Good afternoon Fellow Rocketeers,

I would like some help please! I am in the middle of a front end suspension rebuild and have heard much ado regarding the venerable disc brake conversion upgrade. Is there anyway to complete this on a strict budget?
Or Can anyone tell me of a few donor cars? I was told by Scott at Astro Auto parts in Johnstown Ohio that it would be nearly impossible to find anymore donor cars because of the popularity of these disc brake upgrades. i may be naive but I want to see for myself. $799.00 seems very steep for the front brakes. Will any other late model Gm cars work? Help!!! I wonder will a 1985 Buick Regal disc brake set up work? I also would like a single disc caliper set up? i would really like to take this time to do it right since everything is off and out of the way. Once i complete this I am going to attempt to separate the frame and chasis to paint it with kbs and move onto something else. Can anyone here steer a novice in the right direction? By the way thanks to all of the guys who responded to my manifold question, this site is an invaluable tool of real relevant information. I will upload pics soon.

 

No one knows what your idea of a strict budget is. That's a subjective point.
Clarify your budget. Realistically you do get what you pay for with brakes.
Some small disc upgrades aren't worth the $$$ to bother upgrading to.
If you're talking just a few hundred to get a MUCH better setup......save until you have it.
Ebay sells those generic low performance OEM 70's disc upgrade kits.

Brakes to me are a VERY VERY important part of a vehicles survival.
If you don't take them seriously, you can lose your investment.

Today, almost every vehicle on the road can stop MUCH faster then a classic.
Keep that in mind if you have to hammer the brakes one day.

I spent $1100 on my C5 front brake upgrades on my 78z.
I'd strongly advise searching the GTO and Chevelle forums for disc brake upgrades.
The problem here is you have absolutely NO IDEA if it was worth it unless they do braking comparisons

 

Also what year of car u working on? yeah 85 buick regal disk brake set-up will work an a 80s oldsmobile. but i think most of them already have disk brakes. i think joe has a write up on piecing the disk brakes together for a decent price thread here somewhere. u can do it for less then 400$

 

I had original dual caliper 68 front discs on mine but everything except the spindles and distribution block were junk. I had less than $300 (maybe less than $200) for a master cylinder, rotors, calipers and hoses. I would concentrate on finding a set of decent spindles and try to buy all the rest new from somewhere like Rock Auto. Your going to end up replacing all that stuff anyway. You'll probably end up getting the distribution block from a classic parts seller. I don't think you'll find that at Rock Auto. Shop around. If you're looking for "reliable and functional" look at other A-body places (ie Chevelle sites), they're sometimes less money. You will pay top dollar at a place like In-Line Tube, but you'll get the "correct" part for that price

 

My 2 cents: just save up till you have the dough for the complete conversion kit. It will save you mucho problems trying to save a few bucks with old used parts.

 

Search is your friend:

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

Also, if the inexpensive later model spindles worked (which they do not), then common sense should tell you that the correct swap kits wouldn't be priced that high.