Disaster Strikes (then averted)

Before anyone gets worried, I didn't hurt myself (or anyone else), I didn't break anything and I didn't do any permanent damage to anything.  But here is what happened.

First of all, we went skiing during Presidents week and had a great time (that why there were no posts during the week of Feb 20), but that doesn't have anything to do with this post.

Of course, I ordered some parts before we left for vacation and they arrived while we were away.  We got home late Saturday night so on Sunday (Feb 27) I opened the boxes and had received the bolts I needed to complete my rear brake installation.  Everything went together easily.  Then, as I checked it over, I saw the problem.  Remember those lovely brake brackets I toiled over (and was very proud of)?  Well, they were flawed and the brakes didn't fit correctly.  It was like I was hit in the gut and I walked out of the garage with my head hanging.  How could it happen?  I measured, tested, fit, measured some more.  I couldn't do any more work that day.  Would I have to start over again making new brackets?  I couldn't believe it.  Let me show you what happened.

Remember this?  The bracket is the curved gray piece with 4 bolts going through it.  I thought it was perfect.

I installed the bracket.  Now it's painted blue (you can see 2 of the bolts going through it.

Here's the problem.  When you look down from the top, the brake caliper is rubbing on the upper control arm and will hit the bolt head as the brakes are applied.  (I tried to put a couple arrows to show where the problem is)

 The black bushing was much thicker than I thought it would be and it pushed the upper control arm back toward the caliper.

For about 2 days, I couldn't do anything.  I also felt like I couldn't show my virtual face until I had a resolution.

I finally forced myself to go back to work.  I started over again with the design to see what I would have done differently if I knew about the clearance issue.  I made 3 new versions of the bracket out of wood and tested each one on the assembly.  I selected the one I thought fit best and fine tuned it.  Then I checked it against the actual brackets and found that if I moved 2 of the mounting holes about 1/4" and did some grinding, I could reuse the old brackets.  So that's what I did.

In this picture, the bottom bracket has been modified.  Holes 2 and 4 were each moved to the left about 1/4" and the overall bracket was shortened.

Here they both are after the modifications.

Repainted and as good as new.

This afternoon, I reinstalled them and I'm very happy with the results.  This is a picture of the other side compared to the photo above, but you can see that now there is plenty of room between the bolt head, the control arm and the caliper.

Here is a photo of the new bracket installed and ready to go.

Here is the completed rear suspension.

What a relief...

I did actually get myself to do a few other things this past week.  I refurbished the fuel tank.  That will be installed this week.

And, I started test fitting the aluminum panels that will form the trunk area.

We had a lot of visitors this week (thanks to Ben's squash team party at our house).  One of the dad's offered to let me use the sheet metal fabrication facility at his company which will be great.  I have a lot of metal to cut and bend.

Here are some goals for this week.  Modify the brake and clutch pedals (more on that later) and install them.  Install the gas tank.  Install the steering shaft.  Make a mock-up of the engine to check clearance in the engine compartment.  And of course, order more parts.

I'm glad to say, I'm back in business.