hmm... lots of people in that boat.

going to later 3.5" struts means, you A ) have to pony up for them B ) use inserts for a heavier 911, or have your 911 units revalved for 914 weight characteristics.

So myself and craig downs sat down and did some thinking.
We wanted to achieve the sleeper look of 15" wheels, but something more modern than M calipers, A calipers, and less expensive than S calipers, AND something you can get parts for (tried getting 951/944 turbo caliper parts lately????)

so we came up with boxsters.... (NON S)
*Fairly Cost effective
*light weight
*pads are double the size
*use readily available 911 carrera rotors
*parts are cheap and available.
*the calipers can be as new as 2003....

So how do you achieve this?

pretty simple. Several mockup sessions behind our favorite mexican food place on lunch breaks.... having the parts... and having a mill.

unlike 3.5" struts, a bolt on solution could not be made to fit under 15" wheels. The 3" ears interfere with the brake pads on the calipers, and spacing them out to clear would require a bigger rotor (951?) and makes 16" wheels mandatory.

Here is what we came up with


The unsuspecting victims.... (fronts and rears.... (rears are going on soon))
Cheap. Light. Newer. Gooder
Click to view attachment


one of the jigs, ready to put a step into the strut.
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making a level 'step' for the adapter to lock into and a nice level/true support.
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The finished products, after removing a certain amount of material. Nice and flat and true, lots of surface area
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The corresponding step about to be cut into the adapter blocks. 6061 T6 Aluminum.
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fast forward a few to the final products
Click to view attachment

any plans on giving out the specifics..?

or is this going to be something we will be paying for?

Are those really your shoes?
Nice , patent pending

For years, we have treated to lovely pictures of Aaron's feet. Mostly in flip flops I might add. So give the boy some props as this is a step up on the evolutionary ladder. Next thing you know, he'll be walking upright.

Oh, nice brakes too!

Very nice work, but I have to be a shit stirrer. Won't this cause the same problem you have by adding BMW calipers to the stock 4 set-up, that so many people around here argue? BTW I have done the BMW set up and am strongly in favor of this and what I see in this post. Oh and can't you just use Koni adjustable shocks instead of revalving?

to answer a few questions...
-914 struts do NOT fit into 3.5" struts to my knowledge. You could use any koni or bilstein or boge designed to fit the later 3.5" housings, BUT they are valved for 911's (heavier). Thus the revalve or???

-Bigger rotor than stock. Its vented and 4mm thicker than standard 911 vented. Should deal with heat fairly well. you can engineer a solution to use larger rotors if you wish (bigger rotor = 16" wheel.)

-specs. That is up to craig downs. He may be up for sharing the engineering, or maybe even mill your struts and blocks for you? In his hands

-shoes. Yes, those are my sexy legs, and beater shoes. OSHA sent me a letter requesting that i use closed toed shoes when working with metal shavings.

Wheel fitment:

We have tested the fit of
15x6" DEEP six fuchs
15x7 and 8 Fuchs
15x7 and 8 BBS
15x6 NON deep fuch

They all fit with loads of clearance for wheel weights etc

are you building a track car?

just overkill, and engineering excercises
goin for uber trick street car...

craigs set is done already

That freakin rocks!

i see. party on. what does a set of 4 calipers and pads set you back?

k

market rate is about 300 per end.

depends on how lucky you get.
i am in 5 calipers around 400 bucks (have an extra rear)
pads are about 20-200 bucks depending on what brand

cool stuff, but too rich for my blood.

Nice Aaron, I like it.

Will there really be much mechanical advantage over standard M brakes? I mean, they have the same "leverage" on the brake rotors . . .

Besides parts availability, I'm assuming the big advantage of these monoblocks is weight and heat dissipation?


Very cool I want a set

Awww Hell,

I did the same thing with JB weld and a couple of aluminum prescott seals mixed with spersionate...

And a pocket knife to carve em JUST RIGHT. (Like a Turkey )


Then I crashed the car... Oh well.... Maybe I will try your way......

AA and Craig.... You guys rock.

And your your friggin phone cut out while I was talking to Craig. AGAIN.

OH... And about your carb puddling while idling. Thats a blocked idle jet.

Thats what happens.

AND / OR your floats are high. (Like you on glue...fool)

Good job fellas...!!!! Now where the hell are mine..????

Claytonobitch

Holy shnap, that shit came out good bro

Maybe Iff'n when I ever have the ability (read: $$$) to go 5-lug I'll invest a few dollars in Craig if he's willing to do a few of these for people...

Nice Job,

They look almost like the Boxter brake set up I bought from Rich....

Great work!

Nice! but ugly.

so, skipping your feelings about Aaron's legs, what do you think about the calipers?

Nice work Aaron. I like the idea of keeping the 15" wheels..16's are very 80's and anything bigger just looks wrong on the 70's icon the 914 is IHMO..

we can finish the edges... these are proof of concept -

'OFF MY BACK MONKEY!' lol.

I'm a crusader for beauty.
Like Everett Ruess, only ruder.

Uhhh... just noticed. I think you got the wrong caliper side on that strut. Bleeders should be on the top...

Great, just what I need, something else to want after

yes. just mocking it up

craig is gonna chime in here soon with some better pics of the machining process, and whats involved.

these were just rushed 'teaser' pics

I'd like a set of those some day.
maybe we can trade somethin.

"Teasers" they were indeed!

They're damn hot.

How do the Boxster callipers compare to my 4pot Brembo 964 (3.5" spacing)?

Aaron -

Show us the rear (not yours. fool! ) I am interested in how you deal with the retaining pin and it's installation. Drill swing arm? Dimple swing arm? Modify pin and caliper to install from out side?

You're an engineer, right?!?

15 x 7's clear fine on mine! Now with boxsters front AND rear!

Brake shoes?

in which aspect?

cost - about the same
mounting - your 964 calipers are axial mount, while boxsters are radial mount, thus the adapter block.
pad size? boxsters may be a tad bigger. I am not well versed in 964 calipers.
maker - both are brembos
piston sizes - i would have to look them up.

I have just finished Aaron's struts and I will share the rest of the procedure.
Here it is mounted to the jig getting ready for locating and drilling of the holes to mount the adaptor.Click to view attachment

Holes drilled
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Since the mounting holes are into the step I had to counter bore a pocket so I could
drill the holes
Click to view attachment

Using a transfer punch to mark the mounting holes in the adaptor so they line up
with the holes in the struts.
Click to view attachment

Tapping holes in the struts and checking multiple times with a square to make sure
the threads will be square.

All for now will add more later

Here is a complete pic

Install went great - no surprises
some detailed pics will be posted later

Click to view attachment

Here is the rest of the machining
The block drilled and tapped to mount on the strut.
Click to view attachment

Oops on the photo above the caliper is centered on the block and the rotor then using a transfer punch to mark the block for the mounting bolts.

Getting ready to drill the mounting holes showing the marks made by the transfer
punch.
Click to view attachment

Drilling the holes
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Tapping the holes making sure the are square
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Caliper mounted to the strut
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Cutting off a little of the old mounting ears so the inboard pad will go all the down
in the caliper.
Click to view attachment

Sorry messed up again this is the 1st time I have posted pics so I'm still learning.
Anyway the 2nd photo above the caliper is mounted with the pads and is ready to go.


Here is another one
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Here it is installed in the car
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Click to view attachment

waiting on a tie rod end, and a pair of bolts - and then i will report how well these babies stop.

The total piston area of these is right about the same as a pair of A calipers (around 5% smaller actually), so there is no need to change the master cylinder to anything larger than a 19mm

What is the pad area compared to the A calipers?

Thanks,

Andys

between 1 and 2x as big

i dont actually know, i would guesstimate a bit under 2x as big.

Would it be possible to not mill the strut mount where you do to get the edge to locate the adapter block and instead use the edge where you cut off the extra material as a locator? I would be interested to try this setup on the vintage 2.0L race car as I have a set of the 4 bolt hubs with vented rotors and a bit of additional brake ability is always nice. This would be a good real racing stress test I would think.