Over the years certain calipers have been popular with the hotrod and conversion industry due to their simple and robust design. Once such caliper is the VB to VN rear Holden Commodore caliper. Due to many enquiries and lack of availability on the market. We took the plunge into the world of manufacturing to fill the hole.
Australian Made
Written by Cameron Parker
The Holden Commodore Rear Caliper
The rear caliper fitted to Non-IRS Commodore is a nice, compact, and light weight 38mm single piston caliper which is perfect for any conversion or hot rod build. In-fact, it’s the hot rod community we received most of the enquiry from. Because of it’s size and versatility, we decided it was the perfect caliper to dip our toes into manufacturing with. We started with original PBR drawings and employed a local pattern maker to re-create the drawings.
3D Printed Calipers
After drawing the caliper and bracket, we compared key dimensional segments with a NOS caliper. Once satisfied with all measurements we 3D printed the parts to scale for further analysis. These days with 3D printing, it takes a lot of guess work away from the process. You can reasonably quickly make changes and simply hit ‘reprint’.
Bore-ing…
After receiving the initial batch of caliper housings and brackets, we conducted precise micrometer measurements on the piston bore, piston seal groove diameter, and guide pin bores. These measurements uncovered some tolerance discrepancies when compared to the original drawings. In response, our supplier crafted a new batch with adjusted tolerances, and we have now entered the repetition testing phase.
This phase utilizes our specially designed caliper test rig, which will operate continuously for a week, executing a 70,000 test cycle at 1200 psi. This rigorous testing simulates the equivalent of 100,000 km of braking applications.
After passing, we approved the castings and kicked off production. We took the approach of assembling these calipers here at Partswise. By performing assembly in-house, we ensure the use of our own certified OE Quality rubber components, maintaining our rigorous quality standards.
We’re excited to announce that part numbers PW31109 (LHR) and PW31110 (RHR) for 1978-2000 Holden Commodore’s (Non-IRS) are now part of our stocked line and are quickly becoming customer favorites. Especially amongst the custom/hotrod community. Our team’s dedication and hard work have truly paid off!
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