Braking The Bird's Speed -- Technical -- GM High Tech Performance

We used the provided copper washers on both sides to give us more clearance for the fitting.

That's how the front assembly goes together. Just repeat it for the

The rear brakes were in equal disarray with the emergency brake cables pretty much not working at all. We picked up some new E-brake cables at the local parts store.

You'll probably need to dismantle the calipers like we did, so just unbolt everything. Do one side at a time or take detailed pictures in case you forget how to put them back together.

Disconnect the rubber line from the caliper. You may need to pick up new hard lines for the back half as we did. All of the fittings were rusted beyond imagination so it was back to the parts store for some metric, bubble-flare lines.

There are two bolts that hold the caliper on and two that hold the brake pad cage. If your car is as rusty as ours, remove all of them as you have some cleaning ahead of you.

There are two bolts that hold the caliper on and two that hold the brake pad cage. If your car is as rusty as ours, remove all of them as you have some cleaning ahead of you.

We had to sand the rust off of the cage bolts to get them to slide in and out smoothly.

The piston had seized inside the caliper. Since we didn't have a vice handy, we managed to work it loose with a pipe wrench and some channel lock pliers. Use some sandpaper or steel wool to knock the rust off of any of these parts.

The bubble-flare brake line from the auto parts store comes in a straight length, and can easily be bent without kinking it if you take you time and watch your bends. Or you can get the bender from the parts store as well.

The Classic Tube kit comes with four braided lines for each corner, and one to replace the stock rubber line (pictured) that connects crossover hard lines to the chassis.

With the caliper rebuilt, we can install the new brake pads.

We took a wire brush to the axle flange and then painted them in high-temp black paint. The rotor is held on by the wheels. The caliper and braided lines bolt up in reverse order of the stock parts removal.

The Stainless Steel Brakes calipers are a bit hard to see behind the SLP wheels, but now that we have all four corners working, as well as the E-brake, Blue Thunder feels like the late model musclecar it is.