FLYNAVY30

Having done the full front and rear disc conversion on my '64, Ill throw this out there:

- as mentioned by many above, there is no NEED for the conversion for normal driving

- I completed the conversion because I find discs much easier to adjust and maintain over time. Perhaps a bit irrational, but I despise rebuilding and adjusting drum brakes.

- the full conversion is fairly expensive, and takes some effort. Besides the rotors and calipers, you'll need new spindles and brackets in the front. In the rear, you need to completely replace the trailing arms, in addition to shaving the factory bump stop mounts. Just off the top of my head, I'd guess I have about $3000 into the conversion including all of the little fittings and hoses to make it work....not to mention new wheels to fit the calipers.

- if you like to turn your own wrenches, its not a quick undertaking. The front is pretty straight forward, although the factory small block springs are a disaster to deal with when changing out the spindle. The rear is a bit more manageable, although the transverse leaf is still a challenge without the right tools. Either way, you need to blow the entire rear suspension apart, swap in the new control arms, then find a shop familiar with doing an alignment on one of these cars.

- in the end, I'm very happy I made the effort. The brakes work great, and it now takes longer to get the car and in the air with the wheels off than it does to swap pads at all 4 corners

- for those that claim "keep a '64 a '64" or "if you wanted disc brakes, you should have bought a '65-'67", I call B.S. Its your car, do what you want. Personally, I like the look of the '64 the best (blasphemous, I know) but also wanted disc brakes, among other modifications to suit my desires and intended use of the car. In the end, its nothing more than a cool old Chevy, not some ancient artifact that needs to be preserved for generations to come. Modify as you deem appropriate, then get out and drive it!

Cheers!
Greg

Factoid

Drum brakes work fine, but there is a reason they are almost non-existent on new cars, as are single MCs (fruit jar). Discs work better, are cheaper, and they perform better in extreme situations and in the presence of water (rain). Most on here don’t drive their babies in the rain and have forgotten the shear horror of wet drum brakes having little to no stopping power. If you keep your drums and the fruit jar, and I can understand why you would, please ensure your parking brake is fully operational. This gives you a reliable back up plan in the very unlikely event of some kind of primary brake system failure. The most sensible changes that respect both the car and newer tech is a dual MC with front discs, retaining drums in the rear. It is worth noting that Corvette drums are significantly over size (full size passenger car size) and more than capable and reliable in most situations.

inspectorudy

Good advice from both viewpoints and I appreciate all of them. I intend to change the fronts only to disc and keep the rear drums. GM had this combo on many of its early disc/drum cars and it worked very well. I have bought OEM spindles and calipers and a dual MC. My car is rust-free and I plan on using the existing rear brake lines rather than installing new ones that would require a body raising event. I'll admit that a lot of my view is in my head but just like my personal sidearm is a revolver and not a semi-auto is one of total trust in a mechanical object at the worst possible time.

66427-450

then I would certainly keep all the original parts well preserved, so someone down the road can make the car right again.

inspectorudy

I intend on keeping them but I can't imagine anyone going back to the original configuration once the upgrade is installed. My car isn't that original as it is and trying to return it to OEM would be very expensive.

davekp78

Twitchy can also be a function of suspension component condition as well as alignment settings.

GTOguy

Or the large, oversize drums on a first gen Corvette. If you are overdriving these drum systems on public streets and roads, you are not only breaking the law, but you are endangering yourself and everybody else on the road with you. Save the competition/racing for the track.

GTR1999

64 is a great year, I would love to have one. I have worked on 100's of them. I am doing a set of 64 arms and diff now in fact. My advice, you just bought the car. If it is drivable then I would drive it. The brakes will work, 64 are not high performance cars as compared to many new ones today so I would be surprised if you bought in stock form for hard use. It was a HP car back in the day but before I start overhauling a car that may or may not need it, I would see just how much I would like it. So a lot depends on your desire and how **** you are. My son would take that car and make it a street/strip car, dump 1000's into it and call it done. Me I would take it out, away from people, drop top, turn on tunes, and cruise all day.
PS I would be much more concerned with the weak DANA diff then the brakes, if the original diff is still in the car.

toddalin

If you are going to use front disks and rear drums as I do on my '64, you will want all of the pads to be the same compound. Andy Porterfield's R4-S street compound is available for the front disk and rear drums and is so much better than stock.

BTW, when I changed to front disks, taken from a '77, I didn't need to deal with the springs. In fact, I don't think I changed the spindles, but I did have to enlarge a bolt hole on the '64 part to accomodate the '77 piece for the steering arm.

inspectorudy

I hear you when you talk about drive it and don't worry about the brakes. Unfortunately, I am an old Marine fighter pilot who went to the airlines many years ago and redundancy is built into my DNA. A single MC is just not in the cards. It really is not about functionality but peace of mind. I have pulled enough drums apart to know that there are many more parts than a disc brake and the simplicity of the disc system is like poetry compared to drums. Like I said it is mostly a mental thing and hard driving will not be a problem.

FLYNAVY30

then you're doing it wrong.

65hihp

Is InspectorRudy and 55Driver one and the same person?

SWCDuke

The OE J-65 system had NO PROBLEM hauling my SWC down from 140 to 80 in a short distance on 6.70-15 Michelin X radials to enter Turn 2 at Kent back in the sixties for however many hot laps I ran in any given session , and they lasted over 100K miles before needing any major work.

Duke

65hihp

Duke,
that's quite a testament to the effectiveness of those brakes. They work really well on my 64 fuelie coupe too.
But, our cars have single circuit brakes. I have the strong impression that Inspector Rudy, or 55Driver, or whomever simply can't abide single circuit drum brakes
If they can't abide them, they must change them. And all the explanation about why the notion is misguided will come to no effect.
happy trails my friend.

FLYNAVY30

misguided and unnecessary are two drastically different things....so GM was "misguided" starting in 1965?

Nowhere Man

well they introduced the duel M/C in 65 Corvette with power brake only. it was not until 67 when it became standard on ALL cars and trucks. with that said my first car the M/C failed and the only thing that saved me was the rear brakes still could slow me down. but that was also a 30 year old M/C that most likely had 30 year old fluid in the system. if you keep up with PM on a single M/C I would think it will serve you well for many years. it took GM until the 70's to put disk on front of all cars. And drums are still used today. all big trucks use drums on all axles.

Its all on what YOU want.

toddalin

When we lost the brakes on the freeway on my '64 (with front disks) due to air pumping, the emergency brake pull under the dash is what saved our asses.