I'll be happy to provide whatever assistance I can. When you're all done, I'd love to hear how it went, and how you like your new brakes.

DISCLAIMER
I developed this upgrade for my own use, and I am offering it to others as a courtesy only, and on a strictly AS-IS basis. USE THIS INFORMATION STRICTLY AT YOUR OWN RISK!! I will accept absolutely no responsibility or liability for anything that happens as a result of your use of the information presented here.

OVERVIEW
Several vendors offer Wilwood brake upgrades for E-Types, at prices starting at about $600. While there are detail differences between these kits, they are all functionally identical. The differences are the specific Wilwood calipers used, some include braided steel hoses, the mounting brackets are obviously different designs, and fabricated from different materials. Each
of these trade-offs is discussed below, so you can make an informed decision about which options you want to implement.

My upgrade is also functionally identical to the commercial offerings, only cheaper. Depending on exactly what you have on-hand, what you need to buy, and prevailing prices in your area, the whole job can be done for as little as $350, and should only take about 2 hours to install. Worst case cost is probably about $400-450. There are two reasons my upgrade is cheaper:

1) You're not paying the overhead of the vendors
2) You will have to do a little more work yourself

However, when you're done, you'll have an upgrade that is functionally identical to the commercial offerings, and nobody other than you will ever know the difference. This document, and the attached drawing, provide instructions on how to do the upgrade, where you can buy all necessary components, and what everything *should* cost. Of course, "your mileage may vary". All you need to do, that you would not if you bought one of the commercial kits, is have the brackets fabricated by a local machine shop using the attached drawing, and fabricate the short steel brake lines that connect the calipers to the brake hoses.

I'm not going to explain how to bleed the brakes here. If you don't know that, you shouldn't be thinking about doing this.

BTW - This is a *real* good time to toss on a new set of rotors and brake hoses as well.

WILL THIS WORK ON MY CAR?
Well, that depends. The bracket is designed only to fit a Series I car, although I have seen at least one Series II car with Series I brakes on it. Don't ask me how they got there. It seems there are an awful lot of "hacked" cars out there that have parts from other years and models on them. Your first step should be to verify you really do have Series I brakes on your car. This is very easy. Open the bonnet, and look at the calipers, both from under the bonnet, and through the wheel. Series I calipers are made by Dunlop, and have "Dunlop" embossed on the outside of both cylinders. They are two piston calipers, so they look essentially the same from both the left and right sides. They use silly, little pads that are about 2" square. Next check that the center-to-center spacing on the caliper mounting bolts is 3", rather than the 3-1/2" of the Series II calipers. Finally, check the thickness of your rotor. The Series II rotor is 3/8" thick, while the Series II rotor is 1/2" thick. If all these check out, the upgrade should work for you. If not, your car may have been modified, and the upgrade *may* not work for you. If you're not sure, let me know what you find, and I'll try to help you sort it out.

MOUNTING BRACKETS
The mounting brackets can be fabricated by any machine shop. I had mine made for about $55 each. Shop around, as you'll find considerable difference in price from shop to shop. It's not rocket science, and does not require any great precision, so pretty much any shop, or anyone who knows even a little about running a milling machine, can do it.

For material, you have some flexibility. The drawing specifies 7075 aluminum, which is a high-strength aircraft-grade aluminum alloy that is both extremely strong, and relatively light weight. I think this is a great choice, but I made mine from 6061 aluminum, which is not quite as strong, but cheaper, and will almost always be on-hand at any machine shop. You can also use
steel, but the machining will probably cost more, the brackets will be heavier, and they will be subject to rust if not plated. I've had a number of people express concern that aluminum is either not strong enough, or somehow cannot handle the heat of this application. While I could put my engineering degree to use and go into great technical detail about why these concerns are unfounded, I will instead ask a simple question: What are the Wilwood (and virutally all high-performance) calipers made of? Answer: aluminum. And, a rather soft, mild aluminum at that!

For surface finish, the as-machined finish is fine. If you want to smooth out the milling marks, you can ask the shop to media blast or tumble them. The drawing specifies black anodize plating. Any plating is primarily a cosmetic issue, assuming you don't drive in snow and salt. If you do drive in snow and salt, STOP THAT! For aluminum, anodizing is the finish to use, and you have your choice of colors (black, red, blue, etc.). If you make your brackets from steel, get them clear zinc, chromate or cadmium plated. Again, it's primarily an appearance thing. My recommendation is save some money, and paint them instead. I didn't bother to plate mine, to save cost. Hell, I didn't even paint them! My car is never even driven in the rain, so corrosion is
not an issue. Once the calipers are mounted, the brackets are not really visible, so appearancewas not a concern for me either.

CALIPERS
You have a choice of calipers as well. Some commercial kits use the Wilwood Billet Dynalite calipers, which are absolutely *gorgeous*, anodized aluminum, completely milled out of aluminum billets. These are what I used, and are available for $104
each over the web. If you want to save a little money, you can get the Dynalite II, which is a functionally identical caliper in cast aluminum for about $87 each. These are the ones offered in some commercial kits. The *only* difference is appearance, and a slight difference in weight (billet is a tad lighter). They are functionally absolutely identical. The cheapest source I could find for these on-line is Behrent's Performance Warehouse. 

The part numbers are:
Billet Dynalite:
P/N WIL120-4993 1.75" piston, 3/8" thick rotor $104.37/ea. (2 req'd)
Dynalite II:
P/N WIL120-1051L 1.75" piston, 3/8" thick rotor, left side $ 86.98/ea. (1 req'd)
P/N WIL120-1051R 1.75" piston, 3/8" thick rotor, right side $ 86.98/ea. (1 req'd)

Pads:
P/N WIL15D-4331K Poly-Matrix "D" pads for Dynalite $ 37.50/set (1 set req'd)
For either caliper, you'll also need the Wilwood "Tube Adaptors":
P/N WIL220-0628 Wilwood caliper tube adaptors $ 3.81/pkg. (1 pkg req'd)

You'll notice the cast Dynalite II calipers come in left and right. The only difference is the locations of the bleed screws and crossover tubes are reversed, so the bleed screws will always be on the top. The Billet Dynalite has internal crossover, and there are bleed screws at all four corners, so they can be mounted either side up.

MOUNTING BOLTS
The existing caliper mounting bolts (and possibly shims) can be used to mount the brackets. You'll also need four each 3/8-24UNF x 1-1/2" Grade 8 bolts, hardened split washers, and hardened flat washers for mounting the calipers to the brackets. These should all be readily available from most hardware or auto parts stores. How it all goes together is described below.

BRAKE HOSES
Many people really like stainless steel brake hoses. I admit, they do look kinda cool. I'm told they provide a slightly firmer pedal, since they are essentially immune to expansion under pressure. That's about the only real benefit I can see. I have a hard time buying the argument that they are more durable in on-road use. In fact, I have reason to believe they can be less
reliable, unless they are plastic jacketed to prevent dirt from getting into the braided cover, and abrading the teflon inner tube. Some people cover them with heat shrink tubing to prevent this, and some come pre-jacketed. Of course, then you don't get the cool look.....

It's a good idea to replace old hoses. Use stainless steel hoses if you want, or keep the rubber ones if you want. If you do decide to use stainless hoses, buy a brand-name product, and make sure they're jacketed. There are a lot of cheap knock-offs out there that are inferior quality, and brakes is no place to take chances. If you decide to keep the rubber hoses, make sure they're in good shape. If they're more than a few years old, it would probably be wise to just go ahead and replace them while it's all apart. They don't cost much, compared to the cost of a brake failure on-the-road.

BRAKE LINES
You will need to fabricate new steel brake lines to connect the calipers to the brake hoses. Everything you need to do this should be readily available from any auto parts store. First, take one of the Wilwood tube adaptors to the store with you, and buy a pre-made 3/16" steel brake line at least 18" long, with two flare fittings that will screw into the Wilwood adaptors.
This steel line should cost $3-4. You'll need a brake tubing flaring tool, which should also be available from the auto parts store for about $20-25 for a decent one. Finally, you'll need a small tubing cutter, available from any hardware store, plumbing store, or home center for about $5. If you like, you can also buy a tubing bending tool, though I simply bent mine by hand, using a piece of 1/2" pipe as a mandrel. While you're at the auto parts store, pickup a quart of good DOT-3 brake fluid.

UPGRADING REAR BRAKES
Since this Wilwood upgrade significantly increases the stopping power of the front brakes, the brake bias is shifted more towards the front than before. While it is perfectly drivable like this, the braking performance can be fairly easily improved at no cost by simply moving the cylinders from the original Dunlop front calipers to the rear calipers. The entire caliper cannot be
moved, as the emergency brake attaches to the frame of the rear calipers, and the appropriate fittings do not exist on the front calipers. The cylinders are interchangeable, however. I won’t both to give detailed instructions on how to do this, as it is quite straight-forward. It does, however, require dropping the entire independent rear suspension (IRS) assembly to gain access to the rear calipers. This is considered by some to be a difficult job. I have done it by myself, and did not find it to be all that difficult, but I can certainly see that having a second person on-hand could make it easier to put it back in place and get it lined up properly. Once the rear calipers are removed from the IRS, the cylinders can be removed from the frame by simply disconnecting the bridge pipe and the four bolts securing each cylinder to the frame. Then, simply replace them with the cylinders from the front calipers. This would also be a good time to consider replacing the rear rotors and/or brake hose, if any of them are at all suspect.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTALLATION