Stop fast or go fast?

Hey guys, I was wanting to pick some brains. I recently got rid of some of my excess speed parts at our local swap meet and now have some extra cash set aside for the comet, but now im at a dilemma do i continue saving to get the wilwood disc brake kit Ive been eyeballing or do i spend what i have on getting a Holley 2 barrel adapter plate and carb? Im torn also because im not 100% sure what else would need to be changed when converting to the 2 barrel setup id more thank likely have to change pedals and go to a cable set up, but id also have to change master cylinder and setup going front disc brakes. :help:

Stopping isn't as fun as going, but it is a little more important. Are you going power disc, or just disc? Because if you're going power disc and you've got a big cam that could be a problem.

More than likely just manual front disc brakes unless I feel that isn't adequate, it just has the stock cam so I don't believe that vacuum will be an issue. And I agree that going is much more fun, and truth be told if I adjusted my drums to work properly Id probably hate them a little less and it might brake better but that was a multi attempt last time I tried too and I ended up about where I started. It'd kinda be nice to put discs on the front and just call it good and not worry about the rears as much. Alternatively I did consider buying the disc setup that is sold by Tomsclassics on ebay for half the price of the wilwoods but I get a pretty nice discount through my job so I wanted to take advantage of that now rather then later when I decide I want to upgrade but don't have that luxury anymore.

I say full rebuild on the drums(cheap), and go fast to with the 2 barrel. The only advantages to discs are cooler prolonged braking/less brake fade, wet shedding, and easier to maintain. But on the same master the drums have more braking power under ideal/normal conditions. More surface area. It's amazing how cheap you can completely rebuild drum brakes including the drum and wheel cylinders. I rebuilt my rears completely including all the self adjusting bit's springs, pins, everything and finned drums to from rock auto for around $120 shipped.

Having said that I do love my power assist front disc brakes

Drill all four of your drums, get a dual master (drum/drum) anyway.

Rick(wrench)

I used a Mark VIIIII ( some Lincoln) M/C when goin to the discs for the larger resovure.
It had the same bolt holes on the firewall - no dingin up the sheet metal…
Wrks good too.

to me you first need have good brakeing plus some really decent tires, before you start any of the performance mods. Good luck

I switched to front discs on my Bronco and the pucker factor of having to stop in a hurry was immediately reduced exponentially. Power brakes made stopping a dream.

OP, you want to be able to stop the car as quickly as possible. you dont have to go to willwood though to get the job done. my first stop would be to scarebird, https://scarebird.com/ for one of their disc brake bracket kits. they lay out what rotors, hubs, and calipers you need to make it happen. they also have rear disc brake brackets as well for a number of applications, so check them out. you just might save enough money with the disc brake conversion to also do the two barrel conversion as well.

the fun thing is you get to keep your four lug wheels if you wish, or i believe they also have a five lug conversion as well.

2X on Rich's scarebird mod suggestion

U Go Rbohm!

Thanks for all the replies, It currently has a set of new to last year and only about 500 miles on them bf goodrich radial T\A s and on 14x7 outlaw II wheels. This set up is deep enough i have to go with scarebirds deep mount hubs on top of the rest of the parts I would need to make a brake kits ie calipers, pads, rotors. and on top of switching everything over i came out to roughly $200 difference between going scarebird or wilwood and to me wilwood just cant be beat when it comes to quality and performance. Yes they are expensive but worth the price.

Hi,

I would go for the brakes. Those drum brakes are killers in the rain, never know which way car will turn. And with all the non attentive cell phone texting drivers you need good brakes. The days of going slowly and leaving lots of room to stop are over. Some @@#$@#$ will cut in and there goes your safe following distance.

We have Granada discs on out Comet, with manual pedal. The pedal pressure is higher than with power brakes but that has no bearing on how effective the brakes are. Car is still slow as a snail with low numerical ratio rear end and the six but much safer to drive.

remember, if you hit someone or run into something due to bad brakes this is an old car. Where are you going to get replacement parts? And these vehicles aren't exactly designed to modern impact standards.

The old cars are worth keeping. You can always go fast later but not if the car is totaled.

John in Kalifornia