diy brake hats

[Graham_f]

hey,

I'm starting a new project and im looking for a little help. Its time to replace/upgrade the brakes on my car and im starting with the touareg 17z caliper setup for the front of my b6 wagon.
Ive sourced the calipers, lines, pads and now its onto the rotors. I like the idea of the two piece rotor setup and have a source to get cheap quality rotors but i need to get the hats myself as my source does not have them for my application.


I'm a diy kinda guy and i work in a fabrication shop and run a manual lathe and have access to a mill so i figure machining the hats should be pretty simple right?...famous last words:)


so i'm looking for a little extra knowledge...tips... experience...drawings...specs...or really anything you have to say. I'm not looking for exact plans for my setup, but anything like a hat cutaway or a few thickness dimensions would be great. I can easily adapt another setup to fit my needs. If you have a hat that you could take some pictures or measurements from that would be super cool as well.

kinda like this but with more numbers :)
http://www.wilwood.com/Images/HATS/Hat_Drawings-Large/Truck_Standard-5lug-lg-dwg.jpg

just looking for a place to start


Please keep the "just go but them" comments to yourself, That's not the point here. I wanna give this a try
thanks

[1sadavant]

You don't seem to have anything to start with...my suggestion would be to reverse engineer them...what I can tell you is that the stoptech hats for the St40 kits fit perfectly on these rotors. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-DBA-332x...-/221315876104) These rotors also fit the 17z calipers. These rotors are the cheapest 2 piece you will find, they are quality. All the measurements are there as far as the bolt holes you will need for the hats. you will need to know the offset of the hat. Otherwise you make the hat 68mm hub diameter, 5x112 bolt pattern. Good luck!

[Graham_f]

You don't seem to have anything to start with...my suggestion would be to reverse engineer them...what I can tell you is that the stoptech hats for the St40 kits fit perfectly on these rotors. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-DBA-332x...-/221315876104) These rotors also fit the 17z calipers. These rotors are the cheapest 2 piece you will find, they are quality. All the measurements are there as far as the bolt holes you will need for the hats. you will need to know the offset of the hat. Otherwise you make the hat 68mm hub diameter, 5x112 bolt pattern. Good luck!

Exactly...things would be easy if I had one to work from but I'm staring from nothing.

Anybody have hat they could grab a few measurements from? I've got a rough idea but the numbers I'm finding vary quite a bit and I'd feel better confirming before I begin.
I've seen the hat face thickness for 330mm brake kits anywhere from 6mm (just under 1/4") to 13mm( just over 1/2").


I'm thinking because I won't be tracking the car I will be able to get away with a setup on the lighter side. My plan at the moment is to use 6061 aluminium and go for a hat face thickness of 6.35 (1/4") and a slightly thicker mounting flange of 7.93 (5/16") to allow a partial countersink of my hat mounting bolts. I will also use a small radius to avoid stress points where the face,bell and mounting surface transition.

See any issues with this setup?

[diagnosticator]

I recommend using metric dimensions, stay consistent with the design of the car. For example, 6 or 7mm and 8mm or as required by the necessary design. Reverse engineering means designing hats to fit the application considering the offset and rotors to be used, or obtaining a sample to copy. Drafting a mechanical drawing for custom hats should not be to difficult considering your machining skills.

Google has lots of examples of rotor hats:https://www.google.com/#q=Disk+Brake+rotor+hats

[Graham_f]

Ok, so progress has been slow... but i haven't forgot about this.

lets catch up.

I messed around and made a drawing to make sure all my dimensions were right.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/gfish3410/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsbd06b44e.jpg

things looked pretty good so i made one out of some scrap steel.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/gfish3410/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpscde23f69.jpg

test fitting the hat to the rotor and confirming my dimentions... looks right to me :)
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/gfish3410/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsb5aee4ab.jpg
i then test fitted everything on the car...it will mount up with no issues at all.

so lets grab our aluminium billet...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/gfish3410/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps87e14b7d.jpg

and make this...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/gfish3410/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsa2aff009.jpg

and just a quick shot of the alu hat and rotor... makes me happy [:)]
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/gfish3410/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps716bb160.jpg


I only have access to a shared mill and indexing table, so drilling everything will have to wait a while.
hopefully i'll get my turn in the next week some time.[rolleyes]

[coolgraymemo]

Wow. Awesome progress.


Jealous of your skills.