I picked up the 57 chevy wagon from the classifieds,straight 6 3 sp,4 dr....gonna build it for my second son (with his help or it will just be for me!) anyway I want to upgrade to power disk brakes. Is there an easy swap or do I spend bucks and buy a kit? Also...anybody got any dress up or speed stuff for the motor???
plenty of hop-ups for the old six on the water, speedway, patrick's, or in the classifieds. also check stovebolt.com, inliners.org
69 chevy Impala or Caprice front spindle and calipers are a bolt on, just have to have a tapered cone reducer built fer the lower ball joints, sometimes there needs to be longer bolts for the upper a arms to get enough camber if I remember right, been a long time since I done it... last few I did I just ordered the bracket kit from CCI and then hit the boneyards fer Chevelle parts
My personal feeling is that it's a ton less hassle, and within a reasonable cost, to just buy a good kit. With the kit you're going to get fresh spindles, fresh bearings, new rotors, new calipers and pads, new rubber hoses, the hard lines required, a new master cylinder, a new power booster, the hose that runs from the booster to the manifold, the brackets needed, and instructions to tell you how to put it all togehter, where to drill the pushrod hole in the brake pedal arm, etc. With junk yard parts, you'll still need to buy new bearings, seals and pads, the calipers and master cylinder may or may not need to be rebuilt but you'll probably want to spend time and resources cleaniner and detailing them, you'll need new rubber hoses, bend your own hards lines (which means you'll have to buy lengths of hard line and fittings, unless you already have a coil), deal with a bracket to mount the booster to the firewall, and you'll need to turn the rotors. Plus, I don't know where you live, but the vintage spindles that are typically used for this swap aren't just a junk yard away any more. You can save some money on the kits if you go with manual brakes and stock spindles, too. Cut the coils, or if they're tired originals just get a new set of 2-inch drop coils. -Brad
yea...I kinda figured the kit was easy,any recommendations on who has a good one? I was going to just cut a coil to drop it....and I guess manual disk brakes are still way better than the old drum setup...I really want to make sure it stops goooood! The frontend on this car looks perfect!
CCI, Ralph Roberts etc sell the kits. you can buy the brackets seperately and buy all the components at local parts house. Most of the components are the same as used on 68-72 A bodied Chevy. i.e. Chevelle, Skylark etc. Calipers, pads, rotors etc. If I remember correctly you can do a search hear and come up with the thread that lists the interchangeable components. Might be a little cheaper to go that route. Most of the brackets will move teh wheels out approximately 7/8 inch so realignment(toe in reset) will be necessary. I use the non power disc set up on my 55--stops fine. Power disc on my Nomad--stops with less effort. Hope this helps
Brewsir, I would just get one of the kits with dropped spindles and new brake parts. It is not that much money and you have all new parts. Power booster is not really required, but you can. If you have time this weekend, get to Pleasanton and hit the goodguys show, there will be plenty of vendors with 55-57 stuff and you can get a "show special" price and save shipping. I used McGaughy's (or however it is spelled) on my 59 El Camino and got all the parts in one kit, it was simple as bolting on new pieces.
Oh yea...goodguys show....maybe I can hit the swap saturday...My Sunday is pretty much gone (of course so is my Saturday but what the hell!)
I used 68-72 Camaro, did NOT have to change the spindles. I did have to get rid of the puny 6 and used a 300 horse crate motor, 359 turbo, electric wipers, the 68-72 power booster and air conditioning. Do NOT repeat NOT buy air conditioning from Old Air Products in Fort Worth! Mine is a 4dr wagon, too.
were they pretty much a bolt on then ...different bearings maybe?? How about the booster...did it require much modification or just drill some new holes??? Gotta keep the slow six as my son is a little slow!
Shafer's Classic Reproductions is the supplier to a bunch of the companies that carry those kits. (CCI, etc.) www.shafersclassic.com (813) 628-0092 Also, while you're doing it, get one of their kits to convert the rear drums to self-adjusters. It's pretty innexpensive, and easy as cake to instal. Doesn't make a ton of sense to upgrade the fronts to discs, and then keep the stock manual-adjusters in the rear. When do you think you're EVER going to adjust the rears with discs up front? It won't be monthly. Shafers has those kits as well. -Brad
Brewsir, I have all the part numbers if you want to check out the feasability of the "build your own" kit. Let me know if you want them.
It was kinda funny about the power booster. It sita at an angle which does NOT work on the 57 but It was obvious that a quick piewedge cut on the bracket would take care of that. Its been working fine for about 5 years. I took the rear wheel brake adjusters off an El Camino Maybe a 1978??
nice score, I had 2 57 nomads that sat and sat and sat until my mother sold them both for 7,000 along with a couple muncies some tri power manifolds and...... an old corvette fuel injection system. Why?
Brewsir, on my Chevy I used dropped spindles from Heidt's. They give you a list of brake parts you can use. I went with 92 S-10 rotors and calipers.They're 10 and 1/2 inch, fit inside 14 inch wheels.All the parts are available at any parts store for cheap, the only thing the studs are metric.I'm not running a booster, works fine.
You had mentioned possibly using manual discs? If you go that route, the m/c included in most kits is one from a 68-72 Chevy half ton. Might save a few $$ by not buying the cyl. in the kit??
Then do I use a prop valve from a 68-72 PU? And is that actually a direct bolt in??? I may do the dropped spindles with the s-10 stuff...I can get my parts at shop rate.
A fellow in town here did his race car and his driver with the truck m/c. Bolt-in. He used a Wilwood proportioning valve on both, and then the bracket kit on the race car and McGaughy's spindles and brake kit on the driver. This is the same setup I intend to use on my hardtop. I have driven his driver 55 and it stops just as good as any power setup and 1/3 of the cost. The 'cheapy' set-up for these is a power m/c out of a 62-4 full size Chevy - bolt-in - and a vast improvement over the original.
Brewsir, I used a master cylinder for a 68 Chevelle with manual brakes. Bolts to the bottom 2 bolts on your firewall.Had to adjust my rod about an inch.
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