Installing a Superior Spindles Brake Kit on a ’69 Camaro
There’s no denying the popularity of Camaros; they have been a rodding favorite since their initial release in 1967. The first-generation Camaro has always been an enthusiast car because it is small, lightweight and had a sports-car-design feel to it. Underneath, the early Camaros were based on a Nova platform and featured many good mechanical attributes. Right from the start, they became a popular choice for teenagers and young adults, and most of the performance enthusiasts wanted the SS model that came with a choice of a strong-running small- or big-block engine. Things haven’t changed much, because they are still a popular choice for enthusiasts to restore or modify.
The plan for this ’69 Camaro is that it will become a wild street machine, with a smoothed body and a variety of high-tech parts. It is to be powered by a really strong-running small-block, so to handle that, several other improvements had to be made in the name of performance, reliability and safety.
The car was stripped to the bare shell, and then the subframe was removed for complete detailing and upgrading. At this point, the improvements to the lower portion of the car began, starting with the brakes. A phone call was made to Superior Spindles to order the company’s new kit, which offers 2-inch dropped spindles and a 13-inch brake kit. Superior Spindles has been working with Wilwood Brakes and offers several kits for a variety of vehicles, including all the popular Chevy products. Superior Spindles’ Camaro kit is its most recent offering, and it is an assembly that is definitely an improvement over stock Camaro brakes.
This kit offers a set of Superior Spindles 2-inch dropped spindles with a special bracket to adapt the Wilwood calipers. The spindle will be used with the Wilwood aluminum hubs and the 13-inch cross-drilled unidirectional rotors. If you are wondering whether this system will work with your stock Camaro 14- or 15-inch wheels, we have to tell you going in that it won’t. The large brakes are designed for 17-inch or larger-diameter wheels. That’s the penalty you pay for having larger-capacity discs, as the wheel must be large enough to accommodate them.
The nice part is that this kit is easy to install, and it can be done with normal hand tools. Depending upon your mechanical ability, the kit can be installed in about four hours, from start to finish. This is one of the first kits available, so we had the opportunity to follow the installation at Timeless Kustoms in Camarillo, California.