A day in the life of Cammerstang build
Real early on, the Mustang was supposed to be built in stages. No one stage was supposed to take the car off of the road for any length of time.
I had thought to replace the shock towers and continue to use the 302 and top loader until I was able to collect the rest of the parts for the SOHC engine.
An additional modification to be performed when the shock towers went in was to do an upgrade to disc brakes, both front and back.
The brakes I had selected were from Baer and as luck would have it, Baer was discontinuing one of the kits I wanted which was their Sport system. It’s a 12” rotor with the classic PBR calipers. I think I talked about this before. Because the kit was being discontinued, they still had parts to make up a kit for me and it was heavily discounted. The price was so low, I was able to afford the rear disc brake kit as well. This rear kit is called the Iron Sport and it uses an 11.625” rotor and a single piston caliper with a parking brake lever built in.
I felt that this system would be adequate for the power of the 302 and the ancient suspension that would live in the car for a few more years. The drum brakes that came with the car probably would have continued to serve well but I didn’t want to deal with them. I’ve worked on drums before. It takes a seasoned hand to make sure all of the pieces work in unison to bring these types of brakes to their full potential and that isn’t me.
If you’ve read the earlier entries of this story, you know that this simple idea of building in stages turned out to be not so simple. The car needed more work than I had anticipated.
In the time that it’s taken to correct a lot of the rot that had set into this car, I had managed to acquire the parts to finally build the engine. I had also managed to buy the six speed transmission .
A few years ago, I decided that the old suspension was not going to provide the handling I was hoping to achieve and added a system that hadn’t even been on my radar the previous year. I went with a tubular A-Arm front coil over system and a three link coil over for the rear. I had added frame connectors to stiffen the unibody and felt the new suspension could make better use of this than the old coil and leaf design the car came with.
With zero miles on the brake system, I decided to do an upgrade. I’m a sucker for big brakes. With the Cammer being the engine that will be in this car when it finally hits the road again and with the stiffer chassis and improved suspension, I just felt safer going with bigger brakes.
Late in 2021 I ordered the Baer T4 front brake system. It has a 13” rotor and a 4 piston caliper. Everything is built in-house. For the rears I chose the SS4 system which is a 12” rotor and also with a 4 piston caliper. Slightly different design as the SS4 uses a smaller footprint for the caliper.
When the kit came in, I was concerned about the fit of the brakes and the wheels I have had so when the Street or Track tubular coil over system went in, the upgraded brake system was also installed. It looks like the kit was packed up and shipped out pretty quickly and without a lot of double checking of the contents because the aluminum hubs were missing their screw in wheel studs. I had to have Baer make a special delivery to get me the parts. Before the parts were sent, Baer wanted me to do an inventory and make sure there were no other components missing. The parts count came out even with the check list.
The studs came, the brakes were installed and the wheels cleared the brakes.
I didn’t install the rear brakes. I was missing the T-bolts from the original drum backing plate and these are needed for the SS4 system. I ordered new ones but before they were delivered, I had found something else that needed attending to on this black hole of time and money. I wasn’t concerned, the brakes are an easy bolt on.
Almost a year and a half later and the car is closing in on the point where I can take it down off of its blocks. Most of the exhaust is installed, the pinion angle is set and the driveshaft has been ordered and installed. I still have to plumb the brake and fuel lines. Before the brake lines are run, it would be better to run the lines to the caliper that will live in the car. Now seems like a good time to finish the rear brake install.
Dig out the SS4 system from its hibernation. Disassemble the Iron Sport package on the left rear and gather all of the parts of the SS4 to replace it. The SS4 rear brake has a small drum brake integrated into the disc for its parking brake. This is one of the selling points for me. I can’t find the instruction sheet that came with the brakes so I wing it and start disassembling things I probably shouldn’t. Before I get too far, which is already too late, I find the proper instruction sheets and discover that I shouldn’t have taken that off. An email to Baer gets me the proper torque spec to put the pieces back together.
Parking brake backing plate is installed with the proper T-bolts and nuts. Select the correct rotor, there’s a left and a right, and slide that over the axle so I can mount the caliper and then move on to the right side. One minor issue. The rotor won’t fit over the wheel studs. Silly me, it’s a dual pattern rotor hub. Let’s try the other pattern. Still doesn’t fit. Damn.
Go over and dig out the 11.625” rotor I had just boxed and lay it hub to hub on top of the 12” rotor and one set of holes do line up. Unfortunately, they’re not the set I need.
Fords use two different patterns; one is a 5X4.5” and the other is 5X4.75. The 12” rotors I have received are 5X4.75 and 5X5. My car requires 5X4.5. Uh-oh.
For those keeping track, 5X5 is used by full size GM cars. They also use 5X4.75. These new rotors are for a GM.
I’m worried now. Sure, the rotors were packaged wrong but it was done almost a year and a half ago. Would Baer acknowledge the error was on them and would they make things right? I would think I’m out of warranty and they can stand on that. With nothing to lose but a couple hundred bucks to get the correct rotors, I send an email to Baer with a copy of the invoice for these brakes, the date of purchase and what I’ve discovered. I don’t hear anything for a couple of days but then I do get a response and the reply doesn’t depress me. Baer has acknowledged their mistake and is getting the rotors ready for shipment. It takes a few days but they show up about a week after sending the initial email out.
Time to celebrate? One would think but let’s try the fit first, shall we?
I’m supposed to use the same box this last set of rotors are delivered in to send the first set of 12” rotors back. Before I do that, let’s check the fit. Open the newest box and dig out the left rotor, of course it’s on the bottom. The car is up on jack stands with the rear tire removed and this rotor won’t fit over the studs either. SMH.
I’m stunned. How can they send me the exact same rotors again?
Send out another email with the bad news.
Out of curiosity and to prove to myself and Baer that I do know what I’m doing, I measure the lug spacing on all three rotors I have.
To make sure I know what I’m doing as far as measuring the stud holes, I start with the Iron Sport 11.625” rotor. These are dual pattern and I record 5X4.5 and 4.75. Exactly what it should be. Next up is the rotor that started this game. 5X4.75 and 5X5. Measure rotor 3, the newest one. 5X4.75 and 5x4.75. Now they’re just fuckin with me.
I check my email and Baer are in disbelief.
When I take my measurements, I break out my camera and record all of the numbers I’m getting off of the digital vernier caliper. I send these pictures to Baer as a way of telling them, “IT’S NOT ME!!!!!” Fortunatley they believe me and have ANOTHER set of rotors being shipped out even before I send that last email out.
Two days later and I have set number three and I’m opening the box to test fit this batch. Finally, the rotors fit. Feeling good but tired from too many long days at work, I stop there and plan on continuing the brake install on Saturday.
It’s now the weekend and I’m at the shop. Get the car back up on jack stands, pull the left rear tire and break out the caliper.
I have the wrong caliper mount. The one I have mounts the caliper too far inward. LOL, OMG, WTF!
More pictures and another email to Baer.
I got the rotors I couldn’t use boxed up and returned to Baer and then waited to see what they had to say about the caliper anchor. It would seem that what I have encountered is not all that unusual and is generally taken care of with spacers (thick washers). Ok, I’ll see how many spacers it takes.