Items to complete:

• Get 4th Gen (LS1) rotors and calipers

• Remove the 3rd Gen rotors

• Get the spindles off the car

• Cut off an elbow and drill one new hole on each spindle to accept the aftermarket caliper brackets

• Have the old rotors turned into hubs (basically what this means is that the "meat" on the disc has to be cut off so that all I have left is the inner hub with the wheel studs and the hole for the wheel bearings. This "hub" will fit inside the cap of the LS1 rotors. LS1 rotors are "quick change" rotors meaning that they have no studs or hubs on them so they are easier to swap out for new ones. 3rd gen rotors are actual complete rotors which is why I need them turned down to fit inside the LS1 rotors.)

• Replace wheel studs with longer studs

• Get the aftermarket caliper brackets (ordered from Ed Miller on http://www.thirdgen.org )

• Pack the wheel bearings and remount the hub to the spindle

• Slide on the 4th Gen rotor and bolt on the caliper

Anyways, here you will see the stock 3rd gen front brakes. See how small and wimpy they are? These are 10.5" rotors, compared to what I believe the LS1 rotors are 13".





Here I've got all the stock crap off the car minus the spindles, which are coming off so I can modify them:





Here you will see my stock rotors (unmodified as of right now) with longer wheel studs. I had to tap in new wheel studs because the thickness of the LS1 rotors over the top of the stock rotors, plus the thickness of my Skulte 2" adapters were too thick to use the stock wheel studs. I wouldn't have enough meat on the lug nuts to keep the wheels on safely, so I tapped them out and put these on. The Napa part # for these studs is 641-1581.

PLEASE NOTE: You do not need this long of studs if you are using 3rd gen offset wheels. I only needed these studs because I am using a 2" adapter for my 4th gen offset ZR1's.




Just a big mess:



I couldn't pass up this opportunity to put Energy Suspension poly bushings on my sway bar:




I modified my stock spindles to accept the custom LS1 caliper mounting brackets I ordered from Ed Miller on http://www.thirdgen.org  It's a rather simple modification. If you've got the right kind of ban saw you can chew right through the spindles in a matter of minutes. I will show you a series of pictures along with my Microsoft Paint skills to show you where and how the brackets will mount to the spindles and where and how the calipers will mount to the brackets.


Here you will see where I cut the two "half-moon" sections off the spindles. You must cut these off in order to fit the LS1 calipers onto the brackets. The sections that you cut off are just in the way and are not needed any longer. The two holes that the dust shield mounted to are the holes you will use to mount the custom brackets onto, so the dust shields are no longer used. Also I have to add that these four holes (2 on each spindle) need to be drilled out to a 3/8" and then tapped to a 7/16"-14 thread. The holes have not been drilled out and tapped in the following pictures. Note: When you cut off the useless portions of the spindles, you need to make sure you file down the hard edges, as these edges create weak points in the spindle. Round off all the edges to ensure that you have the strongest possible spindles.





In this photo I have marked with a blue arrow the two holes mentioned above that need to be drilled out in order to mount the brackets to the spindle.



In this photo I have added the green arrows to indicate where the actual caliper carrier will mount to the custom bracket. A 0.371" thick spacer or washer will be used between the custom bracket and the spindle to allow a bolt to mount the custom bracket to the caliper in the lower hole.

Please note: When I took this picture I had the wrong caliper in the picture. Also please note: the caliper will mount on the outwards side of the bracket, not behind it. When you put the spindle on, the bracket goes on that, and then the caliper mounts to the outside of that...




Below you will see the hubs that I had some local club members make from my old 3rd gen rotors. LS1 rotors are a quick-change style so there is no hub for the wheel bearings. You have to have the disc cut off your old rotors so they fit inside the hat of the LS1 rotor in order to have a hub to use. I paid roughly $30 to have this done, if you have anyone tell you it's a $100 job they're lying because they just don't want to do it.




Here you will see how the 3rd gen hub will fit inside the hat of the LS1 rotor from the back side:




Please note: I did end up having to cut off a small portion of the spindles after I posted the pictures of them being modified already. The small little rectangular area that is right below where the bottom custom bracket mounting hole is, that part I had to cut off in order to get a bolt through that bottom hole to mount the bracket to the caliper.

Once you have your 3rd gen hubs ground down and your spindles modified, and all your parts gathered, it's really a simple task. Everything should bolt up just fine, although you may encounter problems getting the brake lines to reach the calipers when they are mounted in their original mounting tabs on the struts. I have left my lines dismounted from the struts for the time being, until I figure a solution to this.

Please also note that you may experience the banjo bolt (the bolt that holds down the brake line onto the caliper) might possibly hit against the frame of the car when the wheel is at full turn. Instead of your spindle hitting the bump stop for the steering, this bolt hits part of the frame and can potentially cause some problems. One solution I found to this problem was taking a grinder to the area of the frame where the bolt is hitting (it should hit on an area that looks like a head of another bolt, which is fine to grind down), and I also ground down a small part of the head of the banjo bolt (but left enough meat to get a wrench onto it). Another possible solution to this would be adding a chunk of steel to the bump stop so your wheels won't turn as much when at full lock.

I think I've about mentioned every hurdle I faced with this project. It's really not as hard as it looks. It just takes some patience, and a little bit of time to do it right. I hope this helps anyone wanting to tackle this task.