stands on the floor. I remembered that I needed to drill the spring perches still to accept larger 5/8" U-bolts. The holes are very oblong from the factory, so I started with a uni-bit to get an initial pilot hole and then followed with the standard twist bit. If you've ever twisted your arm off trying to drill a hole like this, try the uni-bit trick first. The unibit uses the closest diameter to help pilot the next cut so the bit doesn't wonder or get caught off angle. You could make the whole hole with a unibit but they aren't cheap when they wear out, so I suggest just getting an initial hole going and swap over to a cheaper twist drill to finish it through.



Finally it was time to put the rear back under the car. A transmission jack makes this job easy. I leave the leaf springs attached at the front, but detached at the rear, then simply roll up the rear end, crank it high enough to reattach the leafs to the shackles, and drop it back down onto the leafs and install u-bolts.

Here is a hyperlapse video of the install.

It's really nice to see the rear back home where it belongs.



I mounted up the new 18x9 wheels (did I mention I got new wheels?) and jacked under the rear until the springs were fully supporting the car (aka ride height). Then I took a measure on inside wheel clearance. Both sides had 7/8" to the inside, which is right in line with what I expected.





That's where she sits for now. Tires are on order and should be here in a couple days, but I have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime: install shocks, reattach brake lines, install sway bar, figure out parking brake cables, plumb in a proportioning valve, fluids, etc. I am really excited to see the new stance and wheels. I hope all this work was worth it.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

This is awesome work.. I think you've definitely convinced me to get the Eastwood flare tool... it's just so slick. I remember seeing it at SEMA right after it came out and it blew my mind, but all my brake lines were done by that time so I never thought about it again much.

douglee25

Nice work Clint! I like your attention to detail.

Doug

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

I'm no expert but I'll help however I can. What are yours plans for it?



Thanks! Are you doing more brake lines or do you want it for 37deg / AN? They sell the 37 degree tooling separately. Would be nice if they gave you a choice of tooling when you order or a discount to get both up front.

Thanks Doug!

Jimbo1367

Great job Clint. I didn't see any pics of the new wheels. (hint)

Jim

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

So far I'm looking to do some 1/4" (boost lines to wastegate) & 3/8" (power steering lines) stainless, so 37* AN flaring would be great to avoid adapters, weld-on ends, tube nut with crimped bushings etc. If I'm going out of my way to get the tool I might as well be fully prepped and get the 45* set.

Was doing the double flare for brake lines really as seamless and quick as it appeared in the videos???!!!?!

Looks like Eastwood sells a kit with both die sets, but it offers literally zero discount vs buying separately:

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-pr...e-die-set.html

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Yes it really is as quick and simple as in the video. Only awkward part of it is loading the tube and getting the clamp into position, but it really takes only a few seconds to do a good flare.

I will say if price is an issue, I have a Rigid 377 flare tool that I can also recommend. It has worked flawlessly for me for 37deg flares. It looks like a typical parts store tool, but the quality is WAY better and the anvil is eccentrically mounted for a rotary forming technique rather than a straight down press. The resulting flares are perfect and I have used it dozens of times for hydraulic lines plus my fuel lines which (so far) have not leaked a drop. It's not nearly as fast as the Eastwood tool, but you'd be in it a lot less.

Also check to make sure these things can do the size/thickness of stainless you intend to form. All the tubing I've done so far has been plain steel.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Oh sorry... I thought I posted a couple above? Here's a shot of the front wheels (well one of the, but you get the idea):



And here's what the rear look like:



They are 18x8 up front and 18x9 rear. What do you think?

hookemdevils22

iTrader: (12)

I have some plans for my rear this year, which includes rebuilding the (8.5") 10-bolt while I'm under there: the pinion nut has backed off several times due to my high-frequency vibration, so it's in need of it.

It's also nice to see you remembered to put the brake fitting on before you flared your line and at the end of the tube before you bent it.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Are you getting any noise out of the bearings? Any idea on how old they are? You might get away with just replacing the pinon seal and crush sleeve or swapping to a solid spacer, leaving the rest as is. I was really on the fence about doing another crush sleeve vs solid spacer, but I'm still in the crush sleeve camp. With the solid spacer you can replace a pinion yoke in car and simply torque the nut back down without worry over bearing preload, but the solid spacer has very high stiffness compared to a crush sleeve so as the bearings wear in the preload on the bearings drops off while with a crush sleeve the preload is maintained. It's a theoretical evaluation, but I'm sticking with it lol.

Yes remembering the tube nut is kinda key lol. Easy to forget or have one slip off and forget about it between operations.

Motown 454

iTrader: (15)

It looks good Clint, it will be nice to have that out of the way.

hookemdevils22

iTrader: (12)

it's 17 years and probably 10k miles old. It's not noisy, but my fear is something going catastrophically wrong from the continual pinion nut loosening. Also, my plans include welding onto the axle tubes, so axles will need to be removed anyway.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

I gotcha. I have seen some really beat-on rear ends with loose pinions survive in rockcrawling. Most likely if you aren't hearing any whine out of the gears or odd ringing sounds out of the bearings and if they feel "normal" after snugging down the pinion nut, they probably don't need replacement. BUT I know there is value in peace of mind. It's not terribly expensive or difficult to re-bearing one of these things, as long as you have the right tools and the time. If it were mine I would just inspect for damage to the pinion bearings and races then put in a new crush sleeve and seals and be done. I have pressed enough bearings on and off that it just wouldn't be worth the time to me.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Yesterday my better half took the wheels to the tire shop to have the new meats put on. I gotta say my wife is a total bad ***. - kickass mom for my kids and an amazing life partner and friend for me. She could tell I was eager to pick up the tires and she offered to do it for me while I was at work yesterday. When I got home, she had dinner going (usually I cook when I get home) so I could spend a little time fitting the wheels and oohing and awing over how they look and fit.

First I will say that selecting and fitting wheels and tires has been a really interesting experience. There are a lot of variables at play. Out back measurements were pretty straightforward because the inside of the wheel well is pretty flat and the area inside the quarter is relatively easy to measure from. I was able to calculate what I would need in terms of offset (which I ultimately cut/welded into the rear end) and use some simple math to compare tire section and tread dimensions to the available space.

Up front however there is more of a curvature going on and huge variables on camber gain, steering angle, etc that made it hard to estimate where the tire would need to be. What I did know from experience is that the 215/60R15s with -5/8" offset wheels (15x7 3-3/8bs) I had in there used to rub when I had stock springs, stock geometry and about 0 camber. However when I lowered the car with stiffer springs and swaybar, did the Guldstrand mod to improve camber gain, and added static camber, I no longer had any issues with rubbing. So this was a good known point for me as to where the outside of the tire could be without rubbing. The part that was more unknown was the shape of the tire, especially the radius at the edge between the sidewall and the tread. So to compare wheel and tire combinations, I took both section width and tread width dimensions from TireRack and calculated where the ouside of the section and the tread would be for given tires, comparing my existing 215/60R15s to a range of 18" tires. What I found was that you definitely can not just go on section width when you are moving from 15" to 18" tires becuase 15" tires have much less tread with for a given section width than 18" tires.

After doing tons of research into tires, I found some of the best for absolute max grip / fastest times currently for autocross and track are the Bridgestone RE-71s (although there are some competitors that are also worth considering in that category). BUT I had to really think about whether I wanted that kind of tire for my use. While I want great ultimate performance when I do track the car, I have to admit to myself that the large majority of my driving is taking my kids to practice, going to car shows, and cruising around. So I decided not to get an ultimate max performance tire and instead dial it back ever so slightly to something that might be a little less harsh on the road that I could eek a few more miles out of. I narrowed it down to the Michelin Pilot Super Sport, Pilot Sport 4S (which replaces the PSS), and the Bridgestone S-04. Then I created a table to calculate where the outside of the tire would end up, assuming I will have plenty of space on the inside.



Now I'm sure you're going to notice I'm not trying to get 275s up front at the moment. I committed to using off the shelf 0 offset wheels of a particular design and that has been a major limiting factor for what I can fit up front. The Nova really needs some positive offset to fit anything bigger than the sizes in the above table. Long term if I do go for wider tires, I can either widen the wheel toward the inside or get 2pc wheels with more offset.

If you look closely at the table above you'll see there are a lot of differences from one tire to another even in the same size. For example, the 245 Potenza S-04 has almost 1/2" more tread width than the 245 Pilot Super Sport. You'll also see there is an enormous difference in tread width (say 1.5") for a 215/60R15 vs say a 225/40R18 even though the section width is pretty close (within 1/2").

I eventually finalized on Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Since they are an outgoing compound, they were close in price to the Bridgestone S-04s, appear from reviews to have a little better overall performance, and don't demand the premium of the new Pilot Sport 4S compound. I also needed to pick a size. Looking at the 'tread change" column, this represents how much closer I expect the tread to be to the fender opening. My old tires were very close but didn't rub. 225 would have been a very safe bet, but I decided I should go with either the 235 or the 245 since I eventually plan to swap to C6 brakes (which will improve offset by 0.240in). Comparing tread width, there is hardly a difference between the two, so I decided to go with 235/40R18s which are closer in diameter to my current tires.

Now that is a long long explanation for how I arrived at my tire size up front, but I think it's worth adding here if someone else is going through this themselves. I would strongly suggest finding wheels with at least some offset, since for every 1/4" of offset you can get roughly 1/2" more tread width. That just wasn't available in the style of 1pc wheels that I wanted to buy.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Here is what all those numbers look like in person. I now have front tires with 2" more tread width than before and a nice sticky summer compound. I expect a major improvement over what I had, even though it isn't all-out. By comparison, they look meaty.



On the car, not so much. They still look pretty narrow. But that's alright for now.



I also got the rear tires fitted. They are 255/40R18s. I did a similar exercise for calculating widths on these and ultimately arrived here. My only conundrum with the rears was whether or not I might want a 45 series sidewall to maintain overall diameter and give it more classic big & skinny look from the side. Ultimately I decided on the 40 aspect ratio because I don't think it would look right with 45 rear and 40 front (45 front would be too tall for the fender well). These photos show the tires at ride height.





Looking up into the fender opening, you can see there is plenty of clearance with the lip, but the tires are close to line-on with the inside of the quarter panel. I think this is going to work out just fine. I am more concerned about the inside clearance where I have roughly 3/4" to the sidewall bulge, but a fair bit more clearance to the tread at the top of the tire. I may add a 1/8 or 1/4" spacer down the road, but i think I will try running them like this and see what they do.

I still have a few things to sort out before I put it back on the ground, so bear with me. I will eventually reveal my wheel choice. I will say I am very very happy. I LOVED my old wheels but I like these new ones a lot too and they are allowing me to run a wider modern compound tire.

Still left to do:
- Clean/paint calipers
- Parking brake cables
- Reinstall/connect calipers and brake lines
- Add gear oil
- Install sway bar
- Install shocks
- Mount adjustable proportioning valve
- Remove residual valve from master. Remove hold-off valve and fixed prop valve
- Make brake lines for master to distribution block and prop valve
- Bleed brakes
- Test drive
- Wash car and take reveal photos

I am considering doing autocross on March 10, so that is my goal for getting the above work done. That gives me roughly 3 weeks.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

douglee25

Ok show us the wheels already!

Jimbo1367

No. I all ready asked. Only width shots. LOL He's holding out on us.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Last night I witnessed the end of an era. I said goodbye to my Centerline Convo Pros. A local gentleman bought them for use on his Nova - glad to see them going to a good home. We loaded 3 in the trunk and one in his front seat and off he went. I nearly shed a tear.



Since it is "throwback Thursday", here are some photos I took the day I put these wheels on the car way back in 2002. I scrounged the money together while I was in college and bought them used in the very early days of ebay (back when it was mostly auctions and you really could bid on used things to get a deal). I had lusted after these wheels in the late 90s when the pro street craze was still in full force. Even today I love seeing a car with Convo Pros and I am truly going to miss seeing my car with them.









On to new and different things.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

You can see them pretty clearly in this photo. The car is still on jack stands, so the front is at full droop. I did raise the rear end to ride height though so you can get an idea of how much the tire tucks. 235/40R18 on 18x8 and 255/40R18 on 18x9.



I can't wait to see it on the ground but I gotta at least get the parking brake hooked up. I have a sloped driveway.