Brake and Body Parts
Pontiac V8 Brake and Body Parts
The Details That Finish a Car — Brake and Body Parts for Pontiac V8s
Brake and body parts are the odds and ends that decide whether a finished Pontiac feels solid or feels old. A single-piston factory caliper that has been rusting since the Nixon administration, a soft rubber brake hose, a hood that will not line up, or a big-cam engine that no longer makes enough vacuum to work the booster — none of that is glamorous, and all of it shows.
Butler stocks Wilwood D52 caliper and stainless hose upgrade kits, the WS6 dual 9" brake booster for F-body cars, a 1964-77 electric vacuum pump kit, and CVF billet adjustable hood hinges for GTO, LeMans, Tempest, Firebird and Trans Am.
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1. Getting Rid of the Factory Caliper
The original single-piston caliper is the weak link on a lot of these cars, and it fails in predictable ways.
| Wilwood D52 caliper kit | a direct bolt-on two-piston replacement for the factory single-piston calipers on many 1968 and up Pontiac cars, sold as a set of two with pads. Forged billet aluminum bodies, stainless steel pistons and competition-style high-temperature seals put an end to the rust, bore pitting and seal failures that plague the OE design, and the weight savings is substantial. |
| Choose your finish | the kit is offered in black powder coat and red powder coat. Same caliper underneath. |
| BP-10 Smart Pads | the pads included are a street and strip compound with low dust and noise but the friction of a semi-metallic racing pad. They give smooth engagement, consistent response and a flat torque curve across the temperature range. |
| Stainless braided hoses | the matching D52 hose upgrade kit uses DOT-approved 14 in Flexline with 3 AN straight inlet and outlet and fittings included. Old rubber hose swells under pedal pressure, which is where a mushy pedal often comes from. |
2. Making the Pedal Work Behind a Big Cam
This is the two-lane part of the page. A stock-cammed car has plenty of manifold vacuum and needs nothing. A performance build often does not, and then the brakes suffer for reasons that have nothing to do with the brakes.
| WS6 dual 9" brake booster | the factory unit fitted to the 1979-81 Firebird and Trans Am WS6 package, remastered by Pro-Touring F-Body. The tandem dual-diaphragm design packs roughly 30% more vacuum assist into a shorter package than a single large-diaphragm booster, which means firmer braking on bigger-cam combinations and on setups where the pedal ratio is not ideal. |
| It also buys clearance | the shorter booster leaves valuable room for tall valve covers and big-block applications, and the lower profile tidies up the engine bay. |
| It is a complete kit | the booster ships with the correct brackets to position the master cylinder at the proper location and angle so it clears the hood, an adjustable pedal push rod, and both a clevis and an eyelet mounting end so it suits stock or custom installations. |
| 1964-77 electric vacuum pump kit | for applications that simply do not produce enough vacuum to operate power brakes or other vacuum accessories such as hideaway headlights or air conditioning. The kit includes the pump, vacuum switch, wiring harness with in-line fuse, rubber-insulated mounting hardware, a power relay, over 6 ft of 3/8" I.D. vacuum hose and plumbing and wiring instructions. Note that no hose retainers are included. |
3. Hood Hinges That Actually Adjust
Metal fatigues and springs weaken. A hood that sits proud on one corner is usually a hinge problem, not a body problem.
| CVF billet adjustable hinges | precision-machined 6061-T6 billet aluminum bodies and arms with gas struts and sealed bearings, sold in pairs and backed by CVF's limited lifetime warranty. Their patented 6-axis adjustment is built into the hinge itself, so hood gaps can be set without pulling the hood off the car. |
| Applications | 1964-1967 GTO, LeMans and Tempest, 1967-1969 Firebird and Trans Am, and 1970-1981 Firebird and Trans Am. The A-body set is compatible with all body styles including coupe, wagon and sedan. |
| Two things to check first | the 1964-1967 hinges require a minimum of 5/16" clearance between the back of the hood and the cowl, and they will not work on hoods with studs. |
4. Where These Parts Overlap
Several of these items land on the same car at the same time, and it pays to think about the order.
| Booster before valve covers | if you are fitting tall valve covers or a taller intake, sort the booster question first. Getting the master cylinder located properly is easier than discovering a clearance problem after the engine is dressed. |
| Calipers and hoses together | new D52 calipers on tired rubber hose gives up part of what you paid for. Order the hose kit with the calipers. |
| Vacuum first, then blame the brakes | if a rebuilt system still has a long pedal on a cammed engine, check what the engine is actually pulling before you start replacing brake parts. |
If you are pulling a Pontiac back together and are not sure which of these applies to your combination, call the counter with the year, the body and a rough idea of the cam. These are small parts individually, but they are the ones that decide whether the finished car feels right to drive.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Email our tech team at tech@butlerperformance.com. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.