80vette21

So, I've noticed my brake pedal getting a little spongy after getting the Vette back out from winter storage. I got it up to the shop I used to work at the other day to do some minor maintenance and check things over. I found a slightly loose wheel bearing and ended up cleaning and repacking both fronts. While I had things apart I found my driver's front caliper has a leaking piston.... pretty good leak too suprisingly. So, I'm going to do front calipers, Reman'd SS sleeved with O-rings most likely. I also noticed though that the rotors are looking pretty thin, and they're actually riveted on.... now I can't imagine they're original, but who knows how long they've been there.

I'm thinking while I'm doing the calipers I'm just gonna go ahead and do front rotors and pads too. What I wanted to see was if anyone had a recommendation on aftermarket pads and rotors? Something a little more aggressive than stock. I'm fine with stock if there's no other solid choices out there, but where my car is heavily modified I thought some nice slotted/drilled rotors would look good, and some quality pads would be nice. Anybody have any experience??

I have used R1 Concepts for my daily driver 2008 Cobalt SS Turbo, but the cross drilled and slotted rotors are already pulsating (after about 10k miles, and its not my driving, my stock rotors lasted 50k without warping!) So, I think I'm going to steer clear of them.


Edit: Maybe these for rotors? Summit has them for $195 for a pair.

http://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/Bra...tte&option=C-3

68Thunder427

Bought my whole new brake system from O'Rielly's. All of it was Cardone and fit fine. If the rotors are riveted on they are original. As for pads I went with EBC redstuff , pricy but alot on the forums are running them and even with manual brakes mine stops really well. And the Cardone calipers are SS sleeved.

80vette21

Thanks for the advice! I can't believe my rotors are original. I know the rivets were a assembly line thing but I just convinced myself someone had riveted a replacement set on because of the cars age and mileage. The odometer read 06500 when I got the car, but it was broken, so the actual mileage is completely unknown but has to be close to 130 by now. I can't believe they would have survived that long lol.

Anyways, here are some of my considerations.

Rotors:

$195/pair Wilwood - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wi...38-d/overview/

$330/pair EBC - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/eb...ette/year/1980

$100/pair Autozone - http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...1_172993_2708_

Pads:

"Matched" to the Wilwood rotors - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wi...008k/overview/

The EBC's 68Thunder recommended - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/eb...155c/overview/

In addition to the EBC ceramic pads I found these EBC rotors.

They are $330 on Summit but only $286 with free shipping on Amazon. I can't figure out how Wilwood's rotors are $100 cheaper though :huh: Both prices are for pairs.... seems like a no brainer going with the Wilwood's, but anytime theres a price difference that big I start to question it :smack If the Wilwood rotors are good I'm thinking those rotors with the EBC ceramic pads and stock Reman'd calipers with SS sleeves and O-ring upgrade.....


Any other options I should consider? As of now the EBC's look good but I would lean toward the pads and rotors from the same vendor as theyre designed for each other apparently (although that seems like a line where they are just pads and rotors lol).

80vette21

I made my order yesterday. I decided to go with the following:

-Remanufactured front calipers SS sleeves and O-ring conversion from VBandP. They are powder coated red by VBandP
-Wilwood cross drilled and slotted rotors
-EBC redstuff ceramic brakes

I'll update with some before and after pics and info once I get the stuff.

briankeery

Your original rotors were probably fine, did you mic them to see if they were out of spec? The metal in the originals is probably better than your new ones.

80vette21

I didn't mic them, visually looking at them you could see they looked thin, a lip had developed around the outer edge. I'm going to mic them before I swap them for the hell of it, but I didn't bother ahead of time because I wanted to swap on some drilled and slotted rotors anyways. I can't imagine they were still in spec, they've never been off the car and the car is 34 yrs old with well over 100k miles. If by some chance they are still good I'll hold on to them. From what I was reading though thinning rotors can cause the piston leak I have by allowing the piston to over extend, not sure if that's true. Either way right now my braking is marginal at best, so I don't think it'll hurt to have an all new setup up front.