The 65 is getting some upgrades while I build it. To go along with the new front end, I decided to go with a brake upgrade based on a recommendation from Street or Track. I chose the Street or Track 13×1.25″ 4 piston disc setup. This does commit me to a 17″ wheel, but I think that will work well on this car.

First impression, this is a pretty nice kit. I mean, it costs a lot more than the other disc brakes I have installed, so I would expect that to be true, but it meets expectations. The directions are good and everything went together well. All in all, it was pretty easy, but part of that may be that I seem to be doing this more often lately too.

First thing I had to do was replace the bearing races due to my late breaking change on the spindles. Rather than deal with shipping, I told Shaun at SoT to send me the new parts and I will do it myself. Easy enough with a ball peen hammer, a punch, and a bit of patience. I repeatedly find new uses for this cheap punch set from Harbor Freight. I usually look at their tools as one time use for a return on value, but this one far exceeds. I guess they sell good tools if they are blunt force instruments.

Shaun sent me the new bearing set for the larger spindles, including the mounting hardware, leaving me with some leftovers for the smaller spindles. The races punched out and back in with no issues as I took my time and was sure to not damage anything along the way.

Getting started, I had to mount the caliper bracket. This is a pretty nice setup and went on easy. Bolts torqued to specification in the directions. The bolt pattern appears to go only one way, so that helps to ensure they are installed at 10 and 2 o’clock per the directions. SoT also puts a nice RH/LH sticker on the parts so its easy to make sure you use the right one. Nice touch!

Next was the bearings. Since I knew this was coming, I ordered a simple bearing packer from Amazon. It allowed me to easily press fresh grease into the bearings without getting it everywhere. Well, maybe on following uses. Loading it with grease was a mess. But experience taught me to use the surgical gloves, so clean up was as easy as taking them off.

Next step was to put the large bearing in the hub and tap in the seal. I carefully tapped it in with the ball peen hammer again, making sure it was fully seated all the way around.

Small bearing next. The hub gets installed on the spindle, seal side down, then the small bearing goes in on the top of the hub.

I followed the directions for installing the lock washer and how much to tighten down the bolt, followed by the retainer and pin.

At this point, I put the rotor on. It mostly floats, but has a counter sunk retaining screw to make sure it stays in the right place before the wheel and lug nuts hold it in. Again, nice job with the RH/LH stickers to avoid regrets.

After the last experience with the dust cap, I was a little more careful with the hammer, and found another use for the punch. These went on with much less damage than the previous job. Though, finding the perfect diameter tool to use as a set would be ideal.

Calipers next. They went on with 2 bolts and some red Loctite. The machining was very precise. Everything bolted up snugly. Torqued to spec according to the directions. I chose the black calipers over the red, trying to be a bit more subtle. Less to distract from the lines and color of the car.

Repeat for the other side, and the job’s done. Probably the simplest brake install yet. I am a fan of the separate hub and rotor, with rotors mounting more like wheels. It should make replacing rotors in the future much easier. Though, I am not sure I will ever put enough miles on this car to wear these down. Even the pads look excessively thick.

Last step will be to clean the surfaces. I will wait until I have them on the car since they will surely get dirty again if I clean them now. I also left off the flexible lines. The attachment sticks out a little and I was worried about damaging it before the spindles were on the car.

That’s it. Easy job, but I am not sure if it’s because they are more expensive, with better engineering, or because I have done it enough times that I knew what to do. Maybe it just felt faster because I wasn’t cleaning any old parts.

In all, this is my favorite brake setup so far. This is comparing to stock 70, CSRP 67, and Wilwood on a 67. All of those are considerably cheaper, so I expect this to be a better brake. So far though, higher cost has produced higher satisfaction. I hope (expect) street performance maps as well, since that’s where it really counts. Not to say I am disappointed in any of my other brake setups. It’s just good to better. But it really only counts when I hit the pedal. I am going to have to wait a while for the final determination.

One step closer to seeing wheels on the 65.

Parts

• 13×1.25″ Rotor 4 Piston Forged Aluminum Caliper Brake System

Tools

• 12 Piece Cold Chisel and Punch Set
• Lisle 34550 Handy Packer Bearing Packer
• Nitrile Gloves – 100 pack