The Holy Grail of 3rd gen spindles

Bet you were thinking 1LE ? right? Heck no..those were std 3rd gen spindles modified by the factory..same thing we do to them to bring our conversions to life..it`s better than that ! Just look what these are going for !?? no…. Belltech 2 inch drop spindles. Long discontinued, highly coveted and rarely for sale. Oddly enough these were only on a car for a short time before being put up and ultimately removed from the car they were installed on to bring it back too original. The owner of these would like to see them go to a deserving build and knows they are worth more than original retail ..sealed bids ? best offers ? a reserve amount is in place.. Q’s Idea`s .. lmk

Tall Spindle guys ! Inside….

1970-1996 applications excluding the HD spindle (full size like 71-76 Impala)  So all the A body 73-77, F body 70-81, B body 77-96 (5x 4.75 pattern) X body 1975-’79 Nova, Omega, Skylark, Ventura-    Look for something very exciting coming soon for your applications. We know they have been out of stock, we know you have been asking when will they return ?  but we have had some time to think about making this conversion easier and better..exciting things to come! stay tuned 🙂   Starting with the CPP C5 / C6 tall spindle we have designed a bracket and with some precise and subtle spindle modifications so we can bolt on the latest Brembo based GM brakes. We remove the factory cast C5 mounts and counter bore the back to exacting tolerance to set our conversion bracket in place. Ultimately we will have two versions of the bracket, one for the 2.10 hat depth brake and one for the 2.40 hat depth. This conversion will be limited to 5 x 4.75 applications and possibly the 5 x 120mm which has the smaller 67.5 mm pilot, testing will show if that is a possibility or not.

6th Gen ZL-1 and CTS-V3 conversions

Yes those massive 390mm / 15.35 rotors and those Huge 6 piston calipers.  These brakes command respect, the shear mass of the rotor and caliper dominate the poor little 3rd gen spindle.  Staying current has always been a trait to keep new business flowing and I have to admit, I’ve had these brakes sitting here for a while now. Not that I hadn’t tried swapping them onto all the common spindle set ups I do but I kind of zeroed in on the 3rd gen first and after several attempts to graft them in with all the usual mods- I came up short.   I’d pull them out every now and then and try a new idea and like past attempts decide that the necessary mods are too extensive or involved.   I try to make these brakes fit vintage era spindles as simply as possible and that had not happened until today.  Sometimes the easiest answer is starring you right in the face the whole time and you can’t see the forest for the trees. So with the solution in hand now I can safely say this one is conquered. And I can make it fit all the other spindles too.. […]

August 2020

As we all traverse the new reality of the world today, hopefully we become accustomed to what we have to do to stay safe until a vaccine is in circulation.  The disruption that has happened is no doubt the most our age group has ever witnessed and hopefully will be for the rest of our lives and our children’s lives.   I wanted to drop in a leave a few thoughts and updates about what we have been up to around here.  (we as in me) As of July I began my deferred retirement from public service, this was a hard decision to make especially in this climate but I had been planning for a while to focus on bigbrakeupgrade solely. Without the distractions of a regular 40 hr week job I could offer more and offer more faster.  The extra time I’ve afforded myself has not gone wasted.  With a new shop and home in the works I’ve needed the extra time to meet with architects, engineers, builders, suppliers etc. Not only have we been very fortunate to have plenty of work thought this pandemic we have had enough to keep me so busy I still have not had […]

April updates

Hi All, We truly hope you and yours are all well and doing good during this tragedy.  I wanted to take a moment and relay some problems we are running into and our solutions of course. Shipping:  Our shipments now have to be picked up by the service used (FedEx or USPS)  This adds a day to your shipment because we cannot anticipate the completion of your order until it is actually near completed. There are too many variables involved with custom brake kits to be able to order pick ups daily, we dont want to have drivers showing up for no shipments of course.  While we have been doing this practice for the last several weeks it is proven to be reliable but slower. Stocked items:  While we were lucky to have been well stocked with most everything we offer some items have ran low or out and getting them replaced has been a challenge. We are doing our best to find these parts and bring them in as fast as possible.  Some items we will have to substituted while this crisis continues.  The substitutes if any will be equivalent or better, we only look to fulfill your order […]

New Products for Spring 2020

HI All, I hope this post finds you and yours well with these past few weeks we have all be going through.  Today I wanted to pre-release a few new parts we will be offering soon.  I’ve always asked customers what they want and try to make those niche parts available.   After some requests and a phone conversation with Chris from Curless auto we have a bracket designed and developed the needed components to accompany the bracket and are in the process of supplying ourselves with the hardware to make it all bolt together.  There are some spindle modifications which are irreversible but they are pretty simple to accomplish.  The prototype set has been installed and verified for fitment and is going out for coat for the final installation on the test vehicle.  While final cost for this bracket is to be determined still it is a bit more complex in its execution than a normal bracket like we would normally offer.  This bracket is similar to a few others I have done (the heidts 55 chevy spindle, the Mustang Pro spindle from wilwood and a the C4 early spindle) some of which have never been seen on this […]

Pandemic Corona Virus

Not ever something I thought I’d be writing about…  Most times like now I`d be writing to tell you about a new product we are working on for release..and I have some, but today- Uncharted waters we as a world are all in now and I urge you to take this with the utmost seriousness.  As it stands, we could all loose someone we know and the age ranges are dropping for U.S. citizens,  now 50 and below are topping the numbers instead of the earlier numbers where it was 70+.  Take all the precautions you can to protect you and your family, trust that the Government is doing its best to control the spread and take it with a grain of salt that some of your civil liberties are being taken temporarily, its only to protect you and yours.  As I write I have heard that the national guard is being assembled on our closet military installation ( Selfridge AFB ) I can only assume they are preparing to invoke a curfew.  We, (bigbrakeupgradeLLC) were having the best year of our history as was the global market and I want to thank each and every person who has trusted […]

SHIPPING PRICES OMG !!!

Well FedEx and UPS have decided to add a “surcharge” for any box over 50#s  Of course no one notified me before thousands of dollars of orders have been taken on the now extinct rates…don’t worry I won’t be asking for the difference guys…  Its nuts, they have add a 24$ per box surcharge to any box over 50#…that’s approx. 58 products of mine.  While I wait for my FedEx rep to phone me back (probably never) I’ve HAD to adjust shipping on full kits, Ill investigate ways to get around the surcharge for now but for any full kit 48 $ has been added to the already high shipping price it was…if you have concerns about shipping email me and Ill see what I can work out.   Basically it would be cheaper to break the kit down to 3 boxes than ship it in two boxes it looks like…but that takes away from buying a fully assembled kit..damn them.  I will update as info becomes available

Happy New Year

Wishing 2020 surrounds you and your family in good fortune and health! As with every passing year we have turned a new page today on this first day of January and also new decade- for some its a clean slate, a new beginning- a fresh start.  For some its a new fitness goal, or a savings goal or a vacation goal, a career goal…For me it`s a time to revisit my core values and re-align with those ideals, get back on or stay on track sort to speak.  Be kind, Be patient, Be grateful, Be happy, Be generous, Be attentive & listen more.  These things are all important to me and at times throughout the year these values are lost in hast or forgotten when needed the most..so today is a new year to make a fresh start !   For some, these goals or values come naturally- for some it take attention, for some it takes direct intent to be that better person or meet that goal.   So get that fitness goal achieved or land that dream career or make that dream vacation a reality- Be that better person! Make it happen Strive to meet your goals whatever they […]

Website updates and down time

Hey All, I just wanted to drop a note here to say we will be experiencing some down time in the upcoming month of December.  Plans are to move the site to a new secure server from another provider.  While this change should only cause a day or two downtime Id like to say we also have some holidays coming up. We will be taking a well-deserved rest to enjoy the holidays and family. We will not be taking any orders during this time so please be patient and enjoy this time of year with your family and friends.  We will be out of the shop Nov 25th through Dec 6th.  We will try to have the site migrated during this time.  Our Christmas break is also fast approaching, on or around December 20th we will shut down for the holiday and close up the year with this break. Be safe and thank you for your business this past year !