Any Wildwood Front Disc Conversion Users?

65Fury440

65Fury440

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I recall they made a set of 4 wheel discs for Jay Leno's 1958 Oldsmobile, and have a good reputation with car builders so you shouldn't have any issues, but there's a technical hotline if required.

Good luck with the new brakes.
 
I run Wilwood but because I have Disc spindles and they don't make a kit for it I had to make my own. So I cannot comment on the quality or completeness of their kit.

The Dynalite calipers however, well, they work better than the factory BUDD calipers. quality of machining is outstanding. Their brake pads, take FOR-EV-ER to bed in. Once they do, it'll try to put you through the windshield.

In closing, calipers, linings, hoses, top freakin notch. Kits, I have no experience with.
 
Not my choice for a C body that will get more than cruise nite trailered to the car show duty.

The 72 rotor is 11.75" in diameter vs 11" and 1.25" thick vs .8something for the Wilwood. Not what I want to haul down 4800 lbs from speed more than once.

Now if they came up with a caliper adapter kit to hang a 6 piston caliper on the stock rotor, they'd have something. As it is all they are selling is the ability for people to point through the wheel spokes at cruise nite and go "oooh Wilwood".

Kevin
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the W.W. setup allow one to keep the 14" wheels? Sometimes keeping one's 14" wheel covers is desireable, like the 66 300 deep dish spinners that are so gorgeous, and the really nice Dodge Charger/Polara/Monaco deep dish spinners.

That being said, if W.W. doesn't measure up in terms of being as good as or better than the factory disc setup (which other than tracking down the spindles and booster is an easy swap), then I would dismiss it.
 
I'm very interested in the wildwoods as well but the 12.88 rotors and 6 piston calipers. I'm already running 17in wheels so they will fit and my parts wagon had it's discs donated to something and has drums brakes on the front now. So I have the drum spindles.
 
Consideri ng that Wilwood got their start in the drag racing realm of things, where weight and size of components (light and small) can be important, I'm not so sure their products will necessarily be as robust and any OEM system.

I do believe that their kits, in many cases, will fit behind 14" wheels, but the issue isn't always the rim diameter, it's the SHAPE/ANGLE of the inner side of the wheel, between the hub and the rom that is where the earlier calipers contacted the factory wheels of the middle '60s and later. Seems like you could get 14" wheels with a factory db first gen Camaro? But with special wheels to clear the calipers? Seems like I ran across those wheels in an old Chevy parts book years ago?

The ONE area where the OEM systems will beat the aftermarket kits is in the surface area of the brake pads, by observation. Generously wide rotor contact area, plus large friction contact areas are what stops the car. If the aftermarket kits didn't use such narrow pads (but longer) and a wider rotor contact area, they'd probably be just fine with onlyu 4 pistons in the calipers.

Additionally, all drum brake frictions are not the same. I believe that Raybestos still had some "severe duty" drum brake linings available? A more-metallic compound for better heat resistance, just as the old, original metallic Mopar Police linings did, but probably with better "first stop" manners?

To me, the end result of the aftermarket kits is smaller pad area, smaller rotor contact area, which means the system CAN be over-stressed easier. The lighter components might heat up quicker, but they also will not absorb as much heat as the heavier OEM parts will. The lighter, thinner rotors might cool quicker, though, with all of those ventilation holes in them.

Your money, your car, your desires . . .

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
 
My '70 Fury has that exact kit. Cruising it stops the car with no issues. I don't autocross so I can't tell you how they would hold up in a racing environment, lol. The only issue was the PO who installed the kit did not use loctite as the installation manual instructs. I was backing out of the shop and got a clunk, clunk, clunk along with feeling it in the steering wheel. One of the bolts holding the rotor to the hub had backed out and was hitting the caliper bracket. I stripped both sides down and reassembled with loctite. The instructions don't call for using loctite on the wheel studs. I did as a upon disassembly some of the studs where loose in the hub.
 
Great discussion.
I spoke to a tech guy at Wildwood. He stated that the kit in question is designed with a margin of error for safety, and that the safe limit the system design for a panic stop is 160 mph.

He actually steered me away from the slotted rotors and larger sized kit.
His words were "really not necessary" in this application.
The friction of the pads is much higher than the oem stuff, and I discussed mass vs heat dissapation, basically 6 of one, hald dozen of another.

The drums on it now with some fancy shoes stop just fine from 121 mph, even after hot lapping, I still use the first turn off at Orlando.
I can lock the fronts up at speed. It's really the single master that worries me. Like Dave said in another thread, I wouldn't be lucky enough to die, just be maimed.

With brakes one would think biggest and best would be a good mantra to follow, but, on my car I am worried the fronts are going to get too much braking power. There is a lot more rubber on the rear than the front.

Thanks for all the input. I'm going to pull the trigger, the quality looks really good.
Probably should order some extra pads too to throw on the shelf.
 
Last edited:
Having an extra set of pads is a good idea! I did this with my S10 when I put aftermarket brakes on it (SSBC). I used them when needed but forgot to reorder them. When I needed a new set for the rear it became a pain to find them. Turns out my rear disc conversion uses pads from an 87 Turbo Thunderbird!

Matter of fact I should order another set as I don't have them now!
 
The issue I also look at with aftermarket components is serviceability and replacement parts. If you have Wildwood calipers, does that mean that you can only install wildwood pads, and not get replacements from your local auto parts store? In this case, if wildwood goes out of business, you could be marooned when it comes time to do a brake job.
 
Just a follow up on the install.
Everything went together well. The kit is good quality.
The only thing that really didn't seem perfect was the routing of the flexible brake lines. Coming up out of the caliper they were only a couple inches from the rotating tire. Maybe it is nit-picking, but I felt better about giving the lines a new route.
The local hydraulic shop had a couple of 90s that pointed them away from the tires.
After driving around a while and bedding in the pads, I got up to 80 and did some panic stops. The car stopped quite nicely with zero lockup. I did not use a proportioning valve, only a 10lb residual valve for the rears.
The recommendation of Wilwood was to use the 1 1/8" bore. I almost did not listen to them and was going to the 1 1/32" bore, reason being the new calipers have less volume than the Mopar
single pistons. I actually ordered their recommendation by mistake from my bookmarks after a long shift at work.
JEGS 631406: Universal Master Cylinder 1-1/8" Bore | JEGS
The pedal has plenty of feel, goes down about half way under hard braking. I went with a Jeg's house brand, as it has mounting holes for the line-loc. That bracket is one of the best $40 parts I've bought.
JEGS 631455: Stage Control II Valve Mounting Kit For JEGS Master Cylinders (See More info/Details) | JEGS
My master cylinder pushrod worked perfect. A little sandblasting and paint and good as new.
I would recommend the Wilwood kit to anyone.

20190322_162155_resized.jpg


20190322_162205_resized.jpg


20190322_162430_resized.jpg
 
Nice, glad to hear it went together well, and performs well.

Now, not to be nit-picky, but PLEASE, for your safety and that of your passengers and others on the road with you, GET A HEAT SHIELD ON THAT RUBBER COUPLER on your steering column. Your exhaust manifold/header will COOK that thing, it will fail, and voila, next to no steering except for the 4 allen head bolts, which will allow almost a full turn of the wheel before they'd grab and turn the input shaft to the box.

I know the shield is a PITA to get on and off, but the safety outweighs the convenience. Plus you can slot the holes in the shield and just loosen the screws and slide it on and off.

Get a shield on that thing! :)
 
Ross Wooldridge said:
Nice, glad to hear it went together well, and performs well.

Now, not to be nit-picky, but PLEASE, for your safety and that of your passengers and others on the road with you, GET A HEAT SHIELD ON THAT RUBBER COUPLER on your steering column. Your exhaust manifold/header will COOK that thing, it will fail, and voila, next to no steering except for the 4 allen head bolts, which will allow almost a full turn of the wheel before they'd grab and turn the input shaft to the box.

I know the shield is a PITA to get on and off, but the safety outweighs the convenience. Plus you can slot the holes in the shield and just loosen the screws and slide it on and off.

Get a shield on that thing! :)
Click to expand...

I guess I was unaware there was a heat shield, my car never had one since I owned it? you wouldn't have a pic of one by chance?
 
Only pic I have at the moment, it's the booger next to the column shift box.
upload_2019-3-22_22-38-56.png

65 column shifted cars are such a pain........
 
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