so i went to NAPA today and picked up some brakes for my 86 Camaro..

[novaderrik]

some brake stuff for my 86 Camaro. if it works out, i'll get the same stuff for the T Type eventually.. seems like a lot of brake for the $230 (including sales tax) that i paid for both sides..

i

the fat guy (me) approves..

those LS1 F bodies sure had some beefy brake stuff on them, should be a bit better than the stock setup..
and, no, they aren't giving away free Pepsi Throwback as some kind of a promotional tie in..

 

[DavidM]

Sounds like a good deal!

Do you have a parts list if you would do it to your T?

You should document and put it up under the "How To" section.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

They are good brakes! You wont be dissapointed. I swapped the LT1 brakes out on my 4th gen with the LS1 ones and the car stops amazing now. I never understood why my stock brake cutlass stopped better than my 4th gen but it changed with the brake swap.

 

[novaderrik]

Sounds like a good deal!

Do you have a parts list if you would do it to your T?

You should document and put it up under the "How To" section.

just get the rotors, calipers, and pads for a 98-02 Camaro or Firebird- they all had the same brakes, so don't worry about which model. the rotors are also the same as 2000-2004 or so Impalas and what not, so they are cheap and every parts store will likely have them in stock.. make your stock rotor into a hub that fits inside the Camaro rotor.. modify your spindle by cutting off the stock caliper mounting brackets and drilling/tapping the dust shield holes to use as mounting points for the mounting bracket that you make out of 1/4" steel. it's all been covered many times, and can all be done with basic hand tools in not too much time- you don't even necessarily have to take the spindle off the car, but it would definitely be easier. i picked up a set of spindles for my Camaro at a junkyard for $25 each so i can modify them and get it all put together without having to dig the car out of the snowdrift and take it apart..

 

[novaderrik]

this is a pic of one of the junkyard spindles i got for the car.. a G body spindle gets exactly the same things done to it. the stuff i marked in red gets cut off and the circled holes get tapped out for 12mm bolts:

then you either make a simple bracket out of 1/4" steel, or take the easy way out and order a set from a place like Kore3, and you are ready to bolt the calipers up..

 

[novaderrik]

a half hour with a sawzall and a flapper wheel on the grinder resulted in this. would have been faster, but i decided to grind down all the forging lines and break all the sharp edges while i had the grinder in my hand... i'll drill and tap the holes at work next week, and i need to find a set of mi 80's Caprice rotors to make into hubs before i can make the actual caliper mounting bracket..

 

[TRICKSIXPA]

So question if I'm using stock spindles why and how do I go about making the stock rotors into hubs for the new f body rotors? Just trying to understand this.

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

When I did this mod I used a drill press and drilled a series of holes through the rotor right up next to the hub section. Then whacked the rotor with a hammer to crack it off the hub. Pressed out the stock wheel studs as longer ones are required.

Chucked the hub in a lathe and cleaned up where the rotor used to be attached. Cut a bevel at the edge of the front face of the hub to help it fit within the new rotor hat. Test fit along the way.

Pressed in new longer wheel studs being careful to line up the serrations. Otherwise can crack the hub.

If you have access to a brake lathe or a larger machine lathe can remove the rotor section with it.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

a half hour with a sawzall and a flapper wheel on the grinder resulted in this. would have been faster, but i decided to grind down all the forging lines and break all the sharp edges while i had the grinder in my hand... i'll drill and tap the holes at work next week, and i need to find a set of mi 80's Caprice rotors to make into hubs before i can make the actual caliper mounting bracket..

i always thought that 80s B body had a different bolt pattern???

 

[novaderrik]

the B bodies with the HD suspension and 12" brakes- wagons, cop cars- had the bigger bolt pattern. the rest had the smaller 11" rotors and the 5X4.75 bolt pattern. they also used 7/16" studs, but that's not an issue for me since i'm going with Dorman 1/2" studs that are for an '05 Mustang...

When I did this mod I used a drill press and drilled a series of holes through the rotor right up next to the hub section. Then whacked the rotor with a hammer to crack it off the hub. Pressed out the stock wheel studs as longer ones are required.

Chucked the hub in a lathe and cleaned up where the rotor used to be attached. Cut a bevel at the edge of the front face of the hub to help it fit within the new rotor hat. Test fit along the way.

Pressed in new longer wheel studs being careful to line up the serrations. Otherwise can crack the hub.

If you have access to a brake lathe or a larger machine lathe can remove the rotor section with it.

RemoveBeforeFlight

so you used your stock rotors to make hubs? if it worked on a G body, should also work on my F body.. don't suppose you have any measurements for how far the face of the hub sits up from the plane of the bosses where you drilled the mounting holes in the spindle? i have a set of old Chevelle or Nova drum brake hubs that i might be able to use if they are the same..

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

No measurements. The g-body & 3rd gen f-body use the same rotor & caliper (at least the '85 - '87 g-body). Yes, I used the stock 10.5" rotor to make the hub.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[turbo96max]

this is a pic of one of the junkyard spindles i got for the car.. a G body spindle gets exactly the same things done to it. the stuff i marked in red gets cut off and the circled holes get tapped out for 12mm bolts:

then you either make a simple bracket out of 1/4" steel, or take the easy way out and order a set from a place like Kore3, and you are ready to bolt the calipers up..

Dont see the image?

 

[novaderrik]

Dont see the image?

do you see the rest of the images? they show up for me..

here's more from tonight at work:

making the hubs fit on the lathe... this is an old Chevelle/Nova drum hub that i had so i thought i'd try.. but they won't work due to pushing the rotor too far out:

drilling out dust shield holes to (i think) 27/64 on the bridgeport mill:

tapping holes to M12-1.25.. again, on the Bridgeport.. i gotta get me one of those for at home:

mock up. ignore the lack of wheel studs and the use of bolts to hold it together.. not only am i not using these hubs, but i'll be using 1/2" studs for an '05 Mustang.:

rear of the spindle... if you look, you can see that there is about an inch between the caliper bracket mounting hole and the boss on the spindle. that won't do- gonna order some new 86 Camaro rotors to hack up to make hubs tomorrow:

 

[novaderrik]

got some more done over the last couple of days..

sacrificial F/G body rotor on the left, LS1 Camaro rotor on the right:

here is the only part of the rotor i need:

got it all mocked up, made a couple of brackets but need to re-engineer them and do it again. found a place online that has printable templates for most of the popular swaps- www.lukeskaff.com -as well as DXF and CAD files for those that might find that useful.. also need to find some m12X1.25 bolts to bolt everything to the spindle... i thought fine thread would be better there- little did i know that i chose a size that isn't commonly stocked anywhere. M12X1.75 is what was used on the caliper baskets and what GM used for the caliper mounting brackets on the 1LE F bodies in the early 90's, so i should have just used that.. oh well... live and learn..

 

[novaderrik]

here's a few pics of how the bracket holds it all together:

it only took me 3 tries before i nailed down the final hole placement.
just need a few minor parts, blast and paint everything, pack the bearings, and put it all together..

 

[696]

Cool!! Thanks for the great details and PICS!!! (Always worth 1000 words). The www.lukeskaff.com site is spot on as well. I can see me doing this mod possibly this summer.

 

[novaderrik]

just hung everything up and fogged some semi gloss black Rustoleum on it all..

 

[novaderrik]

here's my final mockup pics.. everything fits, everything clears, and i just need to pack the bearings, install the grease seals, and shorten up the Dorman caliper mounting bolts for a Ford application:

everything fits, nothing rubs.. just gotta blow it all apart one last time to pack the bearings, install the grease seals, put red loctite on the bolts, and install longer wheel studs. haven't decided if i wanna get longer 12mm studs or drill the hubs out a little bit and use a set of Dorman 1/2" studs for the front of an '05-current Mustang.. i've also got a set of Dorman caliper mounting bolts for a Ford application that i'm gonna use to mount the baskets to the bracket i made, but they are about 1/4" too long and need to be shortened up... that should make things look a little more oem if you poke your head under there...

 

[novaderrik]

oh, yeah, i'm also going to paint the aluminum calipers the same black as everything else once i know they don't leak... just wanna make them disappear...
one other thing i might do is to shoot a fog coat of black onto the rotors to keep them from turning that lovely orange color from rust.. but i might just leave them bare to give everything that "i'm stock, nothing to see here" kinda vibe...

 

[novaderrik]

here is the longer stud compared to a stock stud:

here they are installed in the hubs i made for the LS1 brake swap on my Camaro, with shiny new Dorman lug nuts: