I have finished doing all of my frame work and I am now ready to start putting my car back together. The frame is painted and ready to be assembled. I have been looking at a number of different suspension and brakes possibilities, and haven't decided yet.

I think I want to go with Baer for my brakes. I don't know if Baer is the best or not, but it seems like every car you see in a magazine has them. They just seem like the top choice. I really wanna build my car right, but I am not rich! I can't seem to find any iformation on Baer products. The only thing I know is that they do not sell direct and you have to buy from a dealer. I have not found a dealer yet.

Has anyone here gone with Baer or a similar brand??

I need pretty much everything so If I coud find a kit with all four wheels in one package that would be nice. The only thing I have seen with every manufacturer is either front or back-not the whole kit. When I say everything, I mean everything. I do want 4 wheel disc. I don't wanna have to deal with the headache of disc/drum. I need spindles, I want to go the 2 inch drop route, rotors-prefer slotted and or drilled if price permits, calipers, lines, master cylinder and booster, and anything else. I have everything that came off of my car stock, which includes all four drums, stock spindles, the whole system basically. I am not sure what this stuff is worth or if anybody even wants it but I have it.

I have been looking at several suspension companies also. I like PST's stuff, I have a catalog for them. I am gonna use my stock upper and lower control arms and trailing arms. The only thing I really need as far as that goes is the bushings and ball joints and tie rod ends. I'm not gonna do springs yet, I'm gonna wait and see how the car handles with the stock stuff.

This 66 will have a 415 small block in it with a stick hopefully. I want that tremec 6 speed, but man is that sucker expensive! So for right now, its gonna be a built powerglide.

If you have put some suspension and brake components on your car and you like them, let me know. I'm just undecided on what to get and I want to spend my money wisely. thanks for your input.

I used a complete PST set for my 66, I went with the rubber bushings, I really like them, no harsh ride. I also got a pair of Moog springs, it's really kind of silly not to replace them as long as the front end is apart, I paid about $60.00 for a pair of springs from O'reillys auto parts store.

As far as the brakes go, I can't help you much, I replaced every brake part on my 66 with the stock replacements Read that as I have 4 wheel drums.


Rocky

A couple of pointers.

Drilled rotors are typically not recommended for street use. The holes create stress points in the rotor that can cause them to crack. The changes of a crack are slim but then the holes really don't make a difference anyways so why bother unless you need just must have that look.

It's also not recommened to use poly bushings in the upper arms of the rear suspension. The converging arms have to bend side to side as will as pivot around the bolt and poly bushings don't allow this to happen which binds the suspension.

If you're really on a budget and don't really want to put out the money for a Baer system you could piece together parts yourself to get good disk brakes all around. You could look at using the tall spindle conversion which gives you 12" front brakes and drops the front. Then, use something like newer F-body or S-10 rear brakes. These could be put together for much less than a 4-wheel Baer brake system could be. There really are a number of options out there so go through the old posts here and the brake conversion posts and do some reading. There's a company (I can't remember who) that's coming out with a tall spindle that's a direct replacement for the Chevelle spindle which is taller and I think it's also dropped so you could use any disk conversion kit on it that would fit on a stock Chevelle.

Peter

www.p-s-t.com for the suspension kit, I recommend the Master kit, it includes almost everything you need except for springs.

I can vouch for baer's track/touring combo as i have them on my 67. And yes, i did purchase mine directly from baer. Just called them up and placed my order. I believe it took like 6 weeks or a little more to get'em. I got the 13" front/11" rear cross-drilled and slotted rotors with red powder coated calipers. I also got a hydroboost assist from hydratech. This combination is unbeatable. I'm using the stock drum-brake spindles, stock control arms and 2"/3" lowering springs, front/rear. Pics on my homepage.

1967talldeck427-From what I can tell, you don't have a booster. How does that work out or how do you like it? I really like that Baer brake setup that you have. I am gonna go with at least 17 inch wheels, maybe 18. What did you end up paying for all of your brake componenets? I am not really worried about "everything" right now I just need what is necessarry to get the chassis rolling right now. I like the way your car sits too with the lowered springs. did you do the shortening yourself or buy them? Do you like the results as opposed to drop spindles?

Also, anyone else that may reply, could I really use like brakes off of a camaro or s10 truck? What all does that envolve?

I also have the PST full front kit on my 66SS also. I also added a sway bar and a set of KYB shocks. I used the poly bushings instead of rubber.

Drilled rotors are typically not recommended for street use. The holes create stress points in the rotor that can cause them to crack. The changes of a crack are slim but then the holes really don't make a difference anyways so why bother unless you need just must have that look.

Most of the 'lesser' quality rotors are drilled after the machining process, which leads to weak points through the rotor. Quality rotors (Baer, Wilwood) use a different process, so the holes don't present a problem for street use. I'm looking at the Wilwood 6-piston set-upfor my 67, and I asked about this exact issue.

I have been looking at several suspension companies also. I like PST's stuff, I have a catalog for them. I am gonna use my stock upper and lower control arms and trailing arms. The only thing I really need as far as that goes is the bushings and ball joints and tie rod ends. I'm not gonna do springs yet, I'm gonna wait and see how the car handles with the stock stuff.

Give Doug or Kevin a call at Global West...they know their suspensions/brakes for A and F bodies better than anyone else I've spoken to...and are very helpful to boot. They offer disc conversion packages as well as Wilwood packages, and have track tested everything they offer. As mentioned before, the polygraphite and polyurethane bushings tend to bind due to their inherent characteristics, and the Delalum bushings offered by GW are second to none.

Not the cheapest stuff by any means, but after putting their components on my 383 powered 97 Z28, I'm sold on the quality, engineering and service.

I put S-10 rear disks onto a 10-bolt axle. Here are the basics;

- Newer S-10 or Blazer I think late 90's to newest models had them. Only 4x4 and sport models had them I believe as 2wd S-10 does not.

- Requires 2wd rotors with the centre hole very slightly opened. A few minutes with a die grinder going around inside the hole does it.

- It requires spacing the caliper brakets off the axle flange. I think I used 3 washers on each bolt between the axle flange and the caliper bracket.

- You'll have to come up with the e-brake cable routing if you want an e-brake. If you don't then just leave the e-brake parts off since they're seperate from the disk brake parts. The e-brake is a mini-drum brake inside the rotor.

- You'll have to come up with a mount to hold the axle end of the caliper hose. I used some front drum brake brakets that I welded to the axle. They are an L shaped bracket so you could likely just use them with a hose clamp around the axle holding onto the part that would usually bolt to the frame. With most rear disk brakes you end up with a hose from the axle to the frame with hard lines to the axle ends and then two hoses from each axle end to the calipers (the calipers are floating so they need the hose).

Overall, it's a fairly easy swap to do and really not much harder then a bolt-on kit would be but it was much cheaper.

Peter

1967talldeck427-From what I can tell, you don't have a booster. How does that work out or how do you like it? I really like that Baer brake setup that you have. I am gonna go with at least 17 inch wheels, maybe 18. What did you end up paying for all of your brake componenets? I am not really worried about "everything" right now I just need what is necessarry to get the chassis rolling right now. I like the way your car sits too with the lowered springs. did you do the shortening yourself or buy them? Do you like the results as opposed to drop spindles?

Also, anyone else that may reply, could I really use like brakes off of a camaro or s10 truck? What all does that envolve?

I dont have a vacuum booster cause im using a hydroboost setup which ties into ur power steering pump and uses hydraulic assist rather than vacuum assist for your brakes. 100% better than vacuum assist. I don't remember the exact cost but it was somewhere around $2200-2400 for the complete baer setup. I bought lowering springs from original parts group. 3" lower in the rear, and 2" lower in the front. never used drop spindles so cant comment on which is better, but i like the way mine works.

Give Doug or Kevin a call at Global West...they know their suspensions/brakes for A and F bodies better than anyone else I've spoken to...and are very helpful to boot. They offer disc conversion packages as well as Wilwood packages, and have track tested everything they offer. As mentioned before, the polygraphite and polyurethane bushings tend to bind due to their inherent characteristics, and the Delalum bushings offered by GW are second to none.

Actually the GW group did a great job of putting together a Teflon style bushing package but their overall "competition" suspension doesn't impress me. They are not doing anything spectacular other than packaging some stuff that has been around for decades.

As for the poly comment, I don't think anyone will argue with anti-poly feelings but in this application the "binding" theory is incorrect. Poly only induces a bind condition when it is required to move in any direction other than a simple pivot (like a front control arm). For the front end poly is fine if you are into that sort of thing, I prefer solid (Teflon) pivots.

If I use the brake components from a camaro or a s10truck, do I have to use the spindles from that vehicle or do I just use my stock spindles? I like the idea of lowering springs, I had not thought of that.

I am a tool maker by trade so I can pretty much handle any kind of rigging or bracket building I have to do.

Matter of fact if it wasn't such a pain in the ass, I'd probably design my own brake system and build it myself but I'm too lazy. I build alot of custom things for my vehicles including a complete engine serpentine sytem f I built for this car.

By far the easiest rear swap is the late model LSx Camaro. Just pull the backing plates with everything attached and install it on your axle....done.

The front is literally anything you want, there are more disc conversions out there than cars it seems. If you like building bracketry than look into the C4 or C5 conversion. The Baer kit you are looking into is just a pair of C4 calipers with Baers logo and some pretty rotors.

in this application the "binding" theory is incorrect. (Teflon) pivots.

It wasn't incorrect; I simply didn't explain it as well as you. In semi-competition or spirited street driving, the (primarily rear) suspension will be asked to pivot in more directions than just its primary axis. Most folks will rarely put their suspension into any type of bind, nor care.

Actually the rear always has to has to "pivot in more directions than it's primary axis" as part of the design (different discussion all together). The front does not, or should not rather ever pivot in any other direction. Front control arms pivot perpendicular to the center line so they simply rotate around the bushing, no complex articulation required of this application.