68 Wildcat Disc Brakes

[68CatLowRider]

Hello, 1st time here. I have a 68 Wildcat. I am in the process of customizing/upgrading my Cat. I was wondering if anyone out there who knows if there is a disc brake kit for this vehicle or if another Buick had disc brakes that will fit onto this vehicle. I have checked all of the normal places: Jegs, Summit, PST etc. Nobody has anything! If anyone has any info it would be greatly appreciated.

[imported_JohnD1956]

Oh boy! The 68 W cat disc brakes are somewhat rare. They are the bendix 4 piston caliper disc bakes and were only available in 67-69. I have a 69 Electra with them and I know they were available on the 69 Riv, too, although I'm not sure they were the same between these two.

Some people indicate that 1970 spindles with the newer style single piston calipers can be fit onto the cars, but there has been a LOT of discussion about the need to switch these brakes in the first place. It seems period tests with the standard aluminum finned drum brakes showed not much decrease in stopping power over discs. There are several discussions about that in this forum in various places. You may want to check them out before committing to a disc conversion with it's expensive parts.

[68CatLowRider]

Thanks for the info. It looks like I will be sticking with the drums afterall. For the price of converting it really isn't worth. I will spend my money on other needed parts!!!

[imported_JohnD1956]

I don't think you will be sorry. After all, when you lock em up, you lock em up. And who cares if you have disc's then? The better thing to do is drive defensively.

I always told my kids when they began driving that you should drive a classic slower than other cars because that way people can see them. It worked on one of them. It took a few speeding tickets for another. I still can't figure out the third guy, although he is a dad now and seems to have changed quite a bit in this regard.

John D

[brh]

Been down this road myself only with a 65 Skylark, which did not come with disc. The car has manual drum--what a beast to stop and the suicide cyl (one for all 4 brakes). I did upgrade to radial tires and replaced all brake hardware keeping it stock. On the way to a show I was moving pretty good when some fool slammed on his brakes, I hit mine, and stopped in plenty of time. I believe the radials helped. Moral of the story is even with stock brakes I believe the car performed great.