[leecorrell]

Going to revive my thread as I never did get to upgrading my front brakes to discs. My front drum wheel cylinders are now leaking, so it's time to do something. I've got it tore down to the bare spindles so I could get measurements to figure out what I can and can't do. The 98-up F-body rotors/calipers won't work with the 15" rally 2 wheels (which I'm not willing to change at this time). I thought I might be able to use the F-body PBR calipers with C3 corvette rotors, but it looks like the calipers will hit the frame/suspension when the wheels are turned - so I think that option is out. Looks like there's only 1 option available from Scarebird since the new ownership - and that's for 14" wheels and would be worse than stock 69-72 disc system since it uses smaller rotors to fit 14" wheels. So, I think I'm looking at piecing together a stock 69-72 disc system (11" x 1" thick rotors) for about $400 or coming up with something else homegrown.

Option 1: Would be a stock 69-72 system. Cut the upper boss on my drum spindles to fit the stock disc brake bracket (don’t trust aftermarket Chinese spindles). Then order stock rotors, calipers, hoses, etc from RockAuto for about $400.

Option 2: C3 rotors, with turned down drum hubs (I have a lathe to do this myself), and then use Wilwood Dynalite-M 4 piston calipers (120-17773) with DIY brackets to end up with something better that the stock 69-72 discs for not too much more money. I think this would still fit my 15” wheels. I think I could do this for around $600. I would expect 4 piston calipers with 11.75” x 1.25” thick rotors to be a fairly significant upgrade over the stock 69-72 disc brakes.

Option 3: Replace drum brake wheel cylinders and keep putting off the disc upgrade so I can get my car back on the road without going broke in this current economy.

I’m also thinking about eliminating my power brake booster and just going with manual brakes. I have limited vacuum with my big cammed 469 and think I could get better brake feel with manual brakes.

My only real goal with the brake upgrade is to eliminate/reduce brake fade. The current 4 wheel drums will lock all 4 wheels in a panic stop situation, but they can only do it once! Then I have almost no brakes until they cool off. Reducing weight on the front of the car would be a nice “bonus” with the aluminum Wilwood calipers.

Any other suggestions or known issues with what I am considering?