63 catalina.....front end.help needed

hey whats up everyone,i have a 1963 pontiac catlina 2 door hard top.i want to put disk brakes out front and i need to know would a newer pontiac or chevy car with disk brakes work out front of my car,or do i need to change the spindles.also what brake booster and master cylinder would work on my car.i don't have a millon dollars to spend on the front end of the car because i have to finish the rest of the body work and other things.any help or ideas from any of you would be greatly appreciated....  

I'm doing a lot of research for my '64 and I've found a few parts.  You might want to check out this link:  http://www.scarebird.com/12802/21632.html

I'm thinking of going with this company for the conversion on my car.  However, I'm still in the air about what to do about the master cyl and brakelines.  

I dont know to much about pontiacs,but I have put disc in a 65,67 malibu & 70 nova,I used 70s monte carlo for the malibu and chevelle for the nova.I would swap out spindles and all & use the mc from the same car even try to get all the lines & valve.Just pay close attention to your ball joints & steering arms.On my nova I used my drum steering arms.  

The full sized Ponchos are different than the smaller Malibus and Novas.  In a way, I wish I did have a more popular car but I suppose half the fun is doing things the hard way.  

Hey Pres - I have a full sized Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 (a 1961) and it is totally different than anything I have ever worked on.  Ball bearings in the front for one, and non self adjusting brakes.  The drums are HUGE.  I have worked on just about every type of brake system, but that one is down right wierd.  When I went to change out the master cylinder, I took the 2 bolts off and it flew to pieces in the engine bay. The booster and the master are an integral unit, and there were many other cars in that 1960-1963 that run the same thing. It had to go to California to be redone (as a unit) for a mere $300. I would suggest caution on this one.  If you have a kit picked out it may work for the later (64 and older) cars, but I know that my '61 and the other big Oldsmobiles of that era used the same system as mine. I say caution in that the Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles seem to be very similar all through the 60's.

Food for thought - Bowser  

I've heard similer stories to yours, Bowser.      Personally, I'm thinking of finding a similarly sized master/booster and doing some fabrication.  I love oldschool stuff but when it comes to brakes, I don't like to mess around.  Even if everything else fails, I'd still like to stop the car, ya know?

I might tear my brake master/booster out this weekend and analize it a bit.  I'm pretty sure it is the same as the Olds one, I wouldn't see why it would be different.  

I really don't know when they went to the two piece booster with changeable master cylinder.  I can vouch for '65 as my '65 Olds Starfire has the two piece system.  Needless to say it's a better idea than the earlier type. The California company could not supply the same master cylinder as the original one, but it works. The booster is the same one that I had.

Putting disc brakes on my '61 would be the wildest crap shoot. Aside from the car being a pretty much untouched beautiful original, trying to do it would be literally a guessing game. When you consider that between the Olds 88s and 98s there were both physical and more importantly mechanical differences even between the two related car families.  Case in point - I mentioned my '65 Starfire. Every brake component on that car aside from the booster and master cylinder are particular for that car.  Brakes, hardware, and worse yet drums.  I had to buy drums for the rear - OBSOLETE with no replacement.  I had to spend about $400 per drum for just the rear drums.  The front ones were in spec (thank the good lord).  Bearings, seals, everything including the pinion seal on the rear end are just for that car. Thats why the restoration is 5 years in the making.  I pick up a piece here and a piece there (literally) until I can do something else on the car.

It's funny.  Not the usual GM standard where parts interchange, but there were some differences - sometimes significant.

Later - Bowser    

Makes me glad I'm not going the resto route.  I can cut, hack and slash anything I see fit I suppose.  

With both the Starfire and the Dynamic, I was afraid to go with anything real different that what they came with.  The reason was that my experience with putting power brakes on my sons '66 442 was something less than stellar.  For some reason they gave me the wrong master cylinder - it had a real small bore and didn't provide enough fluid to the brakes.  It worked for awhile (with a terrible pedal) then started to leak out the back.  When I tried to match the master cylinder with a rebuild kit - none was available. The cylinder I had was for some police interceptor special set up, and wansn't ever supposed to be on the 442 to begin with.  The proper cylinder physically looked identical, but the piston inside was half again as big.  After installing the correct one, poof - instant brakes right at the top. Both cylinders had the same throw -everything seemed right but that small difference created huge problems in the entire system.  My brake guy told me that mixing and matching can create some big problems. Hence this story.

Bowser