Factory Five Roadster Build Part 7: Project Snake Charmer

With the front brakes complete, a quick fit check of our Mustang Tuning-supplied FR500 replica wheels ensures everything will work together. The FR500s are a popular late-model wheel, but we chose them because we think they have a modern look of the original Cobra wheel. Sized at 17x9, we have P255/40ZR17 Nitto NT555s ordered to wrap around them.

Rear-Brake Assembly
The SSBC Force 10 R1 rear-brake kit (PN A110-11; $1,195) we're using is designed for the Ford late-model 9-inch "Torino" bearing size and is sandwiched between the 9-inch bearing retainer and the axlehousing flange. Here, we removed the lock nuts, bearing retainer, and T-bolts from our axlehousing.

When fitting the SSBC rear-caliper adapter bracket, a thin shim is added to take up the space between the bracket and the axle bearing. The kit comes with several, so you'll have to measure and add shims as required. Ours took one shim per side.

The complete caliper adapter bracket is shown here installed, along with the original bearing retainer and the actual caliper mounting bracket attached as well. Note the thick spacers offsetting the caliper mounting bracket inboard of the axle flange.

The Force 10 kit uses an 11.25-inch vented rotor with ball-milled directional venting on the rotor surface, which is zinc washed for looks and corrosion protection. While our rotors were a hub-centric fit to the rear axles, SSBC provides a machined adapter if your axle's center is smaller than the rotor's inside diameter.

The R1 calipers slide into place on the caliper mounting brackets and are secured by 31/48-inch Allen-head caliper slide bolts. Ensure the caliper slide bolts engage the ends of the brake pads correctly.

One of the cool features of the R1 is the built-in parking-brake setup. There's no need for a separate parking-brake caliper on the SSBC setup. Carefully removing the pivot bolt and reclocking the pivot arm to the proper angle, which is what we are doing here, easily repositions the parking-brake lever for optimum cable routing.

Again, once the rear brakes were completed, we grabbed a rear wheel for a test fit and some impromptu drooling. The Mustang Tuning FR500s we're using out back measure a steam-roller-sized 17x10.5 inches and will be wearing Nitto's NT555R street-legal drag-radial tire in P315/35ZR17 size.

After completing the rear-brake installation on our DTS-built axlehousing, it was time to bring it home and install it in our Roadster project. Since we ordered our kit with the three-link rear suspension, FFR preinstalled the three-link brackets and welded them at the factory for us. While this creates a strong assembly, we misjudged the working room and found we had to either pull the caliper and rotor back off or temporarily remove the lower control arm mounting bracket for the housing to pass through the frame opening.