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Roadstergal

Today was the first day of boating season, which snarls up traffic at my lab unbelievably. I went to a friend's house to wait it out. Since my brakes have been sqealing embarassingly, I took the time to pull the wheels and put on antisqueal. I don't know how it snowballed, but we ended up doing the wheels, tires, trim, and windows. A few findings...

-Quick Detail/Speed Shine does a number on plain brake dust. That I'd known, and Jay was surprised to find out. Good for quickie-removal of brake dust.

-Griot's Wheels Cleaner does a number on road tar and the harder-to-get-off crap on the backs of the wheels. And it smells good. Just spray on and wipe off. Back of a wheel, back of a wheel during Speed Shine, back of a wheel post Speed Shine, and back of a wheel post Wheel Cleaner. No, I didn't clean the part that mates the hub.

-Tire dressing doesn't look so cheesy when you wipe it off with a towel; it just looks black, and not gross and wet. It also does a good thing for the black trim; I'd used Back To Black on it, so it looked a lot less grey than it had, but the tire dressing makes it look black. For now.

Pre-tire dressing; post-tire dressing. Driver's front and passenger's front.

-Griot's Chassis Darkener makes the fender gap look more subtle.

-The brakes still squeeeeeal at anything less than half throttle, despite the antisqueal on the pad backs. Is that just something inherent to Metalmasters? They didn't squeal at first, only months after I put them in.

Car done:

Billo

Beauty!

Bill

JRS · Joined: 09 Jun 2002 Posts: 2386 Location: USA

Bitchin'...

JRS

dale · Joined: 22 Aug 1999 Posts: 3087 Location: Seattle, WA USA

The car sure looks 100% better then when you bought it last year RoadsterGal.

On the brakes squealing, there are a couple of things to try.
1) harder compounds like your Metal Masters are more likely to squeal then softer compounds like the Deluxe or the Jurid or Pagid stock replacement. But the Jurid/Pagid leave all that black dust...which I just live with.

2) shims on the back of the pads help reduce the squeal

3) the blue permatec "anti-squeal" helps also

4) be sure the caliper pins are lubed with high-temp grease

5) I find that after hard use, my pads start to squeal in day to day driving. I think of it as the car begging me to drive harder!
"Oh come on, that was so much fun, let's do it again."

I was going to go to the Alfa club day at Pacific Raceways tomorrow, but I still have too much stuff to do, so I'll be working in the garage tomorrow if you want to swing by and try out any of these things.

Roadstergal

quote:
Originally posted by dale:
3) the blue permatec "anti-squeal" helps also

That's what I tried, but maybe I didn't use enough? I'll drop by; let me know when you're up and working.

Roadstergal

Wow, the wheels held up through meltfall, rocks, snow, dirt, and a lot of other crap today.

bbbidit · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 163 Location: TEXAS

It must be hell living in such a beautiful place ...

you take some awesome photos too .

bobm · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 19 Location: Woodinville Wa

Great pix! Darrington and points north and east?

I went to PR yesterday to drive with the Alfa club - sorry you couldn't make it Dale. Bad news: an E36 M3 - don't know the driver - got loose in 8, tried to recover, held on through 9, and hit the wall hard 150 feet beyond the T9 apex. Driver and passenger OK, but the car suffered extensive body and suspension damage.

It was the first track day with Carbotech Panther XP pads on the 325. Amazing. The first couple of brake zone cones are just scenery. But the car pulls right under hard braking now - got to pull the wheels and see if I can spot a caliper problem.

Roadstergal

quote:
Originally posted by bobm:
It was the first track day with Carbotech Panther XP pads on the 325. Amazing.

Ooh, glad to hear you like 'em - I picked up a set for the Miata and will be trying them out June 6th.

dale · Joined: 22 Aug 1999 Posts: 3087 Location: Seattle, WA USA

RoadsterGal, those pics are from your trip to Rainier, right?

Bob, I meant to make the Alfa club day, but decided to get work done on the race car. Portland is next week, and I wanted at least a chance of having the car ready to run on Sunday... Not positive I'm going yet, but if I do, I want the car ready.

Glad to hear you like the Carbotech XPs, I've been really happy with them.

Dale

[ 05-03-2004: Message edited by: dale ]

Roadstergal

quote:
Originally posted by dale:
RoadsterGal, those pics are from your trip to Rainier, right?

Yep. Too many roads closed at the moment, though. I wanted to go to Tipsoo Lake.

bobm · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 19 Location: Woodinville Wa

quote:
Originally posted by Roadstergal:

Ooh, glad to hear you like 'em - I picked up a set for the Miata and will be trying them out June 6th.

It's mondo stoppage - there's more braking power available than I'm comfortable using yet. Bedding them on Saturday with street tires mounted it took only moderate braking force to get into ABS. 60-20mph seemed like it required about the length of a good-size dining room table. With meaty, sticky track tires yesterday it felt like the rear end would catch air before the ABS spoke up. Especially braking for 3A (in a stock E30 325 it's 100-ish MPH to 40- MPH while going down a hill, for those unfamiliar with Pacific Raceways).

There's little or no apparent wear in 160 track miles, the rotors look great, and what little brake dust there is is the color of wheels so you don't see it except up close. What's not to like? The Miata ought to stop in the length of an end table!