This happened to my buddy's 1969 Big Block roadster this past weekend while out for a cruise. He was cruising along with his wife, and hit the brakes to slow for the car in front of him at about 45 MPH. There was a loud bang and he said it sounded like the rear of the car blew up. He limped it to the side to find that the caliper had actually ripped from its two mounting points on the rear hub. Fortunately the damage was limited to the wheel, caliper, dust shield, and the brake line.

Just something to think about.

 

That looks like it was broken for a very long time. Looks pretty rusty.

 

Very very long time! Glad no one was hurt and it looks quite repairable.

 

agreed....this car has kind of been a headache for him...his first C3 and I was deployed when he bought it unfortunately. Its an original big block car, but it had a truck 454 with an intake that wouldn't allow the hood to close when he brought it home. It has a decent respray and looks to be a nice driver. He decided to bite the bullet and went with a ZZ427 and 5 speed. Runs and drives nice, but now that he's exposed some issues in the rear, we're gonna pull both trailing arms and rebuild everything. The kick ups look to have surface rust, but no cancer. Probably clean everything up and POR 15 it to keep everything solid until he decides to pull the body some day.

 

With an older car and obvious rust damage, replacing and renewing the brake system is warranted.

You can replace the brake lines without removing the body. You can find very reasonably priced factory steel lines. For only a little more, you can buy all stainless steel lines and stainless fittings. About brake lines...they often corrode/rust from the inside . The tin plating on the original steel lines can look pretty good, even though the insides are severely rusted. Normal brake fluid absorbs water, and this water is what rusts the brake lines from the inside. Of course, stainless runs afowl of National Corvette Restoration Society (NCRS) judging requirements.

Replacing the brake lines, especially with stainless, requires buying all new brass distribution/connecting fittings. Not too expensive for one fitting, but you have to buy several, so the price runs up...$30 a piece?

The stock master cylinder and cast iron calipers need to have stainless piston bores installed. This renews them. Of course you can buy new Stainless Steel Brake Corporation (SSBC) aluminum calipers or Willwood aluminum calipers. They come SS lined. Once again, the aluminum calipers are not acceptable for NCRS judging. The cast iron calipers weigh 16 pounds each, and the aluminum calipers are about 9 pounds. Significant unsprung weight reduction. The aluminum calipers are significantly more expensive. The Wilwood's cost less than SSBC.

There's a cast iron bracket that attaches the rear brake caliper to the rear spindle trailing housing. You can buy this in aluminum from Tom's Differentials for about $300. It looks much nicer and saves maybe 6 ounces per side. Bought a pair for the 70.

Also, you can buy a new billet aluminum master cylinder from SSBC. It costs about $400. Bought one for the 70.

Determined to never see water corrosion in my braking system, I installed silicon brake fluid. Getting a hard pedal with silicon is fussy. There's an installation procedure to follow. I cheated. I took the car to Dick Guildstrand's Motor Sports in Burbank, Ca. I have a rock hard pedal with silicon. Before I took it to Guildstrand's, with my own casual gravity brake bleeding, the pedal was a little soft but safe enough to drive.

 

Hmmmmmmm....it's beginning to sound like there is a machining error in the original calipers causing the "ears" to stress and break off. The rear calipers on my '68 project were a real pain to reinstall...the 2 mounting bolts kept binding when I tried to line up the calipers with the threaded mounting brackets .....being a machinist I realized that I needed to enlarge both bolt-holes in the calipers .015". Then they bolted on with no problem. ALSO.....the individual caliper halves were not parallel when bolted together----I had to re-machine the mating surfaces so that the gap that the pads fitted in was "square" (it previously was wedge-shaped about 3/16" from top to bottom causing the pads to wear out at the top with plenty of brake material left at the bottom).

 

Looks like the brake line is laying on top of the TA and was also pinched by the bump stop.

 

Good catch! I'm going to check mine now since I replaced the lines about six months ago.....make sure they are well-clear of that area.

 

Back in the mid-late 90s, I replaced the lines/hoses on my wife's '79, with S/S lines. If I remember correctly, I bought a complete kit from Stainless Steel Brake (SSBC), that had all the lines and fittings.