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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

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 […]

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 !

Due to the on going UAW strike our parts supply chain has been broken.  Some of our conversion use original GM parts, including some front conversions and some misc brackets / park components for our rear conversions.   Once our stock and local warehouses are depleted we will need to access if we can continue offering these certain products for the time being.  If you have any questions about your potential order, please just contact us about it prior to ordering.

Finally the time has come, our own home brewed hubs will be in stock within days.   Years ago standing at the lathe milling another set of cast iron hubs I though why not start a upgrade for the upgrade? I jotted down what I wanted in a one-off hub..larger bearings, lighter weight, uses stock parts durable,dependable serviceable, customizable.   It took months to get to a proto type , more months to produce a few sets for the road…years to test them on actual cars.  Meanwhile a second hub was underway for our 64-72 gm cars.  I can say today the trials and learning lessons are over we have found a local cnc turner who is producing these as I write.  While our intial run is small (50 pairs of each) it`s still quite the investment due to the per unit material and cnc costs.  Some of the benefits of these hubs are they are T6-6511 material light weight high strength, thick .800 decks, extended rotor pilot registers, use stock seals and dust caps, both employ larger outboard bearing.  Fitment for the 82-92 conversion and also the s-10/G body and as mentioned the 64-72 Gm short spindle conversions.   Look for these […]