just got the frame back from the powder coater. looks great. I want to use the orig disc brakes on front, the rear is a currie 12 bolt with their baer discs,
I think the stock suspension is a little obsolete, what do you recommend for control arms front and rear. The engine is a 489 procharger and tremec 5 speed. Can I get away with the stock calipers? Or do I go for broke and put on the big breaks up front while I do the a arms. Boy this car is getting expensive!

Stock suspension is good up to 725 horse, because thats what we ran on the street and a couple of times at a dragstrip.

My son was about 40 years old when he had it, and it didn't get babied.

This was a 70 chevelle.

More than 80% of your braking power comes from the front brakes. I'd upgrade with that power on tap, especially since you are considering a suspension improvement as well. You won't be happy with those stock brakes on there.
It's only money!!

Dan

More than 80% of your braking power comes from the front brakes. I'd upgrade with that power on tap, especially since you are considering a suspension improvement as well. You won't be happy with those stock brakes on there.
It's only money!!

Dan

I'm sure you have a point here Dan, but over the years driving some of these cars I guess I could honestly say I never ever considered a brake up grade.

Some of the faster cars that I have driven with stock brakes, some at the drag strip but mostly on the street and they were driven hard.

Three 1969 Dodge darts

Original grand spaulding 440 dart, with additional performance upgrades.

340 with a six pack and headers, built to the max.

stock 340 new in 69, two years of driving to work and an occasional drag strip run

66 vette 427 425 horse 410 gears 4 speed

70 chevelle 540 with nitros, 725 horse, drag strip and a lot of street duty

All these cars had the brakes they came with.

Then I can go back to 1955 when chevy came out with there first v8 and power pack, up through the 60's and early 70's, I guess I could honestly say, I can't remember anybody up grading there brakes.

I guess its like poly body mounts, and tubular control arms, maybe its because I'm behind the times.:)

will bigger brakes fit on stock spindles or do i need those also. can i use the 15" wheels. I already have tires and wheels

All depends what you're going to do with it.

While you can drive it on stock parts, there are a lot of improvements that have been made in 40-so years.

The biggest issue in the stock suspension is the front end geometry. You don't need to spend a "jazillion" $ to modify it enough to get an significant improvement AND value for your $. There are a lot of folks who will attest to the dramatic difference it can make.

Rear is not as critical, but there are improvements that can be had. Here's a link to an older post that helped me sort out some ideas.

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121137

Regarding the brakes, just like the stock ft. geometry, they are 40-so year old technology. There is only so much that you fit inside 15" rims. Adding rear disc's help a lot.

If 15's are an ABSOLUTE must, maybe you should look into newer design components that may add braking force yet still fit inside the rims.

Possibly upgrading the pads to a material that does not fade as much under very hard braking is another option.

Again, speaking with someone who is familiar with all of these components and has a lot of experience will shave a lot of "mystery" off of which parts to use.

I'd recommend that you speak with someone like (and buy your parts from) Marc at SC&C, before you do anything.

The one thing that keeps sticking in my mind as I write is a recent post about a member who was "tooling" along in the slow lane, driving within the limits (or so he thought) of what he had, when someone cut in front of him and slammed on the brakes of their modern disc brake ABS equipped car.

He couldn't stop fast enough and slammed into them.

Considering that point, what's most important to you?

You have 3 choices:
Ability to steer around them
Ability to stop before hitting them
Insured value, zero deductible coverage and great seat belts.

As far as rear disc brakes and how much they help you stop. This is what I experienced years ago.

We took the front brakes off a car or they wouldn't work, it must of been 40 years ago, I can't remember exactly, anyway.

We had to take the car across town, we were teenagers and when we pulled up to the first stop sign one of the back tires just slid and start squealing. It wouldn't even slow the car down, we were surprised that even one wheel doing the braking wouldn't help stop it.

After that I didn't have a lot of faith in rear brakes.

When you apply the front brakes on a car the weight of the car pulling down will put the weight on the front wheels, when this weight shifts I wouldn't think that the back brakes would do anything, I could be wrong, but putting disc brakes on the back of a car, they look good, but stopping power, that might be questionable.

As far as rear disc brakes and how much they help you stop. This is what I experienced years ago.

We took the front brakes off a car or they wouldn't work, it must of been 40 years ago, I can't remember exactly, anyway.

We had to take the car across town, we were teenagers and when we pulled up to the first stop sign one of the back tires just slid and start squealing. It wouldn't even slow the car down, we were surprised that even one wheel doing the braking wouldn't help stop it.

After that I didn't have a lot of faith in rear brakes.

When you apply the front brakes on a car the weight of the car pulling down will put the weight on the front wheels, when this weight shifts I wouldn't think that the back brakes would do anything, I could be wrong, but putting disc brakes on the back of a car, they look good, but stopping power, that might be questionable.



Your absolutely right......the fronts are doing 70% of the stopping......spend your money on the front if ya have to spend money :thumbsup:

So for brakes, once you can lock up the tires there is no more braking force that you can use. Thus if your stockers are capable of this they will work.

Where newer or bigger or otherwise upgraded brakes make a difference is in repeated stops. The bigger brakes will absorb and disspate more heat maintaining a more consistent pedal pressure. The original brakes are smaller and will require progressively more pedal pressure to generate the same braking force with repeated use.

Disc brakes can make an improvement because they reduce the take-up time compared to drums. This makes for faster braking response.

A downside to upgrades is the OEM systems were designed to work together on this platform so there should be a degree of balance. You start swapping things you could end up completely unbalanced and worse off than when you started.

Another thing I guess I could mention, and I have been wondering if any body else feels the same way, or maybe its just me.

When I walk up to a car like at a car show and the hood is up and I look in and see tubular control arms, I wonder.

I wonder if they are the good ones, I guess some are better then others.

I wonder what else was replaced on the front end, I also wonder who did it, and did they have the right application for the car, if the recommended torque settings were followed, are the fasteners they used the right grade 5 or grade 8.

Also was the car taken in to a reputable shop to check the alignment, or just to look at every thing and make sure its safe.

I do know from reading on the car forums theres some really nice stuff for front suspension, better then the stock stuff, but at the same time I'm not sure of some of it.

I would think that anybody thats thinking about buying a car with aftermarket front suspension add ons would want to do just a little research and make sure things are right, and I would bet that for the most part most of it is done right, but without a manual or the papers on what was put in how would you know.

well i decided, I went with a Global West system with coil overs, low spindles and baer breaks. then i had a fight with my wife of 10yrs. She said its the car or her. I threw her out. Finally free, I hope. I'm glad the title is still in my dads name. No marital property here.