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Readers Rides Brakes 101 - Read This First!

Hotrod Advice The first thing in Brakes 101 is to look over your braking system (or lack of one.)

Suspension Now keep this in mind: Your brakes are probably t he most impor t ant par t of
your hot rod.
Hot Rod Brakes
If you can't stop well, you're going to rear-end someone
with your hotrod. It's not If , it's
Hot Rod Wiring When. We've all had a scary moment when a car in front of us slams on it's brakes and
Hot Rod Engines we've had to slide to a stop. If you can't stop well, you'll hit them, injure yourself
and
them, and destroy your ride.
Drivetrain
This is a cheery lesson, huh?
Bodywork
That's because this is important and too many people don't take their brakes seriously.
Hot Rod Interior Remember, it's not just you out there, it's everyone else.

Tips and Tricks Older brakes, when rebuilt, can stop well. But not nearly
as well as newer brakes. Which
is what the car in front
of you has. See where we're going with this?
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Switching to disc brakes on the front should be the minimum you do. Now, many guys
don't want to run them
because of the looks if they're seen on their nostalgic
hotrods.
Some drum brakes can stop well if the car is light and the brakes are bigger than
stock. Remember, we want performance braking...

Besides, there's aftermarket disc brakes that look like

the finned Buick drum brakes, so
that's not an issue anymore.

So, what's some good guidelines?

Don't t r y t o save hot rod money by not upgrading your

brakes. Your brakes
should be at the top of the list
when making your hotrod budget. (You did read "Build
What You Can Afford" in Hotrod Wisdom didn't you?)

Don't sacrifice safet y f or looks. If your brakes show, there are options for making
them look nostalgic if
that's important to you. There is simply no reason to run
brakes
that aren't up to par with current braking systems.

Upgrading your brakes is easy nowadays. If you aren't sure how to go about
fabbing up your own system,
there are tons of aftermarket systems that will literally
bolt on to almost any car.

If you want t o use newer f act or y par t s t o upgrade your

braking syst em, t r y t o
use t hem f rom t he same car. Specifically from a car as heavy or heavier than your
hotrod. Mixing and matching different parts usually leads
to problems and frustration.
Not always, but usually. It can be done, but why go through the hassle? The factory has
already tested their systems and made them fool proof. There are some exceptions,
but we'll get into those later.

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