Help with new disk brake setup

When I began looking at front discs, a lot of possibilities came up, namely: the Grandada swap, SSBC, Baer, Wilwood, Rod & Custom, Master Power Brakes, and Scarebird Mechanical.

The Granada swap can create suspension geometry problems in 65-66 Mustangs, and is incompatible with some performance control arms, which led me to conclude that I wanted a kit that used the stock spindles. Not to mention that Granada parts are on the expensive side, and the cost of finding the initial parts is now insane. Heck, back when you could get the stuff for $100, you were looking at $400 to refurb it with all new parts.

The ~$1000 cost of the SSBC kit shot that down, MPB's kit was similarly priced (~$800), and their customer service reputedly bad, and $650 for the small Baer setup was still high for my taste. Then, along came the $540 Wilwood kit...that's more like it. But Wilwood kits change track width, require safety wiring of the bolts, and use some unique parts. I decided I wanted something I could buy replacement parts for at the local Autozone in Nowheresville, so there went most of the kits anyway.

Then, along came the Rod & Custom RC132 kit...$350, full kit, commonly available parts, even steel braided flex lines; what's not to like? Well, after a few months of trying to track down someone who would tell me more than they had it and liked it, I found out that trimming the steering stops was not only necessary, but it was in the instructions. But wait, the Scarebird kit offered at the time used the same components (as far as I could determine) and was a straight bolt-on. What gives? I'm not about to cut on my car if I don't HAVE to, so there goes that one.

So, I'm doing a budget front-disc conversion using brackets from Scarebird Mechanical. As of August, 2006, I was told that these were superseded by a different setup that fits in 14" wheels. I just want some fair sized brakes on the cheap and I never, ever intend to use 14s, so I got lucky. My drums and hardware are all new, as well as the bearings, I suspect, so that's one possible expense I'm spared. Fresh bearings, seals, and hardware run about $40 from Rockauto for all of it, so a sub-$400 cost is still possible with that included (but with the brackets discontinued, I somehow doubt anyone else could do this particular conversion in the future).

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