Hey Everyone who reads this, I am looking at a 65 Buick Sportwagon that has non-power brakes, I am mechanically inclined, but have never converted a car over to power brakes. I imagine that this would be a relatively easy conversion, anyone have any advice. BTW, this would be my first GM product, I've always been a Ford guy, so don't roast me to bad.
No, I am going to look at this weekend, but just trying to do some due diligence. My wife wants to be able to drive this car and having power brakes would make her feel slot more comfortable.
It should be no problem. PB were an option in 65 ( front discs didn't come until 67 but they can be coverted too). I THINK the Electra came with PB standard. In any case...you can either get all you need at the junk yard or buy new parts from any parts house. If it was me, I would convert the front brakes to discs, install power brakes with a proportioning valve and dual port master cylinder. Bottom line...don't let the non power brakes be the deal breaker on the car if you really like it.
Pwr Brakes I just purchased a '65 Sport Wagon over this weekend also. Has non pwr. brakes, but I just did a disc/drum conversion to a '67 El-Camino. My word of advise is find a donor car and get as much as possible from it, even if you only use some parts for cores. I pulled my hair out trying to bleed the system, the proportioning valve would rear fail everytime I stepped on the brakes. Turned out to be a Drum/Drum master was supplied, I had a Disc/Drum master on the shelf and the problem went away, but the diagnostics were extremely difficult. I think you can just add a booster to your existing unit, but the drum/disc swap makes it far safer and enjoyable to drive.
Being a GM you will have lots of interchangable parts. I used everything from a '78 monte to convert my '55 bel air to power disk on the front.I see the complete kits in all the car magazines but for me I always seem to be on a budget and the junkyard parts were the way to go for me.
Truism, I bought a kit from a company I won't say who, cuz I don't want to bash, they made an honest mistake, and that's okay. But, the money you spend on a kit vs; wrecking yard stuff, just doesn't make sense. I'm not the cheapest guy in town, but I don't mind getting dirty neither, so I'll wrecking yard search for MY cars. Customer stuff generally requires new, for liability reasons. Plus, you get to learn things as you strip parts and then the occasional cool stuff , like options your car doesn't have, but you can add easily! Have fun with the swap and keep us posted!!
