Wilwood classic Front discs

[dbegley]

I had a near miss in a panic stop coming back from a car show. Obvious to me it was time to upgrade the brakes on my GT350. I did the customary shopping to see what was available. Lots of Kelsey Hayes knock offs. Nothing wrong with staying stock but I happened to see that Wilwood offered a classic 4 piston replacement that was supposed to fit 14" rims. Wilwood told me is was a bolt on replacement, however they would not guarantee me these brakes would fit these NOS Shelby ten spoke rims. And made it real clear that if I put these brakes on the car and the rims wouldn't fit, they would NOT take the brakes back. CJ Pony offered the same Wilwood kit and it was a bit cheaper than buying directly from Wilwood. And CJ Pony told me to test the brake fit off the car, and if by chance they don't fit they would take the brakes back. Turns out this setup actually fits these rims better than the stock KH single piston did.
The only obstacle we ran into is apparently ALL these disc brake kits are designed to replace drum brakes. We had to drill out the spindles due to a much larger bolt than the stock discs had. Not a big deal plus the discs are secured with a huge bolt compared to the real small stock bolts. I love this new setup. Sure it doesn't stop as well as my 2017 Mustang GT PP, but the braking is MUCH improved. I ended up replacing most of the braking system including the brake booster and master cylinder. And they look real cool behind those ten spoke rims.

[JD]

Since you have the '67 style wheels on a '68 Shelby, did you consider putting '67 Kelsey-Hayes four-piston caliper front brakes with a more aggressive pad compound?   Then all the parts are "Shelby" correct just not the right year.  (Just a question, not an attack)

Are the Willwood's cheaper?

[dbegley]

No, did not consider 67 KH 4 piston. Shelby correct but just the wrong year?
Makes me think of a conversation I had with John Chung when I asked him about parts that went on the cars. My 68 has "67" side scoops or so I thought. John told me Shelby American used whatever parts were on hand on the cars. Or what they could get at the time.

So those ten spoke wheels are 67 style? Really? What is the difference between the 67 and the 68 version?
When I ordered these the vendor sold them to me as 1968 rims.

Yes, the Wilwood classic set up were actually less expensive than the KH knockoffs. That surprised me. That was the main selling point to me. Buy some Kelsey Hayes reproductions with a single piston or pay a bit less and get Wilwood 4 piston discs. The shop that I had do the work had two Mustangs in process of upgrading the front discs. Both were 65-66 models. The owners had picked up the KH reproductions. The shop was having issues getting those on the car. Both of those cars were setting on lifts when my car went in and both were still sitting there when I drove my car out. The only issue we had was drilling out the spindles for the larger bolts. Everything else was a simple bolt on. Not the case with those KH reproductions. I know they finally got both done and out of the shop. The owner of the shop told me how much easier the Wilwoods were to install.

[Bob Gaines]

No, did not consider 67 KH 4 piston. Shelby correct but just the wrong year?
Makes me think of a conversation I had with John Chung when I asked him about parts that went on the cars. My 68 has "67" side scoops or so I thought. John told me Shelby American used whatever parts were on hand on the cars. Or what they could get at the time.

So those ten spoke wheels are 67 style? Really? What is the difference between the 67 and the 68 version?
When I ordered these the vendor sold them to me as 1968 rims.

Yes, the Wilwood classic set up were actually less expensive than the KH knockoffs. That surprised me. That was the main selling point to me. Buy some Kelsey Hayes reproductions with a single piston or pay a bit less and get Wilwood 4 piston discs. The shop that I had do the work had two Mustangs in process of upgrading the front discs. Both were 65-66 models. The owners had picked up the KH reproductions. The shop was having issues getting those on the car. Both of those cars were setting on lifts when my car went in and both were still sitting there when I drove my car out. The only issue we had was drilling out the spindles for the larger bolts. Everything else was a simple bolt on. Not the case with those KH reproductions. I know they finally got both done and out of the shop. The owner of the shop told me how much easier the Wilwoods were to install.

There is excellent informative reading about your 68 Shelby in the SAAC registry ot online  http://www.thecoralsnake.com/     .  The difference between 68 scoops and 67 scoops is covered in both sources. The difference between a production 67 tenspoke and a 68 tenspoke is that there are no 68 production versions. The tenspoke is a 67 production wheel . When Ford tried to use it on a 68 it rubbed on the different larger single piston caliper . The 67 caliper had more clearance. Someone didn't take the change into consideration . Only a small number of cars got them in 68 (4 or 5 ?) before Ford  realized the problem. The caliper or wheels were modified on those cars before promptly exporting  them over seas. It was too late to figure a viable solution so the rest of production received steel wheels and hubcaps. The solution ended up being machining the inside of the rim for clearance and a little extra material on the bolt pattern pad on later after market wheels. Original production wheels were rough cast on the inside. You can use original production tenspoke wheels on a 68 but you need a 1/8-1/4 inch wheel spacer.  On the 67 calipers you would have had to add a adapter to the spindle to make the 67 calipers work just like you did for the Wilwood. Everything else would work the same no change in rotor,proportioning valve etc. The 68 TA cars used a T bird sourced 4 piston caliper but it was larger and needed more modifications. I'm not sure which is easier to do because I have never done a Wilwood conversion in comparison just stating all you have to do if one changed to a stock 67 4 piston on a 68 .

[dbegley]

Interesting. I did not know that about those ten spoke wheels. My car came with the steel rims and hubcaps. I bought the ten spoke from Branda back in 83 thinking they were NOS for the 68 model. And yes ONE of the rims rubbed the KH discs. We had to ground off part of the wheel to stop the rubbing. The Wilwood 4 piston are actually more compact than that KH single piston so there is plenty of clearance with the Wilwood kit.
Good to know.
I all but gave away those steel rims and hubcaps. Who would have known how valuable they would become years later?
thanks for the info Bob