I wish to convert the front brakes on my 1968 Stratochief from drums to discs for safety purposes. The problem is that I want to use my original 14"x6" steel wheels and I have not been able to receive an email back from any of the companies offering the conversions. Specifically, I have emailed ECI twice and received no answer; obviously they would prefer I purchase the items first then they will answer me why they will not work. The original 14"x7" wheels used on the Chevelles and Novas would probably work however these are both rally wheels and I prefer my steel wheels. Has anyone had any "specific experience" with this conversion. I realize the 15"x6" wheels will work however they are not original to 1968 drum brake cars. Thanks, Doug.
As far as I know, there is no factory type disc setup that you can put on and run stock 14" rims. I went through all this years ago wanting to run stock wheel covers over disc brakes on my full size Pontiac.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Ken, I was not able to find any rim that would clear the 4 piston caliper 68 disc brakes the time that I tried it. Bolt pattern, hub etc was no problem but the caliper hit the rim.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Ken, I was not able to find any rim that would clear the 4 piston caliper 68 disc brakes the time that I tried it. Bolt pattern, hub etc was no problem but the caliper hit the rim.
You are correct but I wasn't aware he would be going to the correct style disc brakes. You then need a 15 x 6-if you have to go newer I believe a 1980 Caprice Police wheel has a nice offset looking correct-go to a smaller size tire
Yes, I agree 14 inch disc brake rim will work with the Wilwood system or any other single piston set up-its the four piston set up here thats the problem. They used 15's on the police cars of that vintage too.
Depending on your rotor size the 14 by 6 wheel off the late 70s/early 80s Monte Carlo, Malibu, Cutlass etc. with F41 suspension will fit as they came with disc brakes. 11 inch rotor is probably the upper size limit, which should work if you have stock rotors. I just saw this week a 68 Chevelle wagon with a disk brake conversion running these rims.
I tried those too when I did my conversion. The B body setup has the caliper farther out. Unless there is a better choice of rim designs now than then, I don't think you'll find a rim to fit. I tried everything I could get my hands on including mags, stock etc.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Doug, rather than go through the trouble to make your rare car non-stock, you can greatly improve your drum brake performance.
The big Chevy and Canadian Pontiac B-body cars use 11" drums rather than the puny 9½" drums of the mid-sized cars. The big problems from drum brakes stem from heat and the related distortion of the shoes because of it. Heat also is the enemy of the asbestos material because the friction properties diminish when it heats up.
Your stock drum brakes have a leading shoe and trailing shoe made of bonded asbestos. When you use your brakes the shoes heat up and grow. As they grow within the brake drum they will distort and reduce the contact area of the friction material, also causing more intense heating in those reduced contact areas and exacerbating the problem. Meanwhile the asbestos friction material loses its effectiveness as it heats up. What you experience are brakes that almost "go away" after a few hard stops from speed.
What the factory did with the drum brakes is offer sinistered metallic brakes. The friction material is a hard iron composition, welded onto the shoes in patches. The iron friction material initially doesnt grab, but once heated up it can provide lots of friction for stopping and wont lose its grip when hot. The reason for the segmented patches rather than a single arched shoe is that as the shoe heats and expands, that expansion simply makes the iron patches grow closer to each other rather than distort the shoe. The high-performance sinistered metallic shoes also included specially treated return springs that wont fatigue like conventional return springs. These brakes wear like granite and offer sure stops with repeated use. On the flip side they wear out the drums themselves and do take a little more leg power, especially when they are cold and dont quite have the grippiness up to speed. Factory metallic brake shoes disappeared from GM option lists after 1967.
A modern alternative that I recommend is a set of high performance Kevlar brake shoes that offer the performance of metallic brakes. They are offered by Praise Dyno (http://www.praisedynobrake.com/) and will be a great upgrade for that 427 Strato Chief of yours. The car will still look stone stock but you will be able to drive it like it was meant and do so with confidence. Given how rare and unusual your car is you might well consider the Praise Dyno shoes and hardware. Replace all your flex hoses and hard lines, rebuild your master cylinder and bleed then thoroughly. At that time you might also consider silicon brake fluid since the new lines will not have any residual conventional brake fluid. Silicon brake fluid will not lift paint when it spills (a problem with conventional fluid).
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
I never knew that 67 was the last year for metallic. I know of a 67 SD car that had metallic from the factory.
Do you think it was pretty rare?
67 SD's are rare in their own right.
The metallic shoes in Canada were only available with the 396 on Beaumonts & Chevelles (unlike the U.S. where any drum brake Chevelle could get them). I figure it must have had something to do with parts stocking on the assembly line since the completely axle assemblies had brakes on them already. In Canada there were 20 different assemblies to cover 10-bolt, 12-bolt, Positraction vs. open, and metallic. Once you begin to open up optional axle ratios choices as in the U.S., plus metallic brakes for 10-bolts as well as 12-bolts the number of axle assemblies goes up a lot to 46 axle codes in the U.S. Add to that the speedometer drive and driven gears and you are starting to see the stocking problems faced by offering more choices.
Disk brake cars still used asbestos shoes on the rear drums and (front pads) so the presence of disk brakes did not affect the stocking of different axles. For 68 GM just offered disk brakes as the ticket to upgraded braking. Metallic pads were offered on certain cars like competition Corvettes, but for drums it was history.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
Big block only huh? That's cool. It sure must make it rare then.
I've seen those charts in the parts books that list open/posi, metallic/non-metallic, 10/12 bolt, ratio etc etc. You are correct, that would have been a large storage area for diffs!
The funny thing is an L79 Chevelle would have had a 12 bolt, right? Same diff as the 396. Lots of things that make you go huh? about old cars...
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Hmm, I re read my above post and failed to explain my point. That would be that GM could have offered metallic brakes on an L79 since it was the same diff as a 396 car.
And by the way, a spanking for you for selling an L79 Chevelle. It's so neat to see those L79 powered cars when people usually opted for a big block.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Just something interesting! My 65 "Canadian" Malibu has front drum brakes that are Ginormous! After skimming, new shoes and refurbished hydraulics the brakes are impressive even without the optional booster! They are on a par with my Nissan Sani (Pathfinder). To go to discs is an option but non-stock mods breaks down the value of the model!!!.
The car is a collectors item that should be cherished.
My friends 66 Strato Chief from the factory had metalic linings... My '66 has large drums. and pulls her down. from over 100 mph very well ... very well.... Previous owner changed it to power... Works very well .... Did I say very well....
I didn't mean to imply that only the A-body cars (Beaumonts etc) offered the sintered-metallic brake shoes, it was also available on the big cars, and some years even the X-body line (Chevy II / Acadian). I do not know if they were limited to the 12-bolt rears in Canada on the big B-body cars (Laurentians, Impalas etc) as they were on the A-bodies. At any rate 1967 was the last year for it.
EDIT: I see that I was calling "sintered-metallic brakes" sinistered. Boy I can be a real riot
-- Edited by CdnGMfan at 00:13, 2008-12-23
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
EDIT: I see that I was calling "sintered-metallic brakes" sinistered. Boy I can be a real riot
-- Edited by CdnGMfan at 00:13, 2008-12-23
I totally missed that. Those metallic brakes were obviously quite evil in your mind!!!
I see the metallics listed in the Nova book. I have never seen a real set on a Nova but there has been a couple of L79 cars for sale over the years that guys have said were documented metallic brake cars.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Hi guys. I've been too busy to get back on here and am impressed as to how much information about this subject has been posted. I didn't actually care whether the disc brake conversion was original or not however it would have been nice. It would merely be a bolt on anyway and could always be reversed if originallity came into question. My steel wheels are dated, blasted and epoxy primered, hence my wish to use these rather than the 15". I really like the idea of Kevlar shoes and I will likely go this way as the car would remain stock and the lower gear I am using will keep me from travelling at excessive highway speeds anyway. All lines on this car will be new as there is not a nut, bolt or screw left on this thing at the present time and the new brake fluids are probably the most practical solution to the final braking of this car. Thanks a lot, Doug.
I forgot he has a B-body I have a B and X body el stupido will go to bed........ 
Was blasted in the 90's decent worth $4.27x 2
I totally missed that. Those metallic brakes were obviously quite evil in your mind!!!