Hey all, I'm considering a 70 Newport for a road trip and project, very original, 383-2bbl car, but the guy doesn't remember if it's power or manual brakes, drum or disc. He's gonna look but my curiosity is killing me now. What's standard? It's a 2d Hard top.

If it's a disc car, I'm in, but I'm done monkeying around with four wheel drums and I don't want to bother with conversion unless someone had everything I need ready to go for reasonable money. I'd just go with another car first.


Thanks!

manual drums were standard in 70 I believe. power disc was a popular option though.

Mu buddy's 69 Polara 500 convertible with factory 440 Magnum has power drum brakes, that is the only option the car doesn't have!

Almost all of them had power non is rare.Many had disc front as it was getting cheaper an popular in 70 as the 4 piston calipers were gone after 69.Ive never seen 4 piston in 70s.Usually even drums were power but my kid had a 67 newport that was manual drums. Rocky

You must live in an enchanted place where C-body 2DHTs grow on trees. I can't remember the last time I saw one on the street.

I actually prefer the earlier version with the traditional C-pillar, not that weird hook of the later Elwood Engle cars.

R.

69 could be drum or single piston disc. Manual brakes would be rare.

If it's drums a 69-73 disc spindle is a bolt in swap, 73 being the preferred choice because the big bearing unicast rotor is cheaper. Calipers and pads are the same and can be bought anywhere.

68 was the last year for 4 piston Budd discs.

Kevin

I had 3 Imps with 4 piston Budds.Allwere 69s.My 70s all had single pistons.Rocky

The SSBC kit for C bodies work well and you keep the original spindles. Also the 73 spindles are great if you can find them. Done s few of those and it's easy but getting hard to find. The SSBC is about like doing a normal brake job.

Imperials kept the BUDD 4 piston, disc brakes until 1969.
The 1968 "C" body cars were the last year for the BUDD's.
The single piston, Kelsey Hayes brakes started in 69, for the C's.

Even if the car is disc, I would do the '73 swap to get the better, cheaper rotors.

You have to swap spindles though because the bearings are different size on the '73 (as stated by twostick).

Way back when I had my '71 Newport, I did the '73 swap just for the rotors. At the time, the cost of ONE of the '71's rotors was equal to the cost of TWO of the '73's rotor. Being an original disc car, I only had to swap the spindles and rotors, everything else remained the same,

Even if I couldn't get a set of 73 spindles I wouldn't keep drums over having to use the earlier more expensive rotor. For the amount of miles most of us put on these toys, rotors at twice the price is really not that big a deal. Realistically, how often do you change rotors?

I've been told that they are doing the pre 73 rotors in unicast now but can't confirm. If this is true it opens up a bigger pool of donor cars.

Another solution is to sleeve the pre 73 spindle up to the 73 bearing size so the 73 rotor will fit and using a 700r4 front pump seal for a grease seal. I think Dr Diff sells the sleeves or if you have access to a lathe, make your own.

Kevin