Off season Aspen projects have begun

Aspen500

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The Wilwood's would be great except $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. There was a time when the car stopped fine with the stock brakes. It just took more pedal pressure than if they were power assisted. The more time that passed, the worse they got. It's one of those gradual things so you don't realize anything is wrong until you really jam the brakes for a deer and then have your heart skip a beat or three when it isn't slowing down as fast as it should.:eek: Then, in a good intentioned attempt to fix it, end up making it worse and the real problem becomes apparent.

The saga continues. It's not the hose, I can blow air through it easily (by mouth and brake fluid tastes so good, not). Pulled the left caliper apart and found the piston is scored and there's some fairly bad rust in the bore. Since it isn't the hose, it almost has to be the caliper. The brake line to the hose is free and clear as well. I've decided to replace both calipers and change the fluid in the entire system and see where I'm at. May pull the rotors and haul them down to work and give them a light machining also, just to get a fresh surface to start with.

Hardest part is taking it all apart without scratching anything and without getting brake fluid on anything. So far so good. No scratches, no brake fluid.

Hard to see the rust in the photo. It's about impossible to take a picture of the inside of a caliper bore.
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Oldiron440

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I like there drag race set, I've never been a fan of the Fbody calipers.
 

Aspen500

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Same calipers (at least same style) my old '81 D150 had and it stopped decent. It didn't have power brakes either and weighed more. Believe it had larger rotors though, same rear brakes (10" drum"). Took both feet but you could ALMOST lock all 4 wheels up.
I think the Aspen will be good again, once the problem is taken care of. Going to stop at NAPA down in Mosinee where I work on the way home tomorrow and order a pair of calipers. Advance Auto is next door, in the same lot as the shop but I like the NAPA ones better. Advance is bare steel, the NAPA ones are coated which means,,,,,,,,,,,less work for me!
 

XfbodyX

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The drag race setup blows on the street unless you like to replace there blue warped rotors each year or sooner. The race rotors just dont last long with alot of use.
 

BudW

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You might want to think about converting to 11¾” rotors.
It might allow you to postpone or not need to convert to power brakes.
BudW
 

Aspen500

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I'm hoping they're as advertised. You can only rebuild some things just so many times before the casting are just plain shot. They don't last forever. Everytime they get bead blasted and the bores cleaned up, it removes material. The copper washer sealing surface is one. The little "rings" vanish and you have leaks. The bore gets too big and the pistons rock, etc.

I don't need the pads hat are included but they didn't have them without. No biggie. They have 5 pairs available yet and wonder if that means when they're gone that's it or will more be made at some point?

Should be here at some point next week. Est. delivery is Nov 7th to Nov 27th so MAYBE Thursday? Fingers crossed.
 
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volare 77

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I have a pair of NOS calipers I bought some time ago but I should have bought more while they were still available and cheap. I wasn`t thinking ahead I guess.
 

XfbodyX

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Why is this whole mess called off season, every season is F body season, people dont stop breathing, dont stop XXXXXXin.

Everyday is a F body day.

Ok, im done. Carry on.
 

Aspen500

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I guess "off season" should be updated to say "off DRIVING season". :cool: This entire year could fall in that category, what with all the rain seemingly at least every other day since the 30+ inch snowstorm of last April. Summer? What summer.:(
Since I seem to be getting lazy (which I'm working to turn around), and they added free shipping plus a 10% off code, I went ahead and just ordered the control arm bracket shims off Ebay. Still $75 for 4 pieces of steel with holes but the heck with it. Order them, bolt them in, done. Well, done until an alignment in spring,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,whenever that comes. Hopefully before the end of June but I won't hold my breath.:mad:
 

BudW

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I just purchased materials to make my own shims. I could have saved you a few twentys.
BudW
 

Aspen500

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I just purchased materials to make my own shims. I could have saved you a few twentys.
BudW
Yeah but like I said, feeling lazy or something similar. I figure with all the money I've spent on the car in the past 18 years (snowball rebuild project 2002-2012 and continuing because a car is never DONE), what's another $75 in the grand scheme of things?:)
 

Aspen500

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Well, the control arm bracket shims came today in the mail. No calipers yet. No rush, because of the crap weather lately, won't be able to test the brakes out until maybe next May at the earliest. Stupid snow, stupid ice, STUPID salt and (much worse) liquid brine solution.:mad:
 

Aspen500

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Put the control am shims in this afternoon. Beat the TSB flat-rape time of 1.8 hrs, lol. I'm not sure how it could be done without unhooking the ball joint and still get at the mounting bolts.o_O I suppose it could be done but sometimes, doing what seems like more work ends up saving you work in the end.
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Aspen500

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According to Ebay, the calipers have been shipped and should arrive this Tuesday. They haven't salted on the streets around my house yet so, hopefully I'll be able to see if the brake problem is gone or not. Have to do a garage alignment first with the level and tape measure to get it close as possible until I can do a real alignment next spring. I really hope it stops good and stops straight with new calipers, pads and all new fluid front and rear.
 
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