In our April '05 issue, we showed the detailed installation of Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation's rear disc brake kit on our own Project "not so" Old School, including changing out the axles to five-lug units. This month we're installing the Force 10 Extreme four-piston front disc brake kit to the frontend. Besides the caliper and rotor, the SSBC Force 10 kit includes a machined drop spindle, ball joints, tie rod ends, and all of the other necessary hardware to make for a smooth installation. We ordered our calipers with the optional black powdercoating to go with the Turbo-slotted and Xtra-life-plated 13-inch rotors.
We also have been hinting at making some "big" changes in the wheel and tire department on this truck as well. Well wait no more! Wheel Vintiques has a new billet wheel line that has been selling like hotcakes, and in that line there is a wheel they call a "Gennie Solid" that basically looks like a giant steel wheel. It's available in 18- and 20-inch diameters and you can powdercoat the centers while leaving the outers polished. How cool is that? We ordered a set with the same Baron Red color as the 15-inch steelies we have been running for the last two years, with a 4 1/2-inch backspacing on the front and a 5 1/2-inch spacing on the rear.
For tires we chose AVS Sports from Yokohama for their superior handling characteristics and cool tread pattern. The fronts are 245/40ZR18 and the rears are 275/35ZR20. That's right. There are now "dubs" on a nostalgia-styled pickup. We'll see what kind of stares we get at the shows from that one. Luckily, Jim Iiams and the crew at Imzz Industries came through in a pinch to not only mount and balance our new rolling stock, but align the truck on their state-of-the-art machine as well.
Finally, we crashed the Street Rodder track testing day out at Fontana to see just how much the new brakes helped our overall stopping distance. Follow along as Jason Scudellari, the Primedia Tech Center guru, installs the SSBC kit, and check the source box for more information about any of the products we used in the install.
