I decided last winter that I really wanted to update the look of my car. My stock Iroc Wheels were peeling and the braking power wasn't the greatest. So I decided it was time to upgrade the braking system in my Camaro. I searched forums and many websites to get ideas of where to go with this. I originally started with wanted to just do an LS1 upgrade. The further I got looking into it, the C5 Corvette brake set-up wasn't much more and looked way bigger. I was contemplating on cutting the spindles myself and make my own brackets. But the more I thought about it, this could cost me much more time and money than it's worth. So I knew about a site called bigbrakeupgrade.com. I emailed them with all my questions concerns. Scott (runs the upgrade site) emailed me back everyday until all my questions were answered. He was very informative and helpful. You basically send your stock spindles in as a core and then they will send back everything you need. They even offer powder coating.







The Old Spindles are off.




Once I got the spindles off and ready to ship out, I really examined everything in the wheel well and decided I might as well clean it up while I have everything apart. My underbody coating was cracking and falling off. My springs, struts, and control arm were still in perfect functioning condition but just looked rough. So I decided to powder coat the control arm and clean and paint the other parts. I also wanted to fix the cracking rubberized coating in the wheel well, so I scrapped it all off and recoated it.

 

I tried a few different ways to get the bushing out of the control arms. I tried getting them pressed out and drilling the centers out in hopes that they would just fall apart. Then, thanks to youtube I found a very simple way to remove them. All you need to do is drill a drill bit in between the edge of the bushing and the wall of the control arm. Start the drill slowly and it will start walking around the outside of the bushing. After no time at all the bushing pushed itself out.











Finally got the control arms back from the powder coater.







New Stainless Steel Brakelines

 

And Finally, New Brake Kit arrived )))))))



With the Rears:


New Bushings:




And the New Rims in:


I decided to go with Nitto 555 tires. I put some Nitto 555R Drag Radials in the back.

 

Sneak Peak:


View Through the wheels.


Since I had the springs off all winter, the car sits higher than is did before the winter. She has been lowering a bit each week. She should sit back down where she was before I took everything apart. When I had my engine out the car did the exact same thing. It looked like I jacked the front end up.



After a nice fresh buff:

 

Well I am glad I typed all this up for nothing. Wow

 

Looks very good I like what you did, clean parts, no rust!! top job. What did you coat the wheel well with?? Also, the boots on those moog balljoints have a small pinhole for excess grease because they are pressed on. Did you install it with the little hole inward?

 

Thanks man! I actually coated the wheel wells with rubberized undercoating out of a spray can. Simple as that. These ball joints came with a greaser screw that screws into the bottom for excess grease. I think that is what you were asking about.

 

I use the same ball joints, I mean the actual rubber boot you press on, there's a steel ring in it and you drive it tight on the ball joint, as such it doesn't float on there so there's no room for the grease to escape. these have a small pinhole in them just for that, the hole is supposed to go inboard.

 

Looks good! Love how you went the extra mile and powder-coated the A-arms instead of just spray painting them. How does the car stop now?

 

Honestly I dont' remember installing then with any discretion to the pin hole haha. Whatever direction they seated onto the best I just left it at that. What would be the plus/minus for installing in a certain direction?


Thanks man! She stops like a charm. Barley touch the brake and she catches real nice.

 

the minus for having the boots on 180 degrees wrong is grease can end up on the brake rotor

 

hah I like grease on my rotors. I will have to take a looksy this weekend to see what direction that ended up! Thanks for the heads up haha

 

nice job

 

Thanks Dooood

 

A lot of good work.

 

good job and nice write-up, I dig your gs stripe too, especially how it maches your lower stripes

 

Thanks Man, I put it on and tested it out first to make sure it wasn't too tacky. I like a simple and clean car. I don't want stickers plastered all over the place or anything

 

You never type it all up for nothing, sometimes it just takes us awhile to get here! Great job. That really looks clean.

 

Looks sweet, I'm hoping to do the same swap on mine. Nice write up! Without people doing posts like this I could never do anything cool!

 

I did mine like 3 months ago BUT i cheated LOL I used the "LS" rotor and caliper bracket, Then used the the C5 caliper! I did all work at my shop when it was slow (but now I know milling the rotors and doing the spindle is a P.I.T.A.!!!!)



You did a nice job though

 

Thanks Guys. Now I just need a 4th gen rear end to put my rear LS set up on.

 

how hard was it to install everything?

 

Everything was really simple honestly. The hardest part was getting all the rusty bolts loose haha. Just a little elbow grease and she breaks free. Scott for bigbrakeupgrade.com sent everything all set up. Just had to bolt the spindles on and put the lines on the calipers and you are all set. I definitely recommend doing it this way.

 

Nice job, and sick looking car. Another two thumbs up for Scott @bigbrakeupgrade. Got my Spindles and brackets from him for my C5/6 swap.

 

Nice! Yeah Scott was a huge help and everything worked flawlessly!

 

Nice work. In the last 10 years I have had two different C5 setups waiting to be installed but sold both of them to fund other projects. I am now looking to get back into this hobby and the C5 brakes are my next mod. I plan on doing my own mod to the spindle but I still have to figure out how to modify the old brake rotor and make the brackets.

 

That Lukeskaff website has a lot of information on doing the bracket yourself. Here is this link to the bracket modification: http://lukeskaff.com/?page_id=355 Hope that helps

 

Very nice job!

I will do the exact same brake conversion this winter. As for your A-Arms, I noticed that you installed polyeurethane bushings am I wright? You didn't consider the Global West Del a lum lifetime bushings? I have to change my ball joints & bushings as well, but when I calculate the powder coating process, bushings and ball joints I am hesitating between going that route or going aftermarket tubular...

Wouldn't you mind telling us how much it costed you only in the complete brake swapping

 

Will that C5 brake upgrade work with the original 16" IROC wheels?

Found my answer will 12.5 c5 brakes fit under iroc or gta wheels?

 

I also went with Scotts Package and the swap was incredibly easy. The hardest part about this upgrade (and the LS1 upgrade) is the spindles. If you don't think you can do it right, or don't have a shop with access to a drill press then go with Scott's package.

It was about an hour start to finish.

 

Link to the drill-trick for bushing removal.

 

Brando, what brand of brake lines are those? thanks

 

They look like the SS lines that Scott offers with his kit. I sprung for those too.