CadVetteStang
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Everything posted by CadVetteStang
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And here's what 14" Cad - Vette -Stang brakes look like on an Eldorado: I lllllllllike it! -
The pitfall for using brackets, especially in applications that they were not designed for is the spacing toward the outside edge of the rotors. This kit works great! The pads are almost flush with the edge of the rotors. There is less than a fingernail thickness of pad overhang. This will prevent the buildup of a lip on the outer edge of the rotors as they wear making it easier to change pads.
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Plenty of shim washers were supplied with the kit. The brackets can be shimmed in either direction. For my application, the bracket was flush with the back side of the spindle and one shim washer was used with the 3/4 spacer. I may have to adjust it again later when I get the brakes on, but we'll try this for now.
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I painted the abutment brackets and calipers prior to installation, however, I didn't get all of the coating cleaned off so the paint was flaking off during installation. I also did not want to sand the Zinc coating of the brackets and the paint did not stick to them.
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I bought the brackets and hardware kit to mount C5 Corvette calipers on 14" C6 rotors. This hybrid bracket kit is for W-body and N-body cars. It is made by Kore3. It is zinc coated and comes with spacers and mounting bolts. The cost is $115. Tobin Knighton was my sales/tech rep and he is great to work with. The only hiccup for me was that the kit was originally designed for the N-body cars and has 12MM spindle mounting holes. Kore3 was willing to enlarge the holes to the W-body 14MM size and re-zinc the brackets for $20 more ($10 without re-zinc), but I opted to save the money and do the holes myself on a drill press. Also, Tobin swapped in the 14MM mounting hardware at no extra cost so there will be nothing I have to replace after the bolt hole modification. I am pretty sure that I have Tobin convinced to produce future production runs with the 14MM holes because of more demand for W-body cars. We even talked about me waiting a few weeks for the next scheduled production run and getting them with the 14MM holes but I opted to buy the in-stock set. He told me that I might have to either mill a small section on the back of the spindle or shave a small part of the bracket due to manufacturing differences between the cars and he was correct. I had to shave some off of one corner of each bracket. I did not have time to photograph the before and after difference. But here is a shot of the kit itself as delivered: 2 brackets and hardware.
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I had a significant budget increase since my original post for this thread, where I stated that I was going to use 12.75" rotors on the front. I also had 3 years of time to research the best-bang-for-the-buck options on getting the biggest, baddest, track-car stopping, car show attention getting combination possible. Over the last year, I was undecided between 4 piston Brembo and 2 piston C5 Corvette calipers. In the end, it was a cost issue made on the following grounds: 1. It was going to cost an extra $200 for the calipers. 2. I would have to buy wheel adapters to space my wheels outboard to continue using the Mustang Bullitt wheels ($150) or by different wheels ($500). 3. The car will be a daily driver spending less than 1% of it's driving time on a race course. 4. The C5 and C6 Corvette calipers have a proven track record of success in autocross and are a very popular upgrade for hotrods built on a budget. 5. I absolutely LOVE the looks of the Vette calipers with those embossed Corvette logos. 6. Kore3 Industries makes a bracket kit for the Grand Prix allowong to use C6 Z06 14" rotors and C5 (or C6 base) calipers. 7. I am able to substitute the almost identical and much cheaper Shelby GT500 rotor. 8. Other than the diameter of 2 bolt holes, the Kore3 bracket kit will fit my Eldorado. 9. I know of no other Eldorado (or FWD Cadillac of any kind that has ever used this combination; so in a car show, there is the originality and car crafting element. 10. The 2 piston caliper is better at managing even brake wear when any play is present in the bearings AND they are much easier to set up since they are a floating design on abatement brackets. I'm happy with this combo. If I ever build a track-only Eldorado, I might opt for the 4 piston Brembo, but for this street car, the combo will be enough for some winning autocross runs and a reliable, easy to maintain road car.
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Removed the Ponies via sanding disc and added Caddy shields..... Better?
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Yeah, I used to tell people that the Ford guys really made some cool looking car bodies, but that all of their cars had two problems: drivetrain & suspension. Not to worry though, they could be fixed with Vette suspension and a Caddy 500 so all's not lost. I guess now I could add CTS suspension and the LS series engines to the list if Ford cures (Since the LS is actually a GM engine and more of a Pontiac by design than Chevy).
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Oh, if those were the Blue Oval Ford emblems, they'd already be gone. However, they are actually Mustang emblems, so they're not so bad. The 'Stang' part of Cad-Vette-Stang. This is my second hybrid mix of my three favorite cars. Soon you will look past those Mustang emblems and see bright Red C5 front calipers proudly displaying CORVETTE as they grip 14" Shelby GT500 Mustang rotors. ..... However, the Mustang emblems may not be the final adornment; I've been looking for my antique set of Cragar SS spinner caps. My first CadVetteStang wore 10" wide Cragar SS wheels in all four corners. It was a '72 Mach 1 clone with Caddy 500 and was in the process of getting C4 Vette suspension when it was stolen. My third CadVetteStang will be a '91-96 Vette with Caddy 500 and adjustable Mach 1 rear wing. I have my own quirky kind of preferences that are tuned to please me, win races, and tick-off the purists... As a science nerd who grew up in a redneck school winning while racing in a 70 Eldorado that was blairing loud Beethoven symphonies, I'm used to getting laughed at and winning. I don't need anyone to like what I do. However, as a nice guy, I don't mind sharing the fruits of my racing and research. Right now, it's fun to see the Mustang owners give my car a double take at the stoplights and then blow their doors off when it turns Green.
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I just need a little touch up on the calipers next time the rear wheels are off. It will be a while before I can do the front brakes.
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Finished! Exactly the look I was going for!
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Here's how the new setup of Red caliper, Black abutment bracket and Silver & Black pads look together. The rotor color is about to get fixed when I drive it.
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I didn't replace the larger diameter dust cover because it would have required the removal of the rear hubs. Also , the stock dust cover had a large enough diameter to effectively shield the larger rotor. What I didn't count on was the outer lip rubbing the backside of the rotor. To fix this, I used channel lock pliers to straighten out the lip. When it comes time to replace the hubs, I'll swap in the larger dust shields.
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The Durolast Gold C- Max pads are two performance grades above OEM. Currently they're $51. That's about right for a car that will spend 98% of its life on the street. There are, of course, other options for a track car. I just don't want to change pads or rotors yearly.
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I had a store credit at AutoZone, so I bought the performance ceramic pads there. These things are awesome looking! And they are silver painted with contrasting black shims that will look great with my choice of paint colors.
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I bought BBQ grill paint in silver and black at Walmart for less than $4 per can and picked up red caliper paint at AutoZone for $7. The STS rotors received a two tone paint job. (using no tape because the silver-to-red transition should be removed by the pads). For contrast, I used black for the abutment brackets.
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Not too pretty...
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I hate the way rust looks on the rotors. This is my stock setup. Note the rust at the outer edge; I figured that would look cool and original as a red stripe. For the surface below the caliper, I want to stay with silver as it should make the rotor look bigger and help camouflage the untouched surface.
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It's time to do the rear brake upgrade. This should be an easy task if all of my research and measuring was correct. But I want this to be more than just the sum of its parts; I want it to make a show worthy performance statement. I didn't see the need in getting the lines since caliper location would only move rearward about 1/2". I had the 12" rotors (11.75") turned at O'Reilly's
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Cadillac Builds and Project Cars
CadVetteStang replied to Bruce Nunnally's topic in Cadillac Builds and Project Cars
I am so grateful for the subforum you have given me for my Eldorado build and the support. This is a link to another forum where I enquired about a build thread. If you read all of it, you will see why we need forums like Caddyinfo. Again, thank you. http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-seville-cadillac-eldorado-forum/550274-where-do-you-post-race-car.html -
I found my donor car for the 11.75" rear brake upgrade. It is a 1998 Seville. Although it is a new body style, has a completely different rear suspension setup, and is no longer the Eldorado's sister car, it has a compatible rotor and caliper bracket. I don't want the calipers because they have a different emergency brake hookup. These are the largest bolt-on rear brakes I can find at this time. I will be using my original calipers with this rotor swap. The donor car used the same size size rear brake pads so I would not have gained anything by swapping the rear calipers.
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I will be instaling 12.75" front disc brakes and 11.75" rear disc brakes on my 2002 Eldorado using OEM parts swapped in from other GM cars. This big brake upgrade is being done on a very tight budget so I will be using as many parts as possible from a local salvage yard. I will edit the follwing statement when I find out for sure the year of the factory upgrade: When the 1992 Eldorado and Seville first appeared, they had smaller disc brakes than the later models. I belive the front and rear discs were 10.75" or 10.9"... sometime around 1997, there was a factory upgrade and the rear brakes were 11.0" for FE1 cars slightly larger for FE3 cars (i think it was 11.4") and they were given 11.75" front discs. However, the lighter C4 Corvette had 12" front and rear brakes on the base model and 12.9" front brakes on the Z51 cars. I can put those Vette brakes on the car, but it would require more modifications. The 11.75" rear/12/75" front is an easy bolt-on swap. My journey begins in the salvage yard; to be continued.....