Brakes are one of the major concerns of early-model trucks. When restoring a truck today, an upgraded brake system should be mandatory, and with today's aftermarket disc brake conversions, you'd be foolish not to make the investment when upgrading your brakes. We have been working with the team at Classic Performance Products in Anaheim, California, while they upgrade a '67 Chevrolet 1/2-ton pickup frame with CPP suspension components on all four corners, and in this last installment we'll swap the front and rear brakes.
A quick recap to show the build from beginning to end
Totally Tubular Part I
We covered the installation of CPP's Big Tube rear suspension featuring 2-inch-diameter trailing arms with urethane bushings. The track bar (Panhard bar) eliminates any lateral movement of the rearend housing. A pair of shorter progressive coil springs and gas-filled shock absorbers were installed. A flat frame crossmember replaced the factory crossmember to allow more ground clearance following the lowered stance. The crossmember also has oversize 3x5-inch oval exhaust pipe holes, allowing the exhaust to be tucked up inside the framerails. The CPP rear suspension lowering kit allows a 6-inch drop.
Totally Tubular Part I I
The '67's nose was dropped by installing CPP's tubular 1 3/4-inch upper and lower control arms. The lower A-arms' lower spring pocket features a one-piece stamped steel spring pocket that is completely flush with the bottom edge of the lower A-arm for maximum ground clearance. A pair of zinc-coated control arm cross-shafts with self-locking hardware maintains continuous alignment. New CPP tie rod ends and adjusting sleeves were installed, along with new pitman and idler arms and a power steering box. Body roll was eliminated with a thicker-diameter sway bar. To achieve the 5-inch lowered stance up front, a pair of CPP 2-inch drop spindles and 3-inch-shorter progressive coil springs were installed. Up front, we also installed a pair of Totally Tubular engine mounts and a Totally Tubular transmission crossmember.
Totally Tubular Part I I I
In Part III, we will be following Jeff Wise and Danny Nix as they install CPP's four-wheel disc brake kit. The large 12-inch brake rotors are cross-drilled, chamfered, and slotted before they are zinc-plated. Cross-drilling increases the rotors' ability to cool down between stops by exerting heated gases that build up inside the rotors' metallurgic molecule structure due to friction during stopping. The rotors' cross-drilled holes are chamfered to eliminate cracking that can occur when rotors develop stress concentrations during the drilling process. Slotted rotors will reduce brake fade during stopping and maintain a clean brake rotor surface as the brake pads sweep the rotors' surface. A complete set of inner and outer wheel bearings, seals, castle nuts, cotter pins, and spindle dust caps are included in the kit.
 |  This front view of the '67...  This front view of the '67 Chevy pickup frame with CPP front suspension components includes CPP upper and lower control arms with ball joints and urethane bushings, 2-inch drop spindles, 3-inch-shorter coil springs, gas-filled shock absorbers, L&R tie rod ends, tie rod adjuster sleeves, power steering box, pitman arms, idler arm, front sway bar, sway bar, and end links. |  Jeff Wise removed the front...  Jeff Wise removed the front brake rotor that had accumulated decades of crust and rust. |