This is great information, but I was wondering if their is any other sites dedicated to this upgrade.

There are a few that offer the Vette upgrade depending on year. Look at West Coast Fiero or RCC, they both have the upgrade.

The site that you have is the best one for information that I have found.

Be certain to take pics, and do a "how to" post so others can become informed also.

My conversion will be a ways down the road.

Best wishes.

John

BubbaJoe is a regular contributor here, so he should be able to answer any questions you have.

PS, I think the brake upgrade is somewhere in the middle of that post.

Bob

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/061408.html

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 04-05-2005).]

Here's the link
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/056622.html

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[This message has been edited by Rickady88GT (edited 04-06-2005).]

Thanks Soelasca and Rickady88GT, but I need to know things like where to get the caliper adapters and concentic rings made and where to get the mounting brackets for the calipers. I do have places where I can get the rotors and calipers, but not the other items needed. And since you both bought the kit from WCF I do not think you can answer these questions.

12 foot brakes? Sorry had too....

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Bobby from NW Indiana
93 Northstar and 5 speed Getrag
219customs@verizon.net
My 86 GT build thread
MY 88 Northstar build thread

It's referred to as "Flintstoning".

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My Web page | The Turbo Super Duty Build.

You should use cold rolled, its alot stronger.

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Bobby from NW Indiana
93 Northstar and 5 speed Getrag
219customs@verizon.net
My 86 GT build thread
MY 88 Northstar build thread

...thought I had more, but it's a start...
Bob

Thanks again + for you both

I did find it slightly challenging finding the correct bolts to use to bolt up the adapter plates. If I remember correctly they were 11mm x 1.5 and 12mm x 1.5. Both were oddball sizes at the bolt house I went too.

It still suprizes me that as good and as simple as this upgrade is not more people do it.

Questions I had after reading:

Are the rotors a set of front and rear 84-87 corvete rotors, or 4 fronts? Edit: Nevermind, the pictures make that obvious. It's fronts and rears.

Are the 88-96 rear calipers which are recommended to avoid the need for a mechanlical e-brake caliper designed for a 12" rotor or a 13"? I'm not sure if the brake size was an option in that year frame, or if the calipers would be different. Edit: Nevermind, the 13" brakes were on the Corvette GS only.

Great information, I just want to be sure before i lay cash down on very expensive corvette parts.

Edit: Amazing what a little sleep can do.

[This message has been edited by HellYes (edited 04-08-2005).]

I drilled the 5x100 bolt pattern in the Vette rotors accurately enough that I've not needed centering rings. I prototyped the caliper mounting brackets in wood to get it right, then duplicated them in metal. It was a cinch.

Incidentally, almost any kind of steel will do, The castings used for Fiero (and other) front end components are mild steel, so even a properly designed ALUMINUM bracket will be adequate.

Go to a machine shop, and ask if they have anything adequate in their scrap bin. I am a machinist, and that's where I get all my metals.

But according to WCF you can still use the 13" rotors in front, you just need differant adapters and larger diameter wheels.

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 04-09-2005).]

I got my adapters from Sluppy123 as well but the adapters themselves are pretty simple to make and any halfway decent machine shop should be able to turn you the concentric rings. While we're on the subject of concentric rings, before you have them turned you should make the thickness of them a few thousandths thinner than the rotor surface that fits around them. Some rotors (aftermarket) have a pretty large bevel on the backside and bubbajoe's instructions call for them to be pretty thin. We actually had to make new rear rotor concentric rings for our rears and Sluppy123 had ours made EXACTLY to the dimensions listed. I suspect this is a variation between rotors so measure yours and make sure they'll work.

You want to use '88 rotors all around to get rid of the interna drum parking brake in the earlier rotors. You need two front and two rear, use the fronts on the front and the rears on the rear. Unless you want to add a spot caliper like Bubbajoe did you will want to use the '88 rear calipers. If you do you will need to use the '88 mounting brackets the calipers and pads fit into on the back. These are still available from GM new if you can't find them used. For the front, you'll want to use the '87 and earlier calipers and THEIR correct mounting brackets. These brackets are NOT available from GM anymore and you'll have to scrounge them up used somewhere.

If you want to upgrade to SS brake lines the Fierostore's kit works just fine BUT the thread pitch is different on the Corvette calipers than on the Fiero so you are going to need new Banjo bolts to attach the lines to them. The Corvette calipers take a 10mm X 1.0 banjo bolt. I think, IIRC, the Fiero stock is 10mm X 1.5. Regardless, that is the correct bolt you need for the 'Vette calipers and it's different from the Fiero.

If you get rebuilt calipers, they may or may not come with the mounting hardware for the parking brake cable. One of mine did, one didn't. We sent the one that didn't back and got another and it didn't have them either so I just ordered the parts new from GM for a few $$ and they're still available. The cables are going to take something a bit creative and I have a line of that, IF it works I'll post what I did and where I got the parts for that.

The adapters are perfectly fine to be made out of aluminum. They will still be much stronger than the factory mounts. Steel will work fine, of course, but is heavier and overkill.

It's very easy for a machine shop to part the rotors off the hubs. It takes me less than 5 minutes in my lathe for the 'Vette swap because you don't have to machine the surface around the hub to fit inside the rotors like you do in the Grand Am brake swap.

You don't need the 11mm bolts for the Bubbajoe brackets, you drill those threads out and the bolts go in the other way.

ALL of the parts are for the STANDARD BRAKES. Many books have two types listed, standard and something else (sport, HD, high performance, etc.). The standard brakes are the 12" brakes, any of the HP versions are the 13". While I'm sure the 13" can be made to work, the adapters and such will not space the caliper properly.

You need to use the master cylinder for about a '77 Corvette. '77 to about '81 or so was the last series that did NOT have ABS IIRC and that's what you want. The MC will be sized properly for the 'Vette calipers.

We were very precise in locating our lug holes as well but I still recommend using centering rings because there is ALWAYS going to be a little play in your system since there is no tapered nut like on a wheel to center the rotors on the studs.

I would not use spacers. Before I did that I'd get some 1" stock and have it milled to .875". Spacers, I think, in this critical area are a very bad idea.

I got unloaded Calipers at O'Reileys. 18-4183, 18-4184, 18-4323, 18-4234. Total coset was just under $275, but I get a little discount. I didn't ahve any cores either. The front cores were only $5, the rears were $50 each. I did have a used set of front calipers that I got because I bought a set of calipers and brackets on Ebay, but for $5 each I kept them.

I think that covers all the questions in this thread so far.

John Stricker

Russ

[This message has been edited by Russ544 (edited 04-09-2005).]

+ for you both