Wilwood Caliper Brackets
The Finished Bracket - Well Still a work in progress... FAIL
Second bracket at bottom of the page, not a
FAIL...
Bracket 1 Cut from 1/2" cold rolled steel.
The metal was purchased from On-Line
Metals (link below). Use the old bracket
and a Wilwood bracket to get a pattern
that looked like it might work. Traced that
onto the metal plate and let the Miller
Spectrum 625 Plasma cutter do the hard
work. As you can see I'm not a good free
hand cutter but will be good enough once
I get the grinder on it.

Did I mention I love the Plasma Cutter!
My alternative to using that on 1/2"
material was the Jig saw and would have
been a longer and harder job. Might
have come out a bit cleaner, but that is
what they invented angle grinders for.
Click the Link to Online Metals if you need metal, plastic or
other materials in small quantity and cuts. They are very easy
to get what you need for your projects. Most of the projects
above use metal from them. And Prices are pretty good.
Both bracket now cut. Note the accuracy
and repeatability of the free hand work
(Read this as sarcastic). I could have
used 3/8" material but figured the 1/2"
would provide a bit more material for the
threads on the calipers mounts, and
would have no issues in the rigidity area.
After the angle grinder work, which by the
way did I mention was a dirty and noisy
event, I hit these on the vertical belt
sander and made them pretty. These still
need to have the block cut out for the top
mounting pad and the hold for the bottom
mounting, and 2 tapped holes for the
caliper brackets. The caliper mounts are
the right most bumps, the bottom left
bump is where it bolts flat to the bottom
of the Mustang II spindle. The angled flat
at the top is where a boss will be welded
to mount to the top of the spindle. If you
look picture far left you can see how it
looks on the other spindle that was made
for the Dynalites.
Bracket after some masterful angle
grinder work. This took about an hour for
both brackets. It was a loud and messy
task done outside. The paper template
was the original patter used before
plasma cutting. The pattern was made for
the 12.19" rotor, but I will not drill those
holes until I verify the rims will go over the
caliper and it will clear the rim face. If I
have to I'll move the holes down and trim
the bracket for the 11.75" rotor, that is if I
have to...
This page is to show how I made a couple of
Brake Caliper mounts for the Sunbeam Tiger
aftermarket suspension. The original used
Wilwood Dynalite calipers, but being
someone who can't leave well enough alone I
had to change them (or try) to use the much
larger pad area Superlite 6 Piston calipers.
This is a shot of the 1.25" Square Block.
The Whole is offset to allow the bracket
to have move movement offset from the
hole. The length of the slice is .75" so
plenty of threads. Remember the bracket
will be notched where the block is sitting
so it can be solidly welded on all sides.
A shot of all 3 brackets. The top Left is
the Wilwood Billet Aluminum Bracket.
Nice part thick aluminum. The lower left is
the original bracket for the Wilwood
Dynalite and 11.75" rotor, and the lower
right is the work in progress.
The Shots above and to the left are how the bracket goes together. The
left image shows it mounted to the Mustang II spindle. Some additional
trimming on the 2 camel humps will be needed just to ensure they will clear
the brake pad on the inside pad. The next step will be to make the
matching one for the other side and then tack weld them into position once
the proper offset is set. For my application with the specific brake hat and
1.25" thick rotor and a 0.5" thick mounting plate I will need approx. 0.147"
Spacer on the bottom, the top will just slide along and hopefully still be
parallel to the rotor face. These brackets would need modifications to work
with 11.75" rotors as the brake mounting lugs would get in the way of the
upper flange, so no reason at this point not to make them for the 12.19"
rotors. From the look of the Bogart rims that were made for another Tiger, it
looks like not only will the larger rotor fit, but the bigger caliper. It will be a
tight package at the top outer edge of the caliper but should fit.
The Above are all FAIL. The bracket that is ABOVE was made where the weld area would be where the boss of the caliper
would be. So read on and you will see the FAIL and the new bracket.
You can see the problem. The Yellow paint marker shows where the caliper
boss would have to be for the caliper to be set up right on the rotor. Due to
operator error this was not discovered until after welding the crap together
and wasting hours of time. Live and learn. FLog material for sure. And don't
forget to catch the SECOND fail (only a minor one) as the new bracket is
made...
This time I got smarter. Since I'm 'Corkey' the plasma cutter boy (Similar to
Jojo the monkey boy) I decided to make a melamine template out of some
thin material. I did the same CAD paper print, then taped to the melamine
and cut the shape with an Xacto knife. The material was thin about 1/8" as I
recall. Should be easy work to get the part cut, no CNC machine but better
then freehand. The pattern worked pretty good, however I should have
made 2 as it gets burnt badly after the first one, still not bad. Again material
is 1/2" Plate, Set Plasma on FULL power and go.
I skipped a few steps of the similar griding and finally some ugly welding.
TIP - MAKE SURE YOUR MASK IS NOT SET TOO DARK! Well not yet the
fail but a close one. If you had a sharp eye you might have noticed that
these rotors don't have slots in them. HMM, I noticed that too and then let
out a yell the could be heard around the world. Well in the design of the
new pattern it was made to be able to support EITHER 12.19" or 11.75"
rotors with some cutting of the mounting ears. When verifying this I checked
with the 12.19" rotor then the 11.17". Guess what it looked good. So now
back to work. Well after careful grinding and fitting I found that it looked
ready for welding. After hitting it with the Millermatic I started to look at the
smaller non-slotted rotor. And realized I never put back the 12.19" to get
the correct fitment. Oh well I guess I could whip up another set of brackets,
but I don't have the mental capacity to do so, so now it's 11.75" rotors
instead of the big 12.19" This might be a blessing in disguise as these
should really ensure 15" wheels will work.
The last 4 pic's above show the caliper on the rotor (New hat and Wilwood hub). Back side of the assembly, and a couple of shot of the caliper from the
front of the rim. The rim is a 2005 Mustang 7" wide x 16" rim. The offset is something like 39MM or so and the Tiger is going to need something like a 1/2"
spacer to use these rims. It is a good thing too, as the Wilwood hub is to 'fat' to make through the center of the rim, the spacer should fix the offset and this.
Boy I really wanted the 12.19" rotor, but when all said and done I think this will be more then enough brake for the front. If you go back to the Tiger page
you can see the comparison of the Dynalite vs. the Superlite 6. Dramatic.