Why are decisions so hard?

both are quality kits, personally i would go with the baer as the PBR calipers they use can be had rebuilt at parts store fairly inexpensively compared to the calipers from ssbc, also i would go with the power bosster since your car will be mainly street driven. then again you could always do some research and build your own big brake kit. i am currently planning my swap now. so far it looks like i will be using 68 ltd 12" rotors and depending on whether or not the late model stang pbr calipers will fit, i will be using those, if not it'll be 65-66 t-bird or 68-69 lincoln 4 piston kelsey hayes calipers, just like ford used on the competition boss 302's. i'll have to fab up my own caliper brackets but that shouldn't be too hard. most people say to use 70 drum spindles but i think i can get away with some 68-69 drum spindles and they're cheaper too. since i probably won't be doing too much racing i think they will hold up ok. i already have a lincoln versailles rear that is almost ready to go in, so i don't need to spend a ton of money on rear brakes

I'm in exactly the same place bad67, SSBC has been a strong supporter of the Mustang hobby for well over 20 years now. In fact I have an entire SSBC (factory stock PDB) system on my car right now. I wanted to run 13" rotors up front and 10 or 11s in the rear just like on my 97 Cobra. I am also leaning more towards Baer or Willwood for the esoteric name recognition on the hiperf circuit. But neither of those companies make a 13-11' kit for our cars, and SSBC does. Oh well, at least I got time to think about it.

a power booster on a light weight car, like the early mustang, isnt needed. as for the brake system, check cobra automotive. they have a 12" front disc system that is supposed to fit in 15" wheels. they race what they sell so their kits have to be right.

BAD67FUN said:

Okay, I talked to Stainless Steel Brake Corp on the phone yesterday about purchasing their kits for converting my drums, front and rear. I asked him about the power booster. He didn't think I needed one. He explained how the power booster will just give me a "squishy pedal" and that he owned a classic corvette with a big block that was just fine without a booster. They sell boosters.... so I tend to believe the guy because alot of places would otherwise try to sell you everything they can. I don't mind at all avoiding the hassle of putting in the booster system. But am I making a bad decision to stay manual? I originally had my mind made up to go with Baer, but now I'm leaning towards SS because I get the feeling their kits are more complete. I've talked to a Baer rep and I didn't get that "warm and fuzzy" feeling. Also, I can get 13" front rotor to fit my spindles from SS. Where the Baer kit for the 13" rotor would force me to swap spindles ($). Help?

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I sent this to you via PM in response to a direct question you asked me, but what the heck, I'll post it here too:

The decision to go with the pricer and slightly harded to install Baers would come down to use...so you need to honestly evaluate what you will do with the car and how often.

For me it was an easy choice for the SSBC. I had used them before, I new I could install the whole deal in under a day, and I knew they would give me the performance I needed to take the car to the track a couple times a year and have some fun. I also knew they would provide all the braking I could ever use on the street which is were my car will get the majority of its miles...driving to the 1/4 and the opentrack, racing, and then driving home again..maybe stopping off a car show on the way

So if you are building a frequent use track car, you might reach the limits of the SSBC quickly (or you may never reach them). IF you are building a car to take to the track occasionally for fun racing, you don't need anything more than the SSBC in my opinion.

As for rebuilding....buying new stuff means you won't have to worry about rebuilding for some time. The 4 pistons aren't that hard to rebuild though. They are identical to the Kelsey Hayes brakes the GT equiped cars came with 40 yrs ago and are rebuilt in the same way I beleive.

As a point of note, you should always start with the inside and work out on a car

Decide on the driveline, the suspension and the brakes...then buy wheels

I made the same mistake...bought 15 inch rims for the car with rubber....had them on the parked car for 12 months and then had to sell them....didn't even have 2 miles on them and lost $400 on it. Why? Because I built the motor with alot of HP and the max rubber I could get on the car was limited by the wheels I had bought. So I needed to upgrade. Now I run 17s and while I get the benefit of fiitting a 255 tire in the rear I also gained in cornering ability because of the smaller side wall

As for manual..like I said before. I have no problem stopping my car with the manual brakes....and I have an extra heavy front end because of the 351c I installed.

SSBC with 13 and 11 inch rotors.




Baer (image courtesy of Jay):