62 galaxie finally done!

[westcoastgalaxie]

Well they are never done but this phase is done. Just completed with shakedown run this last weekend. Here is short write up  . I will be posting more as the weeks come, in particular I plan on giving a lot of vendor feedback.

Switched over to 4 wheel manual disc brakes from wilwood (4 piston calipers) using a corvette (i know) master cylinder, front suspension 25% stiffer springs lowered an inch (or so they say seems way lower than I planned), 1" front sway bar from quickor, Blisten shocks from RCD, 20% stiffer 5 leaf rear springs lowered 2" but left out rubber isolators so it is really 1 1/2" lower, 7/8" rear sway bar from quickor, all new brake lines and 3/8" fuel line using that copper nickle stuff (freaking awesome stuff), modded stock brake pedal to increase leverage, rims are 17x8 Boss 338 (american made), and tires are continental extreme contact DW 225 50 17's in front and 255 45 17's out back. Oh yeah and 30 mm eibach wheel spacers (adapters) for the front. Spacers bolt to hub and wheels bolt to spacers/adapters. Oh yeah and also had steering box rebuilt.

Impressions so far are this thing flat out handles!! Feels like a completely different car coming from stock. Almost no body roll, firm ride but not too firm. It takes bumps and cracks very well. Still comfortable to ride long distance (I think) but still carves the corners. Tires just flat grip, toss it in a corner and it just responds. I know the box helped but the tires make a world of difference.

As for the brakes I am still sorting that out. I have never had manual brakes so I guess I dont know what to expect. The pedal travels a lot further than I expected before the brakes engage. But once engaged they stop well. Can't lock them up, that or I havent stomped hard enough (still braking things in). So I may have some tweaking to do there, but still really happy with the brakes. So much better than before.

Nice to have a car that finally handles and brakes as well as it hauls ass!!

[jayb]

The car looks great!  Very nice job.

On the brakes, in one of his less inspired moments my Dad stuck a Corvette master cylinder on his 1960 T-Bird when he was having brake problems.  That car would never lock up the brakes with that master cylinder either, and it turned out to be related to the master cylinder bore size.  I wonder if the bore dimensions of the master cylinder you used are not compatible with the wheel cylinders?  Since you have Wilwoods you might consider going with a Wilwood master cylinder instead, if you can't solve the problem...

[westcoastgalaxie]

Well it is a 15/16 master and that is the size wilwood recommended. I am not ruling it out but will try some other things first. Thanks

[GJCAT427]

The brakes on my 56 F-100 are 4 wheel disc and they have a feeling at first that they won`t stop. As soon as they get alittle heat they respond very well. Mine are also manual and it feels weird but they will stop the beast.  My daily driver a 03 Bonneiville is power disc at all 4 corners and feels much as you describe.  I`ve had 3 cars with factory 4 wheel disc and they all acted the same way.

[machoneman]

Heat does count more so with aftermarket pads and caliper combos. Once carefully broken in, try those panic stops again to see if you can get lockup....careful though since you may lock the rears 1st and then need to balance the system with an adjustable proportioning valve.

Also, check the length of the master cylinder pushrod to ensure it's at the correct length. It may be a tad too short, meaning it takes some pedal movement before the p-rod starts to push the master's cylinder.

[BruceS]

A real treat to see your Gal    You mentioned the brake pedal was modded to increase leverage; that could cause increased travel before the brakes engage.  +1 with Bob on checking the pushrod-to-master piston gap to make sure you don't have too much. 

Assume no wheel well mods were required for the new wheels/tires?  Looking forward to hearing more details on your project!

Bruce

[shady]

nice, I'm digging 4 doors & yours looks real fine.

[westcoastgalaxie]

Thanks everyone!

Well the brakes did seem to feel better after warming up so that could contribute to the feel. However we tested by pressing pedal watching m/c bore/piston and turning rotors by hand. What I am feeling driving matches what we saw static. The m/c piston moves a lot before brakes engage. The m/c moves with the pedal, there is vey little play or distance between the pushrod and piston.

I am thinking air in the m/c, friend helped me finish things up and I left it to him to do it. I know they can be tricky to do so there may be some trapped in there.

No mods needed to wheel well, rims are 8" with 4.5" bs. Front tires are just over 9" and rears are just over 10". Plenty of room left under the rears.

For the fronts this put them too close at full droop to sway bar and frame. Rubbed on sway bar big time. I elected to go 30 mm so I could go adapters instead of spacers. This means 30 mm was the minimum. I will have to rethink this, no rubbing but passenger side is too close for comfort to fender lip. When I mocked things up I put weight on the front suspension by only putting a jack under the a arm. This didn't give me ride height so I thought I was going to have more room. So I will have to recalculate now that it is finished.

[machoneman]

Some aftermarket and even OEM calipers are a bitch to bleed because of the location of the bleeder. One trick I learned in these instances, short of one of those special vacuum bleeders, is to get an appropriate sized chunk of wood, remove the caliper and place the wood between the pads. Wire-up the caliper's bleeder straight up or have a pal hold it and bleed each caliper, one at a time, RR,LR,RF,LF. Harder to do than a specialized vacuum bleeder but it's cheap and does work very well!