First Generation Firebird-L Mailing List ......................................................................... Kevin,
I feel your pain, just went through all of this with my '68. Most auto parts stores and resto houses sell Camaro parts for the Firebird. The '68 Firebird used 4-piston big bore calipers (the same as GTO and Chevelle), and the Camaro used small bore calipers. So the rotors you will likely find at parts stores will not actually work on the Firebird if you still have the factory 4-piston calipers. Some parts stores will have part number listings for '68 Firebirds, but with the caveat that they are not for 4-piston calipers - not real helpful if your car is originally equipped with disc brakes. So I would bet your car is original. What I ended up doing is getting GTO rotors from the Paddock. These are special rotors with a smaller diameter hub made specifically for the original big bore 4-piston calipers. The Paddock part number for these is PAD04315, but they're also likely available elsewhere too. Just be sure that the diameter of the hub is 6 inches or less and you should be in business. As far as pads go, I got mine from Ames but they were a little tight so I had to massage them with my bench grinder :-) And if you need flex hoses I had mine made by a company in NJ because none of the resto houses I tried had the right ones (the bracket is different for Camaro and Firebird). Let me know off line if you need more info and I'll be glad to help. Todd. Subject: brake rotors and pads From: "Kevin" <[email protected]> Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:35:49 -0600 I am having some issues getting front disk brakes for my 68. My build sheet has box 52, code 1....for factory disk brakes. IF they are still factory I don't know. Here's the issues. (car is a 68 coupe, 400, non a/c, 4-speed) Rotors were bought locally at O'Reilys and initially fit, but when you bolt the calipers on they touch the rotor hubs. The ones I took off are tapered, meaning they angle in and then the lug nuts are on a plate, which is bolted onto the tapered hub. The new one are one piece cast, with no taper. Now the guy I bought the car off said these were corvette brakes (no year). But he has been wrong about alot on this car. Drivers caliper is stamped D3, passenger is stamped D5....O'Reily's says the pads are D3's. Any one have a 68 with factory disks know the part numbers, and what the replacements are? (1) so I can see if they are factory or not on mine (2) so I can tell the part store what I want, instead of them looking it up and telling me that it fits, only to press in the bearing races, lube it up, bolt it on, and cuss because I am back to square one. thanks, Kevin ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submissions to Firebird-L: <[email protected]> Unsubscribe from Firebird-L: <[email protected]> Help: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/firebird/Firebird-L.html> Classifieds: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/ubb/> Owner Pictures: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/show/> Donations: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/store/cart.mv?999999> FGF Merchandise: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/store>
