i'm helping a friend do research on upgrading and repairing her '67 Buick Special she needs new brakes and suspension all around, being that i'm a Ford guy i decided to wander over here and see what you guys might have to say from my past experiences with a POS El Camino, i know to check out OPGI and PST because they have all sorts of GM parts, and pretty good prices, and from browsing old posts i found ESPO, but i was wondering if anyone had anything to add besides what i've found so far? http://www.espo.com/ (which doesn't seem to be loading for me...) http://www.opgi.com/ http://www.p-s-t.com/ now, my car ('67 Mustang) has all drum, non-power brakes, they're barely adequate for it's 2700 lbs, i know that on a full size car having the same is rediculous, and since every corner is pretty much shot, we're looking for disc brake options and once again, through looking at old posts, i found these two http://www.buickperformance.com/discbrak.htm http://www.scarebird.com/ any good, cheap rear disc conversions? does anyone have any other good options? suggestions on what to look at?
i'm just listing threads i've found interesting, don't mind me F and B body spindles http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=79094&highlight=
I use www.rockauto.com and www.napaonline.com alot for research and purchases. rockauto has real good prices, but you do have to pay shipping. Just keep it in mind. Global West has everything needed to take the upgrade to more extreme levels tubular arms, coil over shocks. They also have the standard conversions. www.globalwest.net On to the brakes... This is one of many tasks I am "halfway" into on my car, a 65 Skylark. I'm going to scarebird route with my car. This approach, you may be aware, uses GM 10.5 discs and calipers, sometimes called "metric calipers" There is a little bit of machine work involved with the scarebird approach. If you are doing the front and rear, both the front hubs and rear axles need the flange diameter turned down to drop into the 10.5 discs. Having these things machined should not discourage you, The payback is the disc rotor is a very common GM part and goes for 10 bucks on rockauto, although shipping gets ya' because buying four of them is like having a box of bricks mailed across the country :grin: Over the next couple of weekends, I plan to get my conversion finished. I'm going to start a thread with pictures and part numbers. What I've learned so far is that true "bolt on" upgrades use spindles, discs, calipers, master cylinder and proportioning valve from common parts installed on vehicles from our era. Reconditioned and ready to go. The cost seems to hover in the 700 to 1000 dollar range. At the low end of the scale the price isn't too bad, when you price out all the parts separately. These kits usually come with 11 inch rotors. This becomes a concern with some (but not all) 14 inch wheels. The rear discs are a different story in themselves. Any route you take is going to involve pulling the axles to get rid of the old drum backing plate. Not a big deal for us non-c-clip folks. The axles will need to have longer wheel studs pressed in and the bearing and seal should be replaced. If you choose the 10.5 disc, the axle flange diameter will need to be turned down to drop into the new disc. Again its a matter of what you want to do. Most kits, scarebird, tsm www.tsmmfg.com , use Eldorado 79-84 rear calipers. These are just like the GM metric front caliper but they have a parking brake mechanism. These babies are expensive! Around 150 a piece! I got lucky and found a set for 20 bucks for both at a u-pull-it place. The rebuild kit is 6 bucks. The 84 Cadillac Eldorado is an excellent source for harvesting parts: brakes, power trunk lock, auto parking brake release, all kinds of goodies. :Smarty: You can see there are some things to consider when contemplating this upgrade. I agree with you about the four wheel drum non-power set up on any good sized car being less than desireable. (thats a nice way of saying it sucks) Years ago I had a 72 Mustang convertable with drums all around. All the routine maintenance and adjustment would not make up for the fact that it was an unbalanced underperforming braking system. I'll probably repeat most of what I said in this reply when I file my "report", but I'll add part numbers and prices I found. Finally here's a pic from my brake job. Its a test fit from this morning.
If I remember right http://www.ssbrakes.com/ had decent prices on rear disc conversions if you're looking for all new stuff also, check http://mpbrakes.com/ as I think their prices are reasonable for new stuff as well.
for the rear discs, i was hoping to find something that would bolt directly on, some system from a newer car for instance, i've recently found that for ford 8" and 9" you can get the entire rear disc setup from a '91 Lincoln Town Car and bolt it straight on with minor grinding to the backing plates something along those lines it looks like she might be just dropping it off at a shop and getting 'em to replace everything, i'm trying to convince her to do otherwise found out that she's gonna need a full rear-end though, so now i get to find out what will fit that thanks for the links and info
Can you hook up the standard cable parking brake from a mid-sixties Skylark or a '68 'stang GT to one of these rear disc brake setups from a Lincoln Town Car?
honestly, i'm not sure when i get home i'll check and see what the guy that found this out did to install it i think he just used the LTC cable for it though
a guy has a front disc brake conversion for sale in the forum for 250 bucks as for rear late 80s iroc camaros will work.......just have to have a bracket welded onto the axel........my brother in law did this to many of his bombers to have full disc brakes
