The little brackets for the rear brake lines LOL.....


LOL.... ya know richard.. everybody like a piece of A......

but nobody like a wise a......


ok ya got me I am a marooooonnnnn

ya knew what I meant..

 

Congrats... another bite down. Looks great.

 

Looks great Eddie, wish I could have been there to here it. Nothing like an Olds 455 with open headers to get your blood flowing

 

Funny Eddie, glad to see your keeping your sense of humor. Its needed doing a restor

 

especially when I popped off the passenger spindle, and wouldn't ya know it cut the grease seal on the ball joints a little, top AND Bottom, this is not a Part they sell seperately by the way! so off I go to NAPA got new top and bottom ball joints!! urrrgggghhhhhhhh well since I Just changed them ( 10+ years ago LOL) and they have ZERO miles on em, I figure the first time changing em was the practice run this is the real deal.... anyway passenger side is done, and back together, the right stuff kit is excellent, used my steering arms and their spindle, everything fit nicely. tommorrow night the drivers side ... yeah I know, slow as ......

 

It feels great to share this!! one of these days I would love to try and assemble an engine, but this was cool, I admire the guys here who just take the damn thing apart, get the machining done and poof have the beast running in no time..

Pat it wasn't quite open headers, but dang close LOL.. I will be mounting the w/z manifolds when she gets home, When I get to the exhaust system I want to find something Much quieter something with a low rumble... man I am still smiling!!!! see!! LOL...

 

I bought my 4WDB kit from Matts Classics, and it has almost identical equipment! I had to save, so I went basic, but did add the hardline kit. When I get the car back this weekend, that will be my first hands on that I will be doing besides cleaning, and painting stuff, and attempting my own rust repair, or some of it anyways.(long story, basically got screwed on what was supposed to be rust repair and paint) I will be looking forward to your pics as well as others I have found to make sure this goes as painless as possible for me.

 

Glad this thread will be useful! I finished the passenger side front, I have decided to paint some of the rotor as I am not sure the corrosion resistance etc and a rusty rotor with powder coated calipers is just wrong....

the actual assembly, besides my clumsiness it tearing the ball joint grease boots was quite nice and very straight forward, I did have to use a spring compressor, as the engine is not in the car and the body is off the frame LOL... so it needed more weight to compress the spring, but it went smoothly so far.

 

ok all set up with the drivers side spindle etc went much easier, and didn't damage the grease boots, Thank god, will post pics over the weekend, Painting the rotors now ( just in the places that don't touch the brake pads Richard !! LOL) things are really moving along now..

 

Here is the original spindle and backing plate



Then The carnage notice the ripped grease boot sazafrasasazzafraz.... I removed the steering arm (laying on the chasis) from the old spindle




Tearing the two boots meant new ballJoints as they don't make replacement boots Karaaaaaaaappppp

popped in these puppies from NAPA

 

Spindle fit like a charm

here's the new spindle



then added the backing plate and steering arm, plus the caliper bracket

 

I then Packed the bearings, and mounted up the rotor, I was happy the way the backing plate looks, and the rotor well???? at least it wont rust LOL...used caliper paint for the rotors and it will match the calipers




here's the rotor masked off and painted


and here's the whole enchilada

 

here is a shot of the stainless steel hose upgrade, DOT something or other..

anyway they fit nice and wont rust LOL....

 

So another piece eaten the front end is all converted and the discs are installed, so another small bite, I have everything painted for the rear conversion too..







stay tuned folks...

 

Oh I will!!...the rear will be one I pay very much attention too as well!

 

Nice job Eddie, you're doing a wonderful job. Thanks for all the pics as I'm sure they will come in handy for the rest of us.

 

Lookin' good Eddie. BTW, what wheels are you going to put on your ride?

 

Thanks for the kudos fellas,

Darrell, I will most likely use the stock ss2's LOL... yeah go figure


Although I really really like the old school torque thrusts with the greay centers, however I do like these, just wondering if I can get hurst centers that fit, or have them machined..

 

Can you still use 15"'s or do you have to go bigger with that brake set up?

 

I was told the stock rims will fit fine, I am bringing the stock rims up from the basement this week and will let you know, if they don't fit i will be PISSED!!!! I am not a big rim small tire kinda guy, it looks like they will fit fine.

 

You should be able to use the stock 15's, for sure the 14's wont work. Also, IF the 15's would rub barely, you might be able to use a small spacer just to give you the space you need. I went with 18" Boss 338's, but thats just personal preference

 

Very nice build and BELIEVE ME when i say i know how u feel right now lol

 

Got some more done on the conversion, getting close now,
OK so I am using the Right Stuff detailing rear conversion, as I mentioned before I have the rear end still out of the car, the kit is very complete, first step is to pop 3 of the 4 bolts that mormally hold on the backing plate, these pop out easily with the help of a BFH.

you just leave the bolt on the lower front.





Then a little permatex black gasket compound and the backing plates go on, what is important to note is that even though the plates are marked L and R there is a MISTAKE!! they are actually marked backwards the right goes on the left and the left goes on the right, I called them and told them, I guess it will be fixed once they use up their current stock.

 

The Openings for the backing plates go to the rear, and the curve of the plate faces the rotor, then the axles can go back in, The backing plate does take the place of the spacer included in the kit, and the instructions are a bit lacking here.

the bolts to hold everything together feed from the axle side through to the differential side, It takes a little tapping with a soft face mallet to get everything lined up.



Next you take the 1/4 inch shim and the mounting bracket, the machined side of the bracket fits into the shim, and then the bolts are fed through the whole enchilada

 

Next we are going to mount the rotor, this normally should just slide on ( I guess LOL)

but when I went to fit mine, it made contact with the axle hub?

WTF!!! ( Um that Means We Tried First or something like that LOL)

looking at the axle hub, you can see a lot of casting flash etc left by the factory, since the rear hubs would have had plenty of clearance on a drum, I got out my die grinder and some grinding wheels and cleaned off the flash and the casting seam. it took about 15-20 minutes each side.

If your axles are out of the car I guess you could take it to a machinist and let him chuck the axle in a lathe, but it is pretty easy to grind it off and it only costs you time and a grinding wheel or two

here it is all cleaned up




I kept trial fitting the rotor, and as I painted the rotors the contact area got marked with some of the paint and I would grind this area down a little more

 

eventually the rotor slipped on and we are ready to trial fit the caliper




The Caliper goes on easy enough ( 2 bolts) the instructions say that the rotor needs to be in the middle of the caliper, here the outside pad hits and there is a gap on the inside pad.




This means you need to remove the rotor and unbolt the bracket and shim If the Inside pad touches you will need to add a shim, but since our outside pad touched we need to remove the 1/4 inch shim and use one of the thinner ones. I then tried the thinnest one, and it looked pretty good, but then I tried the middle thickness one and it was perfect, it is a little time consuming, bolting and unbolting etc but you would want this perfect







The Middle thickness shim made it perfect and evenly spaced

 

Then I did the same for the other side, this time starting with the middle shim, ( I know!!!! your probably saying " no sh%t Sherlock" LOL Ya Bastids...) and it fit perfect





and the backside

 

So now I just need to install the hoses and weld on the hose brackets,

but it feels good getting another bite done, feel I am making some good progress... after the brackets are welded I will dress all the little scuffs etc on the housing and put this ***** back under the frame.. so I can lower the Body Back down so I can .... Damn this is a Big Elephant LOL

Just kidding!! I am feeling good that I am at least making progress... ( I think)

 

Very nice work! Thanks a ton for the info, all of this should be made into a "sticky" or pinned topic for reference!!!! do you have a pic of the shims, and do these shims go between the caliper bracket, and axle mounting flange? Am I reading that right? I will be starting my conversion soon...after I kick this cold..ugh.

 

Glad this is useful and I am happy to share..

Here are the 3 sets of shims

going from left to right:
Left Side ( Drivers) Mounting Bracket, Front Dust Caps, Right Side Mounting Bracket ( Passenger) Medium thickness shims, Thinest Shims, 1/4 inch shims, spacer plate ( which is not used since they provide the backing plate now)



Yes you are correct the shims go next to the axle housing flange( back side) then the mounting bracket. the idea is the thicker the shim the more inboard the bracket goes bringing the outside brake pad closer to the rotor, the thinner the shim moves the bracket closer to the axle housing flange moving the inner brake pad closer to the rotor, what you want is the rotor dead center between the two pads.


this is the mounting bracket



Please feel free to contact me if you are using this kit ( or similar) and I will be happy to help explain anyway I can. (if I can LOL)

Hope this clears it up a little.

 

Excellent, yes that clears it up..I had an episode of Gearz saved on the DVR but since lost it...in that episode Stacy David did a 4wdb swap, and showed how to pull the axles and whatnot, so this info here will help me a ton. I think they are the same basic kit.

Jon

 

Jon once you remove the 4 nuts that hold the backing plate on( if this is an o type rear) the axles etc will come out, you "may" need to tap with a dead blow hammer.

 

Hey Eddie,

Very nice work!!!!!!
I did the same upgrades to my 70 S....

Its "good to know" that i am not the only one, that had to grind the rear axle hubs in diameter for the rotors to fit ... that was the only thing on the whole kit that wont fit properly.....

Keep us posted with your good work!!!!!

Torsten

 

Thank You Torsten!!

Yes I was a little disappointed with that part, but was an easy fix.

Ideally I would have liked to have the edges cleaned on a lathe, mine was too small to fit the axles, and so was my friends lathe. So I did it the crude way and used a grinder made it work the "Geico" way ( so easy a caveman can do it LOL..)


Was fitting the stainless steel lines yesterday and I have to say I do not like the way they fit for a custom bent line? definately going to need some adjustments!!

will see how it goes.

Thanks for the Kudos!

 

I agree with the prebent lines, they are not fitting as they should, but i made it fit

But in the end i was very happy with the conversion kit....

Keep it going!

Torsten

 

LOL... With your talents I am surprised you did not make them yourself!!

The Hammer is our friend!!! The Bigger the Hammer the Better the friend LOL....


I will keep at it now!!!

 

over all I am VERY VERY happy with the conversion kit, I only included the pitfalls so other guys would know what sometimes happens and some ideas how to work around...

Thanks again for the encouragement!! believe me it helps!!

 

Thank you very very much!!!!
i really appreciate it!!

Yeah, sometimes.......LOL

I couldnt have said it better, thats why i`ve wrote it down and pictured it, too.

I am very happy for every detailed thread here, you cant imagine...
Thanks
Torsten

 

I finished the Disc brake conversion and finally welded on the brackets to mount the stainless steel flex hoses, I did that and I also made some original looking tabs and mounted them inboard so I could route the stainless hard lines and make them look kinda stock for the disc brake conversion. They give you flex lines which brings the mounting point in about 10-12 inches, I will use the original line tabs to hold the flex lines closer to the diff housing, anyway can call this one done after grinding the welds and repainting.



this one is blurry but you get the idea LOL...

 

I also took the drive shaft out of the rafters LOL... I wire wheeled it as it was just soooooo rusty and scaly, popped out the "original" u joints, must have been the originals as they were like "glued" in????? weird never saw that before anyway I ended up using my ball joint press and a socket to pop them out as after hitting it a few times with a BF hammer it didn't budge and didn't want to dent up the shaft.

I then used an etching primer after washing the shaft down with a metal prep, I used eastwood cast grey on the shaft and detail grey on the yoke that goes to the tranny.

I looked up in the assembly manual and noticed that for an m-20-21 equipped car the usage chart says there would be 1 purple and 1 black stripe so what the heck I added them too....








I had to slow down a little the last 2 weeks daughter was graduating, wife's birthday etc etc and I have been really busy at work, I also put a rather large dent in the hobby budget with the motor, diff, discbrake conversion, and all the stainless lines and cables, so needed to recharge my piggy bank a little ( I was damn near into the beer budget!!! )

anyway I have arranged with My Engine Builder to go through my tranny, install new synchros and seals etc and he will glass bead my bellhousing, still haven't ordered the rear springs but I am close to a choice LOL....

anyway we are getting there, as soon as the rear is installed, I will drop the body back down and mount the engine.. then the real fun begins.... Quarter panels!!!