Hello friends. I'm writing in regards to a question that I received from a fellow enthusiast in our club. He was complaining about the lack of stopping power with the original Dunlops, and now, one of the calipers is leaking. (Series 1.5 E-Type Coupe). I don't know how hard he drives, but I know he doesn't race. He was thinking about getting a set of Wilwood calipers, but I suggested having his calipers re-sleeved in stainless. (I think once he gets a load of the cost of a set of Wilwood's he's going to think again.)

Back during the restoration of my vehicle, I had Stainless Steel Brake Corp re-sleeve all of my calipers, but I just visited their site and it looks as though they don't do that kind of work anymore. http://www.stainlesssteelbrakes.com/
My search yielded a couple of dissatisfied customers on the search list as well, so I don't know what has happened to that company (SSBC).
Can anyone recommend a good, quality company for repairing/resleeving Dunlop calipers?

Patrick McLoad
Jaguar Club of Houston

Submitted by mfrank@westnet.com on Tue, 01/07/2003 - 13:02

patrick:

I'm not sure whether the brass or steel sleeve would be better...the sleeve should have a higher coefficient than the caliper body. Without knowing more about the materials in question, it's probably unfair to generalize.

Mike Frank

Submitted by mcload@ev1.net on Tue, 01/07/2003 - 10:25

Thanks John and Frank; White Post is probably a good shop. However, at the time of doing my calipers, I had read something about brass sleeves vs stainless steel. It said that the brass had a disimilar expansion coefficient (or something nerdy like that)compared to stainless steel. Perhaps this was just marketing propaganda. I would expect that for average braking, both will work fine...racing is yet another issue. I'll pass it on.

Patrick

Submitted by mfrank@westnet.com on Tue, 01/07/2003 - 10:19

I think there's been a mixed bag of experience with resleeving, regardless of the vendor. I suspect that a sleeve which is pressed in with a nice interference fit may become loose when the caliper is hot. Brass sleeves may be less prone to this problem than stainless. That's just a speculation, I've never had a reason to look into it.

There are several folks still doing resleeving. Try Apple Hydraulics, Joe Curto, or White Post. I also think that big vendors like British Auto (sorry, SNG Barratt), or XK's do sleeves. These should all be familiar names.

Mike Frank