Well,

After getting the S4 brakes done on the front in Wichita thought it's about time to get to the rears. I'd been thinking about this for a long time and figgerd, why not. Seemed like the next upgrade to do on the 79.

So, spent last Sunday along with the DFW bunch doing the the deal over at Roger T's house. Thanks again for use of the garage there Rog!
Spent the next several hrs. with Jim Mayzurk overseeing. We did the driver side since Jim had been into the brakes on the GTS and had painted and reinstalled. I'd never touched S4 brakes so I needed some guidence.

In the medical field docs say "See one, do one, teach one" so I watched Jim, did the other side myself, and now, could probably do an S4 upgrade on any old bugger. Pics speak for themselves.

You'll need, S4 calipers, new brakelines, dustsheilds off S4 or newer, you can reuse the old style brake sensors or splice in newer ones if you want pad sensors on inboard and outboard, spacer kit from Dave Roberts, and some misculaneous nuts and bolts for the dust sheild. Oh, speed bleeders and new rubber caps as well.

Attached are just some of the highlight pics, but I'll try to post complete upgrade if I can figger out the whole Website deal.

Take a look, hope some of y'all try this one. It's pretty easy, looks good, and helps the car stop on a dime!!!!!

First pic is before shot

 

Dissasembly begins

 

Dust sheild on. This was off an 89 and up, I painted it black to match the front sheilds.

 

Old caliper vs. New one.

I don't know how it happened, but someone on the line mistakenly installed the rear brakes from a 77 Pinto on my car.

What a difference!!!!!

 

Looks like an S4 now!!!!

 

Hey Chuck - Wipe that dust off your coil springs fer cryin' out loud! Is this clean or what? I'll bet the braking is impressive! Looks great! Here are a couple more photos-

 

Stevie,

Thanks for the extra shots! I like the one where the car looks like it's jacked up like a 4x4!
Good seeing you at Rog's house!

 

How'd you get the wheel wells so darn clean and shiny? Is that original or respray? If respray, tell us more. It's really nice. The whole thing looks nice.

P.S. chuck, the engineers of the Pinto barely knew what disc brakes were back then let alone knew enough to install 'em on the rear of a car. European and Japanese cars were many years into disc brakes at the time the domestics were still bragging they had made such a discovery by putting a big circle in the middle of the (coincidentally 12 inches wide, soft as oatmeal, yet somehow still highly ineffective) rubber pedal labeled "disc brake"

 

Very Nice-The fenderwells look Anti-septic-Are you going to blacken and hide the ugly fendewell stamps? Mike -Paint it Black!

 

Nice upgrade, Chuck.... looks very sharp!

 

so how much $ did it cost you in the end??(not including beer )

 

Auto,

Lots of scrubbing. Guys like Tony H., Chuck Z., Sharkskin, etc. had already been there done that.
I took lots Simple Green, plastic and wire brushes to it. Ask Chuck Z. about different products, he's the master!

Dave, thanks. It'd look even better on that 78 of yours. Black and Red look awesome!

Jaymz, total cost fror front and back brakes including calipers, rotors, dustshields, lines, adapters, misc. nuts and bolts will probably run you about $1500 if you do all the work yourself. Less if you just slap it all together with no detailing.

The brakes are starting to bed in and it's really making a difference in the stopping power of the car. The more I drive it, the better it gets!!! Definately worth it to me!!!!!!!

 

Chuck - GREAT JOB! I know the difference it can make....with the added stopping power, it's like removing 1000 pounds from the car.

One note - the rear rotors...if they are the Zimmermans, AS SOON AS YOU CAN (if you didn't do so at the time of install), you need to paint the rotor hats. They, unlike the fronts, will get surface rust pretty quickly. Not AS noticable with your spacers, but with such a nice looking, CLEAN install - it is something I would recommend you consider!

 

Were the fronts as easy as the rears? I had the impression somehow that suspension arms, knuckles, etc had to be swapped too. If it's this easy I'll probably do it when I get to needing rotors!

 

Mark,

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably be doing this pretty soon. Just wanted to get everything buttoned up while I had the help last weekend.

Dave, Yes and no. Yes you can do a complete S4 swap and then the brakes. This gets very pricey as you know. The cheaper way to go is get the kit from Dave Roberts at 928 Specialists.
Everything bolted up. Your 78 will be the same. Remove everything including the hub, dustshield and brakelines. You need the adapters,bolt kit, new 87 and up dustsheilds, new S4 front brakelines, you can use old or new 79 brake sensors, or splice in 87 sensors. (inboard sensors only vs. inboard and outboard sensors) That's it. Go to http://928gt.com/ and look up the brake upgrade kit.