'68 Charger Resto Mod : Front Brake Purchase Advice

[Aron]

Hello All,
I'm looking for some front disc brake kit advice. I'm building a '68 Dodge Charger resto-mod. The motor is a BES Racing built 6.1 liter Gen 3 Hemi, will make between 550-600hp. I have taken it apart completely and am now in the process of putting everything back into it for a mock up before I send it off for paint and bodywork. I doubt I will put anything larger than 16" wheels up front. I'd like six piston calipers and am considering Brembo or Wilwood, I'll be running an aftermarket power boost set up - likely the Mopar blackout series from Wilwood. The suspension will be updated FirmFeel components across the board, 1" torsion bars, etc, but NOT a coil over setup. Any advice / thoughts / pitfalls to watch out for on a good front disc brake setup would be much appreciated!

BONUS : I live in the Bay Area of CA and am still looking for a good paint and body shop that isn't insanely expensive, would love to keep full paint and body to around 20k...

-Aron

 

[ckessel]

On my car, I got the 13" front and 11.7 rear disc setup from Dr. Diff. Its based off of easy to source replacement parts from an 03-07 Stang GT. He also has a front set using Viper components. Me, I like to be able to get replacement items fairly easy from just about anywhere. Other manufactures may be better but it would be wise to keep a stash of service items on hand so you are covered when the need arises. Your car, your choice.
doctordiff.com

 

[Aron]

On my car, I got the 13" front and 11.7 rear disc setup from Dr. Diff. Its based off of easy to source replacement parts from an 03-07 Stang GT. He also has a front set using Viper components. Me, I like to be able to get replacement items fairly easy from just about anywhere. Other manufactures may be better but it would be wise to keep a stash of service items on hand so you are covered when the need arises. Your car, your choice.
doctordiff.com

Nice, thanks for the referral ckessel, I'll take a look.

 

[70chall440]

I am in the middle of 2 B body builds and have recently spent some time researching and ultimately buying brake systems. As mentioned Cass at Dr Diff is a fantastic source especially because he knows Mopar. 6 piston calipers are going to be hard to fit under anything less than about a 18" rim and then it will depend on the rim. I built a kit using Viper calipers for my 73 Charger and they fit under 17" wheels but it was not real easy. For the most part going "big" is going to require big wheels, Wilwood as I am sure you know has kits to fit under a variety of rim sizes however you will need to run green bearings in the rearend.

I am using a Wilwood kit for my 71 Charger and it uses 4 piston front and rear but I wanted them to fit under 15" wheels. The other car is using a Dr Diff kit that uses Wilwood front calipers and Mustang Cobra rear calipers. I may modify the Charger kit and use the Cobra rear calipers because they float unlike the fixed Wilwood calipers.

 

[493 Mike]

Why does everyone recommend "green" bearings with disc rear brakes? If you set the end play at the minimum (.008") there will not be pedal response issue. Dr. Diff agrees.
Mike

 

[70chall440]

Why does everyone recommend "green" bearings with disc rear brakes? If you set the end play at the minimum (.008") there will not be pedal response issue. Dr. Diff agrees.
Mike

Funny you should ask because I recently went on a crusade to figure this out exactly. I reached out to Cass and did some research and what I "believe" is that it has to do with how the various brake kits mount. Most of them have a plate that has to go around the axle which requires removal of the stock axle flange which of course would eliminate the ability to adjust the passenger side axle (or perhaps the drivers side if someone put the adjustment axle on that side).

Like you I was thinking it had to do with axle end play but I don't think so at this point or at least that is not the major issue. On my Cuda I used late 80's Mustang Cobra calipers which slide on pins and then I made a mount and welded it to the axle tube thus retaining the taper bearings.

 

[Aron]

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone, I have a set of Right Stuff discs and calipers for my rear wheels already. I'll call Dr. Diff and discuss it with them re the front discs and calipers. Sounds like that is the way to go - especially b/c anything larger than 16" in the front is larger than I'd be looking to go in terms of wheel size.

 

[SSmoothie]

I went with the 6 piston Baers.

 

[70chall440]

What size are the rims?

 

[SRT_Blubyu]

This thread made me think of this video I ran across recently... might be worth a peek. He discuss aftermartket brake setups, rear bearings, etc..

 

[Runcharger]

Yes: I installed a couple of the "little" Wilwood setups and they look nice but I think you SHOULD do better with a near 4000lb Charger.

 

[Jesse6869]

Yes watched it also good video

 

[70chall440]

Well Chris beats his cars pretty hard and auto crosses them, so I guess you have to decide what you are going to do with the car. I have agonized over brakes for awhile, to get really good calipers under 15" wheels are at best a challenge. I know Chris says he has NASCAR calipers that work but he doesn't provide a lot of info on them.

I bought a complete Wilwood front and rear kit for my 71 but if I am being honest I am not real excited about it, the calipers while I am sure are competent for street driving I do not think will take a lot of abuse especially in a heavy car. To get a caliper under 15" wheels you have to use a rotor of 12" or less generally (lots of variables here), but then you have to find a caliper that will accept a smaller rotor (11-12" is considered small these days). Then of course is the mounting aspect but this can be overcome if you have some fab skills. The other issue is if you find some nice big piston calipers (AP, Wilwood, Brembo) that will effectively work on a 11-12" rotor and clear the wheels can you get street pads for them?

Perhaps a part of the problem is that we want that "big brake" look when in fact perhaps some of the "little" brake kits will work fine for street driving. The merging of the big brakes and 15" wheels is the main issue, if you are willing to go to 17+ you could make a kit that would work fine but there would be some fabrication involved.

One day I will solve this, but that isn't today... lol

 

[Aron]

Thanks for all of the input fellas, I went with a set of SSBC that will fit under a 15" wheel. We'll see how they do. SSmoothie, that is a beautiful '68! Love the wheels and the brake set up, that may be where I end up in the next set of upgrades...after I get the thing on the road. Great YouTube video too - that guy is amazing, he's living the dream...he's forgotten more about working on cars than I will ever know.
Thanks again for all of the input!
-Aron