tis the season for disc brakes...how much does it cost

[MikeMacCham]

So I think I am at the point where the car is fast....slowing down on the other hand takes time. How much is a Kit for a 68 Charger? and where is the best place to get one? Can I get parts from pic your part or do I need to make a order?

[RD]

the cheapest route would be to find a 75 or up c or b body that has the sliding calipers at a junkyard.  purchase the caliper brackets and the spindles.  both will bolt directly onto your car.  now you can go to any aftermarket autoparts store and purchase new bearings (A2 and A17), rotors (5306 if 10", 5307 if 11"), new ball joints, and new brake hoses.  All which are ready available at any autozone, oreilly's, napa, or advance autoparts.  [these part numbers are autozone part numbers, but any reputable autoparts store should be able to look up your application or cross reference those numbers].  good luck.

[bull]

There are a few aftermarket kits out there now that can compete with the A-body setup price-wise and those spindles and caliper brackets are getting hard to find. I would look on Ebay to get some ideas on aftermarket kits first before you start beating the brush for Dart spindles. Although oftentimes you can find the A-body kits on Ebay now too.

[MikeMacCham]

anyone have a idea ball park figure?

[bull]

Between $400-$800 depending on the brand.

[MikeMacCham]

NO F'ING WAY!? Its THAT cheap!?

[bull]

NO F'ING WAY!? Its THAT cheap!?

The price seems high when you're buying them but damn cheap when you're going down a steep hill with a sharp corner at the bottom of it.

[MikeMacCham]

HA Yeah I agree! I just thought it would cost more. Do you think it would be worth it to do all 4 disk or just 2?

[Silver R/T]

daily driver Charger will be fine with just the front 12" disc brakes from willwood. Now if you want to take it out to drag races/road course id swap to 13" and get rear disc brakes also.

[blue69]

Rear disc are a noticable difference. Unless you want the original look they are a worthwhile upgrade. I did the rear for around $300 with the scarebird brackets from eBay.

[miller]

daily driver Charger will be fine with just the front 12" disc brakes from willwood. Now if you want to take it out to drag races/road course id swap to 13" and get rear disc brakes also.

i just browsed prices and the willwood range from 600 to 900 and the ssbc range from 1000-1200, when i read into the specs, willwood made larger diameter rotors that were the same width, both are cross drilled and both have 4 pistons, so why are the ssbc more expensive... are they actually better or is it just for the name?

[Silver R/T]

Id go with wilwood myself, Ive priced it out a long time ago and it seems to me that you get more bang for the buck with the wilwood kit ie you get bigger rotors for the price than if you were to buy from willwood rather than SSBC. Get their Dynalite calipers man they're worth it. your handling will improve with lighter calipers

[MikeMacCham]

Awsome, so where do i get them? and sorry how much is it for just front disks?

[firefighter3931]

Mike, i went with the SS brakes setup because it bolts on directly to the stock drum brake spindles....no front end disasembly required when going from drum to disc brakes. 

The willwood stuff is lightweight "race" parts from what i've seen and the rotors can warp under street use/abuse. 


Ron

[bull]

Mike, i went with the SS brakes setup because it bolts on directly to the stock drum brake spindles....no front end disassembly required when going from drum to disc brakes. 

The willwood stuff is lightweight "race" parts from what I've seen and the rotors can warp under street use/abuse. 


Ron

Wilwood goes out of its way in its literature to explain that it is a race application brake system. In other words they are confident your car will stop with one hard application every hour or so (or however long it takes you to get back to the finish line).

[Silver R/T]

Wilwood sells 2 different applications. One is race kit and other one is street kit. Do not be confused now.
Best thing is to talk to this guy, he's great guy and will spend time walking you through, finding out what you want. He'll sell you the right stuff.
http://stores.ebay.com/The-Hotrod-Store
http://www.hotrodsusa.com/store/dpsrear_pbrake.html
btw if wilwood was so bad why are they still in the business and most cars out there with aftermarket brake systems run wilwood, hmm...

[Rolling_Thunder]

I've warped wilwood rotors..    not fun...      i do dig their E-brake though   

[Silver R/T]

I've warped wilwood rotors.. not fun... i do dig their E-brake though

did you get their blank rotors or slotted/drilled rotors and was it 2 piece design?

[69bronzeT5]

Wow, I thought they would cost more than that! I plan on getting a front disc brake kit for my '69..now installing them by myself..that will be a problem 

[bull]

btw if wilwood was so bad why are they still in the business and most cars out there with aftermarket brake systems run wilwood, hmm...

Maybe you should ask the guys at hlpag how a bad company stays in business so long. And I don't recall anyone saying Wilwood is bad, do you? Just because everyone doesn't jump right up and agree with everything you say doesn't mean they think your choices are foolish.

[suntech]

I have not seen the difference between street and race application from Wilwood, but i would assume that race brakes are bigger, better ventilation, and less prone to fading and warping.
There is a lot more to racing, than braking down from a 1/4 mile run now and then.
The kit XV has, is made by StopTech i think. That is a nice kit.

[dkn1997]

Rear disc are a noticable difference. Unless you want the original look they are a worthwhile upgrade. I did the rear for around $300 with the scarebird brackets from eBay.

could you elaborate on the scarebird kit?  I hear so much bad, but often from people who "heard it from a guy"  I am curios about your experience.  Some details and pics of your install would be great.  thanks.

[MikeMacCham]

Ok so what are the cost differences with the SS vs Wilwood and Race Vs Street?
and do hey all fit right on? Are those the main 2 everyone is saying to buy?

Thanks guys, this site rocks

[69bronzeT5]

I have sort of a stupid question. What would be better to get? Front disc brakes or rear disc brakes? . I want my car to stop better

[Silver R/T]

most the the kits out there will bolt to your stock spindles, now you will most likely have to swap master cylinders, especially when going from drum to discs. They also carry their master cylinders and master cylinder firewall adapters.

[Troy]

Ok so what are the cost differences with the SS vs Wilwood and Race Vs Street?
and do hey all fit right on? Are those the main 2 everyone is saying to buy?

Thanks guys, this site rocks

There's also a company called Master Power. As for price, you should probably check around as I'm sure the prices have changed since I researched them last. The company Silver mentioned has the best price on Wilwood from what I've seen. The best price is swapping to A/E body spindles with the later cop car rotors (like what RD was describing). Here's the link: http://www.moparaction.com/Tech/archive/disc-main.html These will stop a street car just fine. You'll have to hunt for the parts (or buy a conversion package off eBay) or you can just spend more money and buy an SSBC or Master Power kit which includes all you need.

I have sort of a stupid question. What would be better to get? Front disc brakes or rear disc brakes? . I want my car to stop better

1. Start your own thread instead of hijacking someone else's (I know you know how )
2. Front - weight transfers to the front under braking and the front end is already much heavier

Troy

[Silver R/T]

I have sort of a stupid question. What would be better to get? Front disc brakes or rear disc brakes? . I want my car to stop better

Knowing that front disc brakes do 70% of the braking on the typical car what would you do?

[blue69]

Rear disc are a noticable difference. Unless you want the original look they are a worthwhile upgrade. I did the rear for around $300 with the scarebird brackets from eBay.

could you elaborate on the scarebird kit?  I hear so much bad, but often from people who "heard it from a guy"  I am curios about your experience.  Some details and pics of your install would be great.  thanks.

They are a good kit for the price. I used an older model of their rear disc conversion. It used cadillac eldorado calipers and 11.45" ventilated rotors. I've heard of people having trouble bleeding them, but it looks like they did not mount them straight up and down like the donor car. The scarebird kit used the factory caliper angle so bleeding wasn't a problem. It is kinda hard to get the caliper pins in but they go in eventually. I had to have a new parking brake cable made for I think the driver's side. Also I had to have the holes in the rotors drilled out to fit the studs. Very little material was removed so you might get buy with different studs. I used studs a durango because I needed them to be 1/4" longer because the rotors are thicker than the drums. The new kits use a different rotor so you may not have to get different studs or drill out the holes. I had trouble getting the calipers to clear my 15 x 10" magnum wheels so I used pads with 80% life on them. The owner of scarebird said they fit a 15 x 7" magnum fine. I think the new rotors use a shorter hat, so you should double check with them it you want to use stock appearing wheels. Overall the kit works great. It may not have been a true bolt in, but for the price the modifications were not bad. I can't find any pictures right now. If I find some I will edit this post.

[MikeMacCham]

Ok sorry if i am  but since this is my first car...and that seems like a lot of stuff, which conversion kits are easyer for me to do? My father in law is a mechanic so he helps in binds but I want to do all the work to learn, are the easyer kits more expensive? and if so how much more?

[0X01B8]

I did the Mopar Action upgrade back in the day.  It's online somewhere and it's useful to look at for seeing what you'll need to do and parts you'll need, but I don't recommend it specifically.  It's a front mounted caliper upgrade which just causes all kinds of problems with sway bar interference.  I like the basic premise, which uses more common parts that you can get somewhat cheaply from your parts store.

[bill440rt]

Mike, i went with the SS brakes setup because it bolts on directly to the stock drum brake spindles....no front end disasembly required when going from drum to disc brakes. 

The willwood stuff is lightweight "race" parts from what i've seen and the rotors can warp under street use/abuse. 


Ron

I went with the SSBC Force 10 kit as well. It was the most complete kit out there for the money, as aftermarket kits go. The MP kit is pretty much based on stock stuff, with the SSBC kit the next best upgrade. I got the 4-piston calipers with slotted rotors, a manual setup. The fronts are Ford-based pieces, & everything bolts up to your stock drum spindles. The pads are over-the-counter stuff, SSBC supplies you with the make/model/part#'s if you want to buy replacement pads locally. My only gripe is that there is no rotor dust shield. Good part is that this is better for heat dissapation, Bad part is that the car is gonna get dirtier quicker from all that flying brake dust.   
Basically, I was happy with the quality of the parts & kit.

[HeavyFuel]

the cheapest route would be to find a 75 or up c or b body that has the sliding calipers at a junkyard.  purchase the caliper brackets and the spindles.  both will bolt directly onto your car.  now you can go to any aftermarket autoparts store and purchase new bearings (A2 and A17), rotors (5306 if 10", 5307 if 11"), new ball joints, and new brake hoses.  All which are ready available at any autozone, oreilly's, napa, or advance autoparts.  [these part numbers are autozone part numbers, but any reputable autoparts store should be able to look up your application or cross reference those numbers].  good luck.

How will this effect the usage of stock '68 wheels?  Isn't the spindle size different?  Are the wheel hub sizes the same across the board for swapped parts we are talking about here?