Which front disc conversion requires the least modification and is high quality? Have you had any experience with each?

 

I'm comfortable with used parts, so I would purchase a setup from a 1969-72 A-body with the single piston caliper and rebuild them. If you do be sure you get all the little pieces such as the "L" shaped brackets that bolt to the frame and have the rubber hoses attached to them. If you do a search I believe you will find several threads talking about disc brakes. John

 

I like the 69/72 disc set up. You can use the Buick, Pontiac, Chevelle, cars and also the 73/74 Omega, ventura and the Buick Apollo. I also like to use the "A" body station wagon rear brakes, the are 2 1/2 wide. You have to get the backing plate and drum and bolts right on.

Gene

 

Only the Vista Cruiser and the Buick Sportwagon used the 2.5" rear drums. All other A-body wagons used the normal 2" drums. The Vista rear drums are getting harder to find. An easier to find upgrade is to go with the 11x2" rear drums. These were used on the 73-77 A-body cars. Again, these are getting difficult to find. An alternate is to use the backing plates from a 77-90 B-body with the big brakes. The B-body cars use a 5 x 5" bolt circle, but you can still get the 73-77 drums (with the 5 x 4.75" bolt circle) brand new.

As for the front disks, here's the low cost way to do it:

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...sk-brakes.html

 

Check ECI brakes, the specialize in street rod conversions. They have a kit that will allow you to use your drum spindle (with slight modifications) plus their narrow track conversion moves the front wheels in 1" on each side over the 68-72 set up. The 68-72's move the wheel out 1/2 over the drum. I had all kind of wheel rubbing issues on my 64 until I converted to ECI

 

The only difference between the drum and disk spindles is the height of the upper bolt boss. Any machine shop and cut this down easily and cheaply. This allows you to use stock caliper brackets, which can be had for under $30 a pair. Here's a link that describes the differences (scroll down the page - and note that first gen Camaros use the same spindles as A-body cars):

http://www.pozziracing.com/brakes.ht...Drums_to_Discs

 

Thanks to all.