Long time reader, first time poster.....

[mypetelvis]

Hi everybody....

I've been lurking around for the past 7-8 months now since I got my roadster and after most of the posts here, thought it was time to say hello.

My car, a '68 spl, was a gift from my father. He's a long time mechanic who got his start working for Datsun in 1971. After that, he started his own shop, specializing in Datsun and Toyota. After 30 years, he finally shut the bay doors and retired.
As he was moving out of state, he couldn't take all of his cars with him, so he had to thin out the heard. Which meant my older brother ended up with the unfinished 68 srl race car project and I got the parts car.

My car had been sitting next to a dumpster outside the shop for many years. Needless to say, it wasn't a pretty sight (still isn't). However, after fresh gas and a new battery, she fired right up.
Since time was limited due to the move, I had to get as much done as quickly and cheaply as possible to make the drive home.

Since cheap was the word, I had to do some substitution.
The front calipers are now off of a 83 BMW 320i (they stop great), master cylinder is a 510, starter motor is a 510.

After getting it starting and stopping, I took it out for a spin around the neighborhood, and blew the head gasket.
Well, what started out as a head gasket turned into a full rebuild (there goes cheap ), including porting the head and a M13 cam regrind from Joe at American Custom Cam (his shop ended up being right down the street).
It may still look rough, but man it moves.

Now, thanks to my brother, I have a parts car for my parts car.
He found a 70 srl for $300 that has been sitting in some guys back yard.
We dragged that one home, and after a little investigation it appears that the motor was rebuilt before it was parked. So now it looks like my rebuilt 1600 is being replaced with a 2000, five speed and all!!
Wow, these cars are addictive.

You guys have been a great help. Seems like everytime I had a question, someone else ended up asking before I could. Thanks everybody!!

Here's a couple pictures, mines the one in primer.

[ppeters914]

The front calipers are now off of a 83 BMW 320i (they stop great), master cylinder is a 510, starter motor is a 510.

Well, we've got Volvo and other Nissan brake conversions, but I'm only aware of the Porsche 914 crowd using the BMW 320i brakes. Tell us more about this cheap substitution.

[mypetelvis]

Hi Pete,

The mounting holes on the BMW calipers are the same distance apart as the stock calipers, however the holes needed to be enlarged for the 1/2" bolts on the Datsun. Also, the diameter of the rotor needs to be taken down abit. If I remember right it was about a 1/4" off the edge or so (1/2" off the overall diameter of the rotor). On the back of the caliper, next to where the line attatches, a little bit of the casting needed to be taken off with a die grinder to clear the spindle. The front of the caliper, where the piston is, also needed to be kissed with a die grinder so that it cleared the wheel (This depends on the rims being used. It barely touched on the five slot mags, but was not a problem with a stock rim).

It was really not much work to get it on there and they stop great.

Now regarding this being a cheap substitution, I purchased the calipers at the junk yard. I've priced the calipers online and they seem to run about $135 (including core charge) a peice for rebuilts. Add to this the cost of having the rotors cut down, if you don't have access to a lathe, and you are somewhere in the $300 range. For a little more, you could get a set of new stock calipers and call it a day.

I just called them cheap because I scored a good set from the junkyard for $40, and that included a set of new-ish pads.



Sorry, I only have this horrible cell phone pic right now.


Kevin

[matt4pl]

So glad I found this... Going to rebuild my datsun's brakes and could not find any info on BMW brake conversions. These were on here when I bought it and when the previous owner told me the fronts had been upgraded, I just assumed he meant Volvo upgrade. Now I know, so thanks again.

[Gregs672000]

Very interesting option that I have never heard of. Unclear to me whether you can run a vented disc on this or not. I used a maxima disc cut down slightly in a similar manner as described for my Toyota 4runner set up that I run. That set up required a lot of welded mods to the mount, this one does not. Maybe someone will dig into this further... post pics!

[fj20spl311]

The 320 BMW is a 10" solid disc in the early years, I did not check to see if they went to a vented disc in the later years.
Its a smaller piston at 48 mm, so you need to use a smaller master cylinder....IIRC a 510 cylinder is a smaller bore ?5/8?...
The German standard for pads is a higher bite / friction, so that helps also.

[matt4pl]

The previous owner had machined spacer plates to go in between the two halves of the caliper to allow for a vented rotor to be used with these calipers. They're about a 1/4" thick. The only thing I don't like is that he used what basically amounts to a flattened cotter pin for the pad slide pins since the OEM BMW studs would have been too short. I'm still unsure what rotors are on the car though. I'm in the process of rebuilding them so I'll snap some pics while I'm at it.