Vintage C Body Disc Brake Conversion

[Canuck]

Inspired by Ken Tibor's (Kwizz) awesome posts on his restoration projects I thought I would share an unusual one I am working on.

The subject is my 1960 Chrysler 300F pictured here:


I have owned this car since 2000 and have done some upgrades and rebuilds without doing a restoration on the car. What you see is 90% original paint and trim.

My frustration with the car was its inability to stop more than once with its vintage design brakes.They are big but useless in the mountainous region where I live. They were designed for Kansas.



That were badly cracked after only 1000 miles.



So the decision to go with a conversion kit From AAJ brake out of Portland Oregon was made.



The kit is complete with everything needed other than Metal lines to do the conversion.

More in following postings,stay tuned.

[Xplantdad]

Very cool Paul!

[Canuck]

In conjunction with the brake conversion, it was time to do a front end rebuild. Everything was original except an idler arm bushing and shocks. It was also covered in 52 years or grease that had hardened like cement.

.

The grease had to be cut of the parts with a knife. From there they were left to soak in solvent for 48 hours to get down to bare metal.

The next step was power washing to get the last of the grease off. The good news is that most of the parts were in incredible shape due to them being on a west coast car and soaked in grease.

After power washing, They soaked in a tub of malt Vinegar, an unbelievable rust neutralizer. This is what the lower control arms looked like after the bath. French Fries anybody?



My objective was not to give any of the parts a restored look, so after this process they were sprayed with Boeshield T5.

[Canuck]

Next up for the suspension rebuild was removing old bushings. I had loaned out my hydraulic press so being the impatient person I am I proceeded to to a makeshift removal tool with my bench vise, modified gas pipe as an adapter and the right size socket:



For installation purposes I got my press back and did it the professional way.

I did a trail fit of the adapter plate with the spindle and knuckle and found everything fit together nicely for the drivers side:



The passenger side not so much:



The holes were not lining up so I took some measurements:





And determined I had some adjustment to do:









Input from one of the Mopar sites had told me these kits were a bolt in with no mods, My pass side steering knuckle was cast with too much thickness at a critical point so it had to ne modified slightly.

Next up will be the master cyl install.

[Canuck]

This is probably the trickiest part of this disc brake conversion. There is little or no room for a dual master cyl. Chrysler used two types of power brake boosters, a bellows type and a canister type. The bellows type has a little more room to play with but my car had the canister type.

In order to get at the area to install the master cyl, the drivers side ram manifold had to be removed;



This is where the cyl has to go:



Needless to say clearance is tight and AAJ had to modify a stock Chrysler dual master using two side mounted bales.



I had to make an additional modification as I could not get the lid off when the cyl was installed, so I had to elongate the holes to drop the cyl. down about 1/8 inch.



After bench bleeding it was ready to install.

[Canuck]

Next up was getting the lines done and installing a prop valve provided with the kit. I chose a location near the stock junction block so none of the stock lines had to be cut:



The valve will be easily accessible for adjustment

Here is a view from under side looking at the upper control arm area. Once the battery tray is in stalled this area will not be visible from the top.



The installed Cyl. and lines ready for bleeding, refilling the master will require a funnel and a hose, I will do all of this before the manifold gets re installed.




Paul

[mockingbird812]

Paul

That is quite the challenge you have there. Your ol mopar is a gem. You've done an admirable job of adapting and overcoming! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[Canuck]

Thais Sam. This old brute pulls like a freight train but required the same stopping distance of the Queen Mary. With this upgrade I am looking forward to the peace of mind that the brakes will match the performance.

Paul