Another big project has been crossed off the list. The Runvia can now, I assume, stop on a dime. Surprisingly, this turned out to be one of the most fun projects to date as it quickly went from a basic caliper and pad replacement to a complete overhaul of the braking system. As usual it involved a bunch of stuff I had laying around, and a bit of fabrication.

The rear brakes were actually the least work. While I have a set of R32 rear calipers on the shelf I hate the drum side-brake setup with a passion. I’ve always loved how the factory S13 side-brake feels and how easy it is to maintain so I stuck with the factory calipers and just gave them a new paint job and threw in some DFC metallic pads, which have a ton of initial bite. The only other upgrade out back was a set of P2M braided brake lines.

Up front is where most of my time was spent, and my first purchase was a new brake master cylinder. Because the S13 is RHD, I figured I was going to need to order another Silvia or Skyline master cylinder from Japan. I couldn’t use a USDM Z32 unit because the lines would come out of the wrong side. Fortunately I discovered a 1992 Nissan Pathfinder master cylinder was essentially the same as the JDM S13 and had the lines coming out of the correct side.

After pulling the engine back out I had plenty of space to work on things. I decided to start by building the lines coming off of the new master cylinder. Previously, I had looked at braided line kits, but decided hard lines looked better and it was going to be much cheaper. They’re actually fairly easy to build once you get the hang of it. A 25’ roll of 3/16 steel hard line is around $20 on Amazon and you can get a big bag of M10x1.0 fittings for even less. One thing I would highly recommend is the flare tool I used. I’ve been through a few different types, but this one has by far been the best, and it’s cheap. Click here to grab one off Amazon.

Originally I started off using copper-nickel line, but it was impossible to get tight 90 degree bends out of it without crushing the line. The fancy bender I was using made great looking bends, but I wanted a much tighter radius. I ended up switching to steel line and just using a cheap hand bender from Harbor Freight (pictured above). You can see the drastic difference in the picture on the left. In the end all I needed tool-wise was a $40 double flare tool off Amazon and a $10 hand bender from Harbor Freight.

Starting at the master cylinder I worked my way out. I will admit that I didn’t plan my routes out in advance, which was a mistake, and just started bending. As a result I had to keep redoing sections because I wasn’t happy with how they looked. Eventually I managed to find a route I liked and stuck with it.

I also gave up on trying to make a long, one-piece line that ran rom the master cylinder to the passenger side and threw a union in. I managed to line it up next to the union to the rear so it ended up looking pretty decent. The brackets I used to secure the line in place are specifically designed for 3/16 line and can be grabbed off Amazon here.

The factory lines run across to the passenger side way above the motor. At first I considered actually running the line through the firewall and out on the other side to hide it, but I figured it would be well hidden if I ran it low behind the motor. I am slightly concerned about the exhaust heating the line up so I might end up using some heat shielding around that section.

I decided to use a union on the passenger side as well. In the future, if I don’t like the section going across behind the motor I can always take it off and replace it with a section that goes behind the firewall, or one the runs up high like the factory lines.

With all the hard lines off the master cylinder done, I was pretty satisfied with the result. I was also happy about my decision to switch to steel lines and a hand bender so I could make those tight 90 degree bends off of the master.

While I was working on the brakes I decided to throw on one of my newest stickers. It’s a replica of the old Abbey Road Company (ARC) badges. I saw a real one on Yahoo Auctions, but I wasn’t about to drop $100 on it. Instead I decided to just make my own and then decided to make them available in my web-shop. In addition to CA18, I also made them for the SR20, RB20, RB25, RB26 and KA24. Check them out here.

Moving into the wheel wells, the hard line sections to the brackets were easy enough to make. My main goal was to get them to pass through the holes dead center so I can add a grommet later. The brackets I used from Sideways Fab were nice and pretty cheap. I was careful to position the brackets so the braided lines did not get caught on anything and didn’t bind going from lock to lock.

I’m using Z1 Motorsports Z32 braided lines. At first I had the lines running straight into the calipers, but realized they’d be hitting the sway bar at lock. So I made some small 90 degree sections to make sure the line would clear.

In addition to replacing all the factory lines, I also upgraded to BNR32 GT-R brakes. They’re actually slightly larger than Z32 brakes, which is nice in terms of performance, but also makes it more expensive. I can use Z32 pads, but the Z32 rotors are too small. Thankfully I had new OEM rotors, but once they need replacing I won’t be able to just run to Autozone and get cheap Z32 rotors.

That does it for this post. The brakes were a lot of work, but they’re all wrapped up. At this point all I have to do is add fluid and bleed them once I have the rest of the car done.