Shift_Happens

I'm building my 63 coupe to my liking and I'm not comfortable with the manual drum brakes. While I would like to keep the car 100% original, I would feel much better going to disk brakes up front only with a dual master cylinder and the possible addition of a power brake booster. Has anybody ever seen or done this combination? Looking at some of the vendor sights, I dont see an off the shelf kit for this conversion.
Thanks,

Bill

jim lockwood

What is it about the '63 brakes which makes you uncomfortable?

Those are big brakes which were used on larger and heavier vehicles back in the day. They'll stop a Corvette just fine.

I've got a '63 roadster with stock drum brakes and I'm not at all tempted to change them out for discs. Not arguing that discs don't have advantages, just that the advantages are not sufficiently compelling to warrant the effort to convert.

Jim

Frankie the Fink

The drum brakes work fine..my 63 coupe runs them on all four corners, as to a kit I'm not sure...some midyears require a hood modification to accommodate aftermarket boosters IIRC. Vendors actually sell the piece to glass into the hood.

kenba

I agree with the posts above. There is no good reason to convert to disc brakes. Drum breaks will stop you just fine & you don't have to worry about leaking calipers.

MOXIE62

Well you got several response and no one yet has answer your question. I'm sorry but I have no answer either. I also have drum brakes. The pads I got were from O riley. The car did not seem to stop as well as I thought it should. I found a set of NOS Delco shoes for the front. Since I installed car stops really well. Better then disk, don't know; hope I never know.

DucatiDon

If you want to do this you have a few options...

1) Source 65-82 front spindles with rotors calipers and everything. Swap spindles, add a power booster, and source a disk/drum Camaro master cylinder. Plumb it correctly and be done. Your front wheels will be spaced out about 3/4" on each side. (The later cars have a wider track) Make sure your wheels clear the calipers.

2) Some vendors sell a kit that does all of the above with aftermarket rather than stock parts, and one kit will even keep your wheel track the same.

3) Go wild with Willwood or other aftermarket performance system. YMMV.

If you decide to go rear, you will have to jigger up your parking brake because the 63 system is not compatible with disc parking brake systems.

If you add a dual master and power booster, it will interfere with your hood. (later hoods had a notch in the fiberglass. You should be able to get around that by shimming the master so that it sits more level...maybe.

Its not a difficult job, if it was me, id want to source the correct fittings to make it match the 67 setup.

DucatiDon

Ive considered going disc in order to try to solve a left hand dive/pull under initial hard braking. Springs, shoes, all new, nothing has solved it. May be a chassis issue. Ive Run out of motivation to hunt it down.

rtruman

https://www.vbandp.com/auto-parts/c2-c3-corvette
s.html

This is the site I used for 1 of the 63s I had no hood change
Having said that I have a power set up with the stock brakes works fine .If it not broke don't fix it

kellsdad

I also see no need to change from drums to discs for most street driving. The only drawbacks of drums are 1) you need to ride the brakes for a few seconds after you drive through deep water to dry them out, and 2) they are more prone to fail if you use the brakes to control your speed on a very long, steep downhill run. Unless you expect to drive your car during heavy downpours or on long mountainous roads, you'll be fine with drums.

I do think its a good idea to change from a single style master cylinder to a dual system. You wouldn't want a single failure to take away both front and rear brakes simultaneously.

mrg

Don ..
I have the same issue with my car. New brake shoes, hoses, wheel cylinders, drums..........car tends to pull left on initial braking, more so with moderate pedal pressure. It feels as if the left front brake is receiving more hydraulic pressure than the right side brake, for whatever reason. Everything new, cleaned, lubed........I could not isolate the problem.

I decided to order up a front disc brake kit. The change out was started yesterday.
John

DucatiDon

Keep us posted!

What parts did you go with?

I don't have issue with it so much, but it gives the wife the ******* and makes her nervous driving it at speed.

mrg

Don ..
I went with the mg chevy zero offset kit. I have to say, I was impressed with the quality of this conversion kit. All machining on the hubs and brackets is top notch. Everything necessary (brackets, hubs, rotors, bolts, nuts, washers, brake hoses, dust caps, grease seals, wheel bearings, cotter pin, etc.) to complete the change over is provided in this kit.

The left side kit components were fitted up dry to check for any wheel clearance issue. Over on the mg chevy thread happymike said he had to grind a bit more taper at the hub end to allow the hub to fit into his true style Corvette America KO wheels, about 1/8 inch. . . Even though mg chevy states in his ebay ad that this kit 'does not fit KO wheels', it looks like an easy fix takes care of the clearance issue.

The wheels on my car are the Corvette America bolt on KO wheels. With all kit components installed for a test fit and after installing the wheel, it turns out there were no clearance related issues with this style wheel. The wheel went on and fit like a glove over the hub. All looks good to go. It was late so I need to double check the installation.
John

RAQ

I drove two 64 roadsters the same day When I was looking for a C2. The first one had a front disc brake conversion and added power brake booster with dual master cylinder. The second car had stock drum brakes with single hydraulic system and manual brake pedal. I noticed the difference very quickly. The first one I drove went home with me. I cant say which kits they are, But I'm glade there on the car.

Shift_Happens

MG Chevy? Is that a vendor?

BD104X

I also was not happy with the feel and performance of the drum brakes. I bought complete front knuckles from a '79 off of craigslist so that gave me all the hard parts I needed for the front plus caliper cores. I only did the front, so I used a master cylinder from a Chevy Nova. As others have stated, the conversion will push the front wheels out about 3/4 of an inch on each side which can be a problem if your tires are very close to your fenders and some wheels will interfere with the big Corvette calipers. Another problem is that the master will hit the hood and require a notch like the later hoods have. I solved that problem by fabricating my own brackets and using a different booster, but if you use a factory Corvette booster it would make for a much cleaner and factory looking installation. All in all it was a very easy bolt on conversion and probably didn't cost much more than overhauling the drum brakes would have. I am very happy with it.

Frankie the Fink

I completely overhauled my 63 drum brakes (except for turning the drums - they were fine) for $238 worth of NAPA parts; doubt that you can convert to disc for anything close to that.

claf

A friend of mine and I had the same pulling problem (one is a '62 the other is a '60). They are now both fixed. He chose to convert to front discs, I replaced the front flexible hoses.

BD104X

My car needed the drums & wheel cylinders replaced anyway, so instead of drums I bought rotors. Hardly any difference on the rotors (they may have been cheaper than the drums if memory serves), bearings and hoses, so about all it really cost me additional was $230 for the calipers (since I had cores from the used knuckles) which came loaded with pads so I didn't have to buy shoes. The Nova master was $28, way less than a Corvette one. Plus $100 I paid for the used knuckles and I'm roughly $350 over what I would have paid anyway... far less than some of the pricey conversion kits I see - that was my point. Plus I like the fact that when you look through the wheels it looks "Corvette".

Duck916

You can find him on Ebay, just search for 1963 Corvette disc brake conversion. There's a thread here where people discuss his product--the reviews were very positive. What he sells doesn't include the master cylinder or booster, though.

I don't have his kit, but my car does have an aftermarket front disc conversion with a dual master cylinder and a power booster. It works really well and I definitely prefer it over the standard drums.

BD104X

Also, to the OP - the first time around, I converted my front to disc but did not add the booster and left it manual. While I definitely felt the improvement, I wasn't 100% happy with it until I added the booster. I reread your original post and my advice is if you are converting to disc, go all the way and make it power disc. Since I left the rear as drums and didn't modify the parking brake, everything I did could be easily put back to original if needed.