New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

[Craig J.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

Since you have resleeved units (as I suspected you would) you can just put in new seals and pistons (which whill probably be corroded and need it). However, I find that for the price of seals, pistons, etc it's easier to let the rebuild places do them since it's only a few dollars more. In your case since all 4 have been replaced I'd just buy 4 new ones from Lonestar and send yours back as cores. Get the new ones in black for a more correct color. Oh, and I'd guarantee Duntov Motors just resells someone else's units. They would not be on my shourt list for sources.

I agree with going with new or rebuilt calipers. There would be a lot of time spent cleaning and painting, so the new/rebuilds are very reasonable price-wise. New calipers would be good too...I'll have to find out if the castings are coming out of China or India.

Thanks for your thoughts on Duntov -- they are off my list now. Precision Engineering's calipers (stainless pistons) seem like good units at a reasonable price. Stainless pistons are nice.

[Patrick H.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

Precision Engineering's calipers (stainless pistons) seem like good units at a reasonable price. Stainless pistons are nice.

I would stick with Vette Brakes or Lonestar, and I did with the cars that I service. Vette Brakes has a great reputation as a rebuilder if you want used, and Lonestar is the source for the new calipers for everyone.

[Craig J.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

I would stick with Vette Brakes or Lonestar, and I did with the cars that I service. Vette Brakes has a great reputation as a rebuilder if you want used, and Lonestar is the source for the new calipers for everyone.

Vette Brakes...is that cssbinc.com or vpandp.com? Thanks.

[Brian K.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

I don't agree with exchanging. I had old calipers from Vette Brakes that looked good. Exchanged one leaker from another reputable supplier and got a caliper that looked like it had come from the bottom of the ocean. My point is if your calipers are decent and sleeved, rebuild them. There was nothing wrong with the caliper other than appearance but who among us is not fussy?

[Patrick H.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

Vette Brakes...is that cssbinc.com or vpandp.com? Thanks.

vbandp.com as cssb is Corvette Stainless Steel brakes, not Vette Brakes (and Products).

[Patrick H.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

vbandp.com as cssb is Corvette Stainless Steel brakes, not Vette Brakes (and Products).

PS - Vette Brakes often runs sales - see their website for discounts.

[Craig J.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

PS - Vette Brakes often runs sales - see their website for discounts.

Thank you for the clarification in post 20 and for the tip on sales!

[Joe L.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

I would stick with Vette Brakes or Lonestar, and I did with the cars that I service. Vette Brakes has a great reputation as a rebuilder if you want used, and Lonestar is the source for the new calipers for everyone.

Patrick------


Vette Brakes has very good quality. However, I don't like their practice of grinding off a fairly large area on the side of the casting for the purpose of stamping their logo. They should stamp it on one of the already machined surfaces of the calipers like most of the others do. Maybe they've changed to that by now, though.

[Joe L.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

I agree with going with new or rebuilt calipers. There would be a lot of time spent cleaning and painting, so the new/rebuilds are very reasonable price-wise. New calipers would be good too...I'll have to find out if the castings are coming out of China or India.

Thanks for your thoughts on Duntov -- they are off my list now. Precision Engineering's calipers (stainless pistons) seem like good units at a reasonable price. Stainless pistons are nice.

Craig-------


I don't know if things have changed or if some rebuilders now have different policies, however it used to be that many/most/all caliper rebuilders would not accept for exchange previously sleeved calipers. This is because product liability insurance would not allow them to resleeve previously sleeved calipers. They can rebuild them with new pistons and seals but if they do this on an exchange basis, they end up then having to effectively guarantee the work of someone else (i.e. whoever originally sleeved the calipers). They will, of course, rebuild your calipers with new pistons and seals and return them to you. In that case, they're only guaranteeing the pistons and seals, not the sleeves.

Like I say, it's possible that policies have changed, but be sure to check first. Shipping calipers across country as exchange cores is expensive and if they're not going to accept them as cores for exchange calipers, it's foolish to pay for the shipping. If you purchase new reproduction calipers, there's no exchange necessary. They will, however, pay for cores (if they're acceptable) but, usually, the cost of shipping them eats up most of what you get for the cores.

As far as the source of reproduction castings, you're going to find that most will be from the "far east". The "far east" has become the "center of the universe" for automotive castings, especially cast iron.

[Craig J.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

Hi Joe,

Good point about the cores. I removed my pass front caliper tonight and sure enough, it had been sleeved. It also looked like the brake fluid hadn't been changed in some time as there was a lot of gunk in the caliper halves. I also found where the iron had corroded under the stainless sleeve, so one bore is not very round at this point.

I've had bad experiences with some Chinese goods, and I prefer to avoid them when possible. Guess that means the rebuilt Delco Moraine's are the only other option then. Thank you for your thoughts!

[Joe L.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

Hi Joe,

. I also found where the iron had corroded under the stainless sleeve, so one bore is not very round at this point.

Craig------


This is a sure sign of a VERY POOR quality sleeve job and EXACTLY the reason that rebuilders don't want to accept previously sleeved calipers on an exchange basis. The major Corvette caliper rebuilders that we use in the hobby generally do an excellent job of sleeving. However, they are not the only ones that supply such calipers. There are a lot of "budget rebuilders" out there that supply calipers to the local discount auto parts store. These often cut every corner possible and supply "unidentified" rebuilt calipers (guess why they're unidentified). They use things like DECORATIVE stainless steel for the sleeves instead of 304 or 316 stainless (saving every penny counts when you're a "budget rebuilder").

[Patrick H.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

I've had bad experiences with some Chinese goods, and I prefer to avoid them when possible.

Don't buy a new car then.

I have found the new calipers to be identical to originals, and would not be afraid of them at all.
That's why I have used them.

I usually bring caliper cores to Bloomington, Carlisle, etc and turn them in right there in order to save on shipping them.

[Joe L.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

Don't buy a new car then.

Patrick-------


YUP! There's PLENTY of "foreign content", including Chinese-sourced, in new cars. This includes castings (like I mentioned, China is the "center of the universe" as far as automotive castings go and that includes a LOT more than a few reproduction Corvette castings).

In fact, GM only has TWO cast iron foundries left in the whole of GM. These are a gray iron foundry and a nodular iron foundry located side-by-side in Defiance, OH. Mostly, these produce cast iron blocks and heads for the few applications remaining that use those and nodular iron crankshafts used for most GM applications. Any other cast iron castings? Guess where.

By the way, the reproduction calipers look very good to me, too. My one concern: I've never been able to determine what type of cast iron is used----gray iron or ductile/nodular iron. However, all of the GM 547xxxx caliper castings were gray iron so they should be no worse than those. I don't even think those 547xxxx castings were done in a GM foundry.

[Craig J.]

Re: New Owner and Member - C3 Brake Questions

And I thought selecting calipers was going to be simple. I was really surprised to see how the bore was slightly distorted on that one caliper half...and the brakes felt fine when driving the car. No hint of problems whatsoever.

So now I'm leaning towards the new units, and looking at getting them from Lonestar, VB&P, Precision Engineering, CSSB, etc.

From what's been posted in this forum, the O-ring pistons look like the way to go for a car driven about 1,000 miles a year.