<VV> Disc Brakes - EM...

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

>It's not a difficult conversion - unless you count the near impossibility of obtaining the junkyard parts to do the actual conversion! 
>

Note that the parts offered on evil-Bay are simply redrilled and trimmed 
backing plates from some drum brake setup, maybe Corvair ...

Find the hubs, rotors, and calipers FIRST, than then figure out your own 
mounting bracket -- the illustrated example is one option.  Another 
would be to mock it up in cardboard and take it down to your steel 
supplier and have them cut a couple out for you (remember, such stuff is 
cheaper per unit by the hundred)

Now, to the meat of this gimmick!  Which brakes on the Corvair do the 
most stopping?  Gee! I guess that would be the rears!  Maybe why they 
are so much bigger on the LM's.  Seems like if one only wanted better 
stopping (instead of looks) maybe they'd put the discs on the rear 
first.  But naw, nobody does that!  And then there is the perennial 
question -- if you aren't racing, do you really need disc brakes on a 
street driven Corvair?  Good linings will give a street car all the 
stopping they need. 

Okay, I confess -- I am in the camp that thinks it's hard to have too 
much braking, but although those days are mostly in the rear view mirror 
now, emergencies do arise.  I just don't think thirty year old design 
brakes off an old Colt are going to do much for improved braking when 
put on the front of a Corvair.  The only thing that makes this happen is 
the bearings share an inside diameter, so it "bolts on".  Now 15" 
Brembos would be a different matter. (And you better have something that 
matches on the rear!)

"Disc brakes" is not an anathema for better braking -- better & bigger 
brakes is what you want -- look at all the aftermarket brake options for 
the poor Fiero, which came oem with four wheel discs, and doesn't stop 
any better than a average LM.

mo,

Bill Strickland