Painted Calipers, Adaptor Holes Drilled

I'm away for work for a couple of nights, so this will be the last post regarding the brakes until Friday at the earliest.

I applied clear coat to the first of the calipers, complete with vinyl decal. I'm not 100% certain but very hopeful that the clear coat will help protect the vinyl from the heat extremes that apply to braking components.

The clearcoat really brings back the shine that shows up on these parts when the last wet coat of colour goes on (it loses its shine as it cures, unfortunately)

Fitted back onto the factory commodore caliper slide/bracket. I really need some black or silver brake paint to neaten these up. How it is will do for now (and probably forever, knowing how these things go!)

I worked out that 2.5" exhaust "pipe" is actually tube, and hence the perfect size for the alignment of the adaptor to factory rotor. It required a little bit of persuasion with a hammer to get the pipe perfectly round first.

Here's the view from inside the rotor, I needed to support the whole assembly on the adaptor so I could drill through.

I achieved this by putting some dies from my press underneath, and then clamping each side of the rotor down to keep tension on the whole setup so it wouldn't move.

First I drilled the retaining bolt hole, and fitted a nut and bolt to keep the whole assembly lined up for the other four holes. You may notice in the picture all the other adaptors on the cupboards have the retaining bolt hole drilled at this stage.

It's not pictured, but I used a nut that fitted inside the hole on the rotor perfectly and a smaller drill bit that fitted exactly through the center of the nut to drill a neatly centered pilot hole.

Here's the first adaptor completely drilled. I used a de-burring hand tool to neaten up the holes as it's much better at helping keep the flat surface perfectly flat than filing across the burrs would be. Because the alloy is so soft it's also possible to enlarge the holes slightly using the deburring tool to ensure the bolts can clear through perfectly.

Offering it up as a test fit.

This is what the clear looks like when layed on thick (the instructions call for two light coats and one "medium-wet" - this is the medium-wet coat)

It does cure clear as can be seen here. This is my second caliper. I'm not 100% happy with the location of my decal here from this angle but it's fine for all but a close inspection so it will be ok.

Here's the adaptor ring laid out on the new rotor and clamped ready for drilling. I used a wood drill bit for the alloy since it's so soft (for the large holes) - I think I'll probably need to invest in a good high speed steel bit before I drill the rotors. I'll drill the other adaptors first with what I've got and then try it on the rotors; that way if I kill the bit I have already done the adaptors, as I have to post two sets out.