Front Brakes

After a ton of research on the Internet and through the various Pantera forums I finally settled on a Wilwood brake set for the front of the Pantera. Apparently the Wilwood Part No. 140-11072 kit for a 1966 Mustang fits the Pantera spindle. This kit comes with all parts (minus flex lines and banjo bolt) for the front brake system. Total cost on the Wilwood site, around $875 plus shipping.

I got on Ebay and searched the Wilwood part number and found a new kit being sold for $737.49 with free shipping. I figured I saved close to $200 bucks going this route. Not a bad deal at all.

The kit came and it was all new parts, with the exception of one bracket that looked like it had been opened and scratched up a bit. Probably how I got such a great deal. All other parts were sealed in the original plastic bags and good to go.

First think I did was remove the original hub that came with the Pantera to expose the spindle. Here's a before and after of the passenger's side.

I took out the scratched up mounting bracket from Wilwood and held it up to the spindle - PROBLEM! The mounting surface holes are way too big for the bolt pattern on the spindle of the Pantera. Second problem (so I thought) the 3.5" caliper mounting arm won't fit over the 3" original ears shown on the right picture above. Solution to problem No. 1 - make a new mounting bracket and use the 3.5" caliper mounting arm from Wilwood. Solution to problem No. 2 - mount the caliper on the front side of the spindle rather than the back as it was stock (or cut off the ears on the Pantera spindle).

Here's a picture of the problem. You can see how the four mounting points on the spindle don't align with the various holes in the Wilwood bracket. But, by removing the four smaller bolts on the right side of the bracket in the picture below the caliper mounting arm can be removed. The picture below shows how the caliper will point toward the front of the car.

I decided to mount the bracket with the caliper going forward so I could use the original ears as two more mounting points. Unfortunately the two spindle bolts (actually one bolt and one bolt hole) can't be used to hold the bracket to the spindle. They are in a position that will hit the hub if you let the bolt hold down the mounting bracket. The two lower bolts are out of the way and will work fine. I want more than just two bolts holding this bracket in place - why not use the original ears that held the original caliper in place as mounting bolts - that can be built into the new bracket I will need to make.

So, after a trip to the metal shop, I had the aluminum plate needed to make the new mounting bracket. I purchased the same thickness aluminum that came with the Wilwood kit. After mocking up what the new bracket should look like I cut it out and drilled all the mounting holes for the caliper arm. Here's a picture of the new bracket roughed out with the caliper arm holes already drilled.

 Next I drilled out the center hole to fit over the spindle. It measured 1 3/4" on the Pantera so I decided to cut the hole 2" for clearance. Once the center hole was drilled out I clamped the bracket to the spindle and used the original bolts on the spindle to mark where to drill the mounting holes. To do this I used the old paint trick. I put a dab of paint on the end of a bolt , put it in the spindle mounting hold and pressed it against the clamped mounting bracket. I did this with all the holes on the spindle and the two holes on the ears for the old caliper mounting point. I then went to work and drilled them all out. Here it is completely drilled and with the edges rounded a bit.

Notice the larger mounting hole near the center left of the bracket above. I drilled this hole larger to fit over the head of the bolt on the spindle that would interfere with the hub if I were to use it to mount the bracket. Basically the bracket above is turned up side down. The large hold near the center left is actually for the upper left side mounting bolt on the spindle (see an earlier picture of the bolt pattern on the spindle). Though this won't hold the bracket in place it will help keep it from moving since the bolt head fits tight into this larger hold size.

Next I test fit the bracket and made a mirror image of it for the driver's side. All's well - right? Well not so much.

I put a little paint on the bracket, assembled the caliper mounting arm with the four bolts it came with and put the bracket on the car. Here's what it looks like.

Looks great - right? Problem is that when you try and mount the caliper it hits the tie rod end - bummer! So I guess I need to just cut off the original ears - right? I took off the bracket and just for the heck of it mounted it with the new caliper mounting arm point backwards like it should have been in the first place. Guess what - it fit perfectly. Another case of taking time to disassemble everything and try it all for fit before making judgement about what will and will not work. When will I learn this lesson?

Here's how it looks facing the right way (after drilling another clearance hole for the top left mounting bolt on the spindle.

Now we are back to figuring out how to mount it safely to the spindle since I can't use the top two holes due to the hub interference. After playing around with the bracket a bunch I felt that it would be best to drill two holes into the bracket to mount give two additional attachment points into the original ears for the caliper. Compare the picture below to the one above to see the two holes added.

Finally I could assemble the Wilwood parts and put them on the Pantera. Looks pretty sharp!