The decisions in building one of these cars is hard enough, wondering “can I actually build this?” and then you make modifications. Every modification that deviates from the ‘norm’ definitely adds time and complexity to the build. Is it impossible? No. But it DOES take time and patience. Since I decided to build this FFR, I wanted it to be a homage to the original but with modern day features. Anti-lock brakes has been on cars for 30+ years now, and for good reason… I can’t remember the last car I’ve owned without ABS… maybe my 1989 Mustang.
Of course, since this is a customization, it will take some learning, some money, and some patience! Gathering the parts to get this setup together wasn’t terribly hard, as there have been a handful of folks who have done this. The last ABS braking system on the Mustang was in the 2006-2011 GT500 space. Meaning, it has a separate HCU from the ECU that requires tie-in to the ECU for operation. Here’s a breakdown of the parts:
Since this is a custom add-on, I had to mount the HCU. Some have welded, other have used the Breeze battery box, I chose to try my hand at sheet metal box creation and mount next to my existing breeze box. Harbor Freight sheet metal brake and some spare sheet metal, and I was able to put together a decently solid box that is mounted in between the 4″ tubes.
the ebay HCU mount cut it up to fit cleaning things up pizza box template 😉 decided to use my new grinder a bit POR-15 the devil! measuring and scribing the box my HF brake can’t do multi-bends so off to the bench vise 🙂 clean up the box holes sprayed it accidentally with grey… more POR15 the initial mount up with rivets cleco’ed into place mounted onto the frame HCU now mounted hey – look a battery too!!
Now that the mount and HCU were in place, it was time to start the brake lines. I have the Whitby Motorcars power brake setup, and there’s a front and rear output. They align with the two holes closest to the battery. The front line took 50″ of 3/16″ tubing, and the rear line was 45″. Make sure to use a de-burring tool to smooth the cut ends. A simple tubing cutter is all that is needed.
I used the Rigid 3/16 tubing bender – they work great once you get things aligned! I just need to use my 3D brain more often, a couple of times I got the angle perfect, but it was 180 degrees off LOL. The Eastwood brake flaring tool is just awesome! Makes excellent 45 degree flared ends. One trick I’ve learned is to tape your flared nut toward the end of the pipe just so you don’t forget about it and do a bend that locks it out of place 🙂
So the feed lines are done, I ordered another 25 ft of NiCopp line because I’ll need to run 4 lines from the HCU to each wheel.
Hope to keep the momentum going! Should have all 4 lines run up this week!
