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| How would someone go about doing a brake upgrade in 2023? (Page 1/2) |
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Additivewalnut
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NOV 30, 06:08 PM
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Worth mentioning before getting into all of this, I am trying to autocross this car, whether or not the car actually will be competitive is not in question, I know it probably isn't and I don't really care. I love this car and I wanna have a good SAFE time.
My front brakes are ~30 years old and nearing the end of their life after exactly two (2) autocross races, and in those races, I found that I didn't really like how my bone stock front brakes from 1993 were performing so I'm hoping to upgrade them while I'm already replacing the things. Now I've looked around and the best bang for the back seems to be the Grand Am upgrade, which I already did in the rear when I replaced my seized rear calipers. I know it takes some machining of some kind to a hub and possibly some new wheel studs but my question is.... how? Some older posts have dead links to the Fierostore where I guess you used to be able to buy a swap hub? WCF doesn't have anything except some very tempting $1700 Vette/Viper kits, I however, am not in the required tax bracket for those and frankly my car doesn't need them. I can feasibly go one of two ways, try my darndest to find drilled or slotted front rotors and some carbon brake pads for a stock set up (unlikely), OR switch to an entirely different car's setup.
So focusing on the GA brakes. What do I need to track down? As everyone here knows, things are getting really expensive and hard to find for really any 80s GM car at this point. Hell, my GA rear upgrade had to be shipped from 2 different Oreilly's warehouses and I think I got the last of both rotor AND caliper in the Saint Louis area.... and it cost me 204 dollars to get everything.
After tracking everything down, what's a guy gotta do to get it all machined? I've never spoken to a machine shop in my life and I don't know what they do or don't do anymore. I'm sure a simple phone call would answer most of questions but I don't know what to even ask them.
TL;DR Can I find hubs for a Grand am/Beretta brake swap nowadays or am I fresh outta luck? Do I even NEED hubs? Should I just get an S10 booster and put stock brakes on?[This message has been edited by Additivewalnut (edited 11-30-2023).]
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Additivewalnut
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NOV 30, 06:23 PM
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https://brakeperformance.co...zaPpkPQaAlqcE ALw_wcB
I did find this, and I've heard of people using this site before, but the lack of proper product images scares me and frankly the website looks like it came straight out of 2005 and I'm not positive I want to give them my personal info.
EDIT: called them, actually got an American on the phone too. They're a California based company and they actually genuinely have these in stock, hub and all. He went and grabbed one and described it to me. The drilled and slotted deals are made to order too. With the sale they have going on, this is very tempting. They take paypal too, so theoretically I could get my money back if it turns out to be junk. This doesn't answer my main question of should I just get high quality stock brakes or upgrade them to GA.... but this is currently the cheapest option.[This message has been edited by Additivewalnut (edited 11-30-2023).]
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jpeeler
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NOV 30, 06:55 PM
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There is someone on the Fiero FaceBook group that makes all different types of brake swaps. He has posted on here in the past but can't recall his username. But he has machined aluminum front hubs and can do C4-C5 vette gen 3 camaro as well as some others I believe. Even has some options for the rear that retain the park brake. [This message has been edited by jpeeler (edited 11-30-2023).]
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Additivewalnut
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NOV 30, 07:06 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by jpeeler:
There is someone on the Fiero FaceBook group that makes all different types of brake swaps. He has posted on here in the past but can't recall his username. But he has machined aluminum front hubs and can do C4-C5 vette gen 3 camaro as well as some others I believe. Even has some options for the rear that retain the park brake.
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good to know! I often forget facebook even exists.
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jpeeler
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NOV 30, 07:10 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Additivewalnut:
good to know! I often forget facebook even exists. |
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The Fiero and 3800 group is the only reason I use it. Unfortunately is seems so many people post on there and hardly ever come here.
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Steven Snyder
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NOV 30, 08:55 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Additivewalnut:
https://brakeperformance.co...zaPpkPQaAlqcE ALw_wcB
I did find this, and I've heard of people using this site before, but the lack of proper product images scares me and frankly the website looks like it came straight out of 2005 and I'm not positive I want to give them my personal info.
EDIT: called them, actually got an American on the phone too. They're a California based company and they actually genuinely have these in stock, hub and all. He went and grabbed one and described it to me. The drilled and slotted deals are made to order too. With the sale they have going on, this is very tempting. They take paypal too, so theoretically I could get my money back if it turns out to be junk. This doesn't answer my main question of should I just get high quality stock brakes or upgrade them to GA.... but this is currently the cheapest option.
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Cross drilled rotors are not an upgrade. They exist to look cool. They crack around the holes when they get hot. This can happen in a single autocross session or a few laps at a track. Under street use most people don't get their brakes hot enough for this to happen quickly.
What year is your car? You might do okay with just a better brake pad compound. Porterfield's R4-S compound is a substantial upgrade on the 88 Fieros. Not sure if they make it for 84-87 cars but you could call and ask.
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cvxjet
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NOV 30, 09:12 PM
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I believe the guy Jpeeler is talking about goes by the name Sluppy123....I have his hubs which are very good- I used them on my 85 SE V6 which I swapped in an 88 rear subframe/suspension/brakes...Then I installed 88 front brakes with Sluppy's caliper adapters and 12" C4 Vette rotors...
That set up would probably handle anything you can throw at it in Autocrossing....Might need more for some serious track work with multiple laps.
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Additivewalnut
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NOV 30, 09:31 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Steven Snyder:
Cross drilled rotors are not an upgrade. They exist to look cool. They crack around the holes when they get hot. This can happen in a single autocross session or a few laps at a track. Under street use most people don't get their brakes hot enough for this to happen quickly.
What year is your car? You might do okay with just a better brake pad compound. Porterfield's R4-S compound is a substantial upgrade on the 88 Fieros. Not sure if they make it for 84-87 cars but you could call and ask. |
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I have an 86, but yeah that was my fear with the slotted stuff. Luckily they have a normal rotor option if I decide to go the route of high quality pads. I'll look into those Porterfields!
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Additivewalnut
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NOV 30, 09:32 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by cvxjet:
I believe the guy Jpeeler is talking about goes by the name Sluppy123....I have his hubs which are very good- I used them on my 85 SE V6 which I swapped in an 88 rear subframe/suspension/brakes...Then I installed 88 front brakes with Sluppy's caliper adapters and 12" C4 Vette rotors...
That set up would probably handle anything you can throw at it in Autocrossing....Might need more for some serious track work with multiple laps.
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Do you by chance know how I could contact him? I don't think I've ever seen that name before on the forum.[This message has been edited by Additivewalnut (edited 11-30-2023).]
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Raydar
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NOV 30, 10:22 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by cvxjet:
I believe the guy Jpeeler is talking about goes by the name Sluppy123. |
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You beat me to it.
| quote | Originally posted by Additivewalnut:
Do you by chance know how I could contact him? I don't think I've ever seen that name before on the forum.
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I think he has a current thread in the mall.
Or you could send him a PM. You'll have to get the spelling of his name exactly right, though, or the PM won't go through.
Edit - here's his "hub" thread. Kind of old, but I believe he's still doing them.
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/078405.html[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 11-30-2023).]
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