Attaching calipers to non traditional spindles, (classic Cad and 80's Chevy truck)

[Qua-Hoon!]

Hi guys, I'm a bit of a lurker. lol I like older stuff that's a little different. Because of this I usually have to pay the price as no one likes to make parts for my vehicles.

What I'm tying to do ...

I'd like to take a set of big CTS-V brake calipers and attach them somehow to the spindles of my 1957 Cadillac (with associated big rotors). Fat Man fabrication makes a set of aftermarket spindles if I had to cut them to make it work.

The Problem..

I could pay to have someone do this .. and then pay them a TON of money.. or I could do this myself. I can do FAB work, but I'm not certain of what's required to do this correctly and safely (it's the brake system after all, I wana do this one right).


I'd like to do the same thing to my 64 C-10 that has a 1984 front end on it.

Can someone point me in the right direction? I know "Scarebird" makes a brake caliper adapter bracket for the Cadillac I have but it's for a single big one piston AWD astro van caliper.

Also, is there some formula to know how much brake system you need to stop a "X" weight vehicle ? Like desired rotor size and how many pistons in the caliper to do the job more or less efficiently?

Alex

[Qua-Hoon!]

Well the guys at no rotors pointed me to the "Brake Handbook" by Fred Puhn

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895862328/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Hopefully it answers some questions.

Alex

[novaderrik]

not familiar with the spindles from that era of Cadillac, but if they are like every other GM product of that era mounting later model multi piston calipers and bigger rotors is a simple matter of drilling 4 holes in a piece of steel... mock it up, make a cardboard template, and go from there..

the truck is slightly more involved- you'd need to cut off the stock caliper mounts, drill and tap the dust shield mounting holes to something like 1/2", and make a set of brackets by drilling 4 holes in a piece of steel... which brakes are on it now- they used 2 different brake systems on the 80's 1/2 ton 2wd trucks... the regular brake setup has 12" X 1" rotors, the HD had 12" X 1.25" rotors.. they all used the same spindles, with different rotors and calipers. honestly, the HD setup would be plenty for a street driven truck, with maybe better pads..

[Qua-Hoon!]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply. As soon as I get the alternator installed into the Cadillac, and get it back to my house, I'll grab a picture of the spindle.

I think I have the HD version swapped into the truck, I'll have to measure that.

Thanks for the reply again, I'll be getting back to you.

Alex



not familiar with the spindles from that era of Cadillac, but if they are like every other GM product of that era mounting later model multi piston calipers and bigger rotors is a simple matter of drilling 4 holes in a piece of steel... mock it up, make a cardboard template, and go from there..

the truck is slightly more involved- you'd need to cut off the stock caliper mounts, drill and tap the dust shield mounting holes to something like 1/2", and make a set of brackets by drilling 4 holes in a piece of steel... which brakes are on it now- they used 2 different brake systems on the 80's 1/2 ton 2wd trucks... the regular brake setup has 12" X 1" rotors, the HD had 12" X 1.25" rotors.. they all used the same spindles, with different rotors and calipers. honestly, the HD setup would be plenty for a street driven truck, with maybe better pads..