Disc conversion on a '64
 

Five years ago I did a front disc brake conversion on my car using a kit from Toms Classics. They sell on ebay and uses the existing spindles. It has a special bracket to hold a GM D154 type caliper which is very popular among custom car builders. It's from a Chevy S-10 and similar models. The kit also comes with adapters for the S-10 rotors which have slightly larger diameters than the TBird.

The conversion went fine and has worked well. The car stops about as well as with the huge OEM drums. The big advantage is that the rotors cool better and are therefore less susceptible to fade. The caliper fit inside my rims with plenty of room. I have 15" rims from a '65 model. Apparently Tom's kit is designed to work with 14" rims. The rotors are 10-7/8" diameter and tha caliper piston is 2-1/2".

Last week I took the car up to Grandfather mountain and on the way down the brakes started to fade and I could smell the pads burning. I live up here now and do a lot of mountain driving so I need to upgrade.

Scarebirds sells a similar kit to Toms and advertised for a 14" rim. Several companies have similar kits. Scarebirds also sells a kit for the same year Lincoln Continental, and they advertise that as working with 15" rims. This uses rotors from a 77-79 Cadillac Seville which are one inch larger, and calipers from a 89-91 Chevy 2WD full size pickup which have a 2-15/16" piston.

It's been my understanding that the Lincoln and Bird of that era were on the same assembly line on the same chassis. The Conti was just a little longer. Therefore the special bracket should fit my Bird. Scarebird isn't accepting calls because of the Covid thing, and chance are they are unsure of this fitment anyway. So I've ordered that kit and will report back on my findings.