[Nicks67GTO]

So heres the latest. The frame is still at the shop. I was basically told i'm a second tier customer straight up. Most guys would get pissed but i'm ok with honesty, even if its not what I want to hear, I can appreciate it. I get it, they make their money on insurance claims, not GTO frames, so whatever.

Anyhow I decided on a brake kit. I'm went with TRSD 13" Signature series fronts. After seeing this kit im about 99% sure i'm going to go 12" rears too. These brakes aren't as expensive as you might think either. I got them damn near $100 bucks cheaper than Jegs or Summit offer, just by doing a little searching and comparing between vendors. They consist of 2002 Shelby Mustang 45mm twin piston calipers, 13" D&S zinc washed corvette C4 28mm thick rotors, CNC machined hubs that re drilled for 7/16 and 1/2" wheel studs, braided lines and all other hardware. They are VERY nice and the 13" brakes are HUGE compared to the 11" stuff that I have on there right now. Ill be pulling those parts for a 70' Chevelle I have on the back burner. I might be ordering the rear 12" kit as well but frame clearance issues need to be verified since my rear was ordered 3/4" narrow on both sides.

Anyhow here's a bunch of 13" brake kit pics.....

[arbys]

Those are good pictures. Is the dollar bill what's left after $2K? How did you do all your research? I wouldn't have thought to check on Mustang and Corvette parts.

PS It looks like a 3 course dinner on the table.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by arbys

Those are good pictures. Is the dollar bill what's left after $2K? How did you do all your research? I wouldn't have thought to check on Mustang and Corvette parts.

PS It looks like a 3 course dinner on the table.

HAHA. The buck is there for reference when looking at parts...but yeah the buck lost a lot of buddies in the battle of big brake! They weren't cheap but not as bad as one would think. They were about half of what Kore3 wanted for the C6 front kit and I just couldn't justify the extra $. Tobin@ Kore3 is a cool cat and his customer service is exceptional besides that. I wanted C6's in a bad way but after consideration for everything I bought these. I got the front kit for $650 shipped. Not too shabby IMO and they'll look good behind the Mag G's i'm planning for springtime!

I did hours of research as I normally do. Lots of google searches, making phone calls and sending emails to both companies. The difference between the TRSD's and C5-6 brakes is mainly in the rotor width. C5-6 is 32mm and the C4 that comes in my kit is 28mm. The calipers were both PBR cast originally, the TRSD's are powdercoated unlike the C6's and both had similar calipers. The 4mm width wasn't a huge deal to me since i'm not going to ever take my car to speeds that require that kind of rotor cooling. It was a no brainier for me and TRSD had fantastic custiomer service when I bought their 11" kit that im currently using..

[Nicks67GTO]

Well I got my frame back...finally. Its now within 2mm on the front balljoints. The frame was clean as a whistle but crooked, really crooked in spots. It took them 13.5 hours to clean it up...ouch. But now its probably better than it ever was from the factory. Most of the factory seams are really well done so i'm going to leave most of them alone. Iv'e got to clean a couple welds up but its not big deal. I decided to go with the ABC boxing kit and their solid aluminum body mounts. I also went with an isolator kit from SC&C designed for these body mounts to prevent any "unlike metal" corrosion problems that would ever occur.

I just wanted to throw something out there. Iv'e seen lots of debate on weather or not to use a 110v fluxcore welder on frame work. While I wouldn't use it to build an entire chassis or ever consider one professionally, the little flux core Lincoln 120v welder might make some ugly ass welds and spatter all over but penetration seems fine and i'm pretty sure it shouldn't be any problem keeping the boxing plates in place. Ill just have to do a little extra work cleaning the welds up a bit with an angle grinder.

I'm about done tacking my plates in and ill start filling soon....

[arbys]

I would think that penetration is penetration. I've started to lay down some good welds with my Weldpak 135. BTW where did you get the boxing plates?

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by arbys

I would think that penetration is penetration. I've started to lay down some good welds with my Weldpak 135. BTW where did you get the boxing plates?

ABC performance, they make some neat A body stuff for the DIY at home hotrod guy.

http://abcperformance.net/

Agreed on the penetration. I made a comment about it because I read a lot comments from interwebz hero's who just insisted you have to have a 208v industrial mig setup to get anything done.