I purchased my 1965 Dart in August. I am in the middle of several upgrades to the car and my next will be front disk breaks. I am looking for a recommendation for a disk break kit. Any input would be appreciated.

Hi! Hope you are enjoying the car and welcome to the site.

A few questions:

1) Does it have stock 9" drums now?
2) What are your desired driving habits and situations? Do you want to race it, and if so, what kind of racing?
3) What kind/size of tires will you be using?
4) Will you be rebuilding the front suspension too?

My first 2 thoughts are:
1) Doctordiff.com - stage 1 upgrade
2) Scarebird (no personal experience with this).

All the best and we can give more feedback once we have a bit more info...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Yes, the breaks are stock now. I am not planning on racing, just street driving. I am running 205 / 65 tires on steel 15" wheels. Front end bushings have been replaced.

I am loving the Dart! It was an original owner car and was bone stock when I purchased it with 98K miles.

Thanks. Oh, do you have 5X4.5" bolt circle wheels, or 5X4" (stock 9" drum) wheels?

Doctordiff can set you up for about $700 total with all new parts in the stage 1 disc kit. You may also need a disc brake master cyl, which is another $100 or so.

What is your budget? I tend to put really good brakes on my cars - front and rear discs, as I can afford it. Scarebird will likely be cheaper, and maybe others on this site can comment on the quality and performance of those.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Gee, now I see the stage 2 kit is only about $100-200 more expensive, and those brakes are way better. That is what I would buy if I could afford it. I do not have any stock size (11", stage 1) on any of my cars - all are bigger.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

If you are thinking of stage 2 from Dr Diff, I think those require a 17" rim. Also make sure you have the 5x4.5" bolt pattern on both axles. Stock from the factory for your car would have been 5x4" bolt pattern with 13" wheels, and 9" drum brakes.

I installed Dr Diff's manual stage 1 disk setup on my 67 Dart including rear disks as well with 15" wheels. They work fine for street driving, seem to be a step up from the stock K-H four piston disks previously on the car.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Looks like the Stainless Steel Brakes Company offer a minimally-disruptive changeover kit as well—rotors are dual-drilled for both wheel bolt circles, calipers are based on the factory '66-'72 design but with noncorroding stainless steel pistons, etc. I would probably put this kit high on my list for serious consideration; SSBC have been at it for as long as I can remember. They offer the kit with or without a power brake booster—I would recommend the one without.

Note that you will need at least 14" wheels; the 13" wheels won't clear any disc brake setup I'm aware of. Just as well; there aren't any worthy 13" tires available any more, and they're grossly undersized anyhow.

(one quick thing: we're talking about brakes here. If the brakes break, then they'll be broken and you'll have to fix 'em.)

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

That SSBC kit looks good too. You can likely run the Stage II doctordiff kit with 15" rims, which is what cmann has, but I am not sure and you should call doctordiff to check.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thank you guys for the input and direction. I am going to take a look at the SSBC kit. I will give them a call just to be sure.
Very helpful. Thank you again.