Hall Caliper Kit...

Hmmmm- a simple disassembly, cleaning & reassembly is normally all thats necessary to recondition Pantera calipers, and all vendors including the owner of this website stocks rebuild kits. But OK- I'm not sure on this, since Gary seldom consults me when he changes things in his catalogue.... But his 'kits' used to use Corvette or Z-28 Camaro calipers, which have MUCH larger pistons than the stock Girlings in your Pantera. He also offers several types of brake-improvement sets. You don't specify- are you using a stock Pantera master cylinder? Because, to displace enough fluid to make those big pistons move, the pedal travel will increase markedly.
IMHO, the stock non-adjustable proportioning valve and the brake pad thickness warning valve under the booster are utterly useless when calipers are changed like this. They should be completely removed for safety's sake.
As for the rigging he uses for his adaption, if it doesn't leak & is torqued tightly, a plug is a plug, even if it used to be a bolt. Not sure, but I suspect if one used bone-stock Chev calipers (assuming they really are still Chev), the stock entry connection would approach or touch some part of the Pantera front suspension, which is disaster waiting to happen. I'd call Gary directly & voice your concerns to the actual designer of this adaption.

I think that I used the same Hall kit on my '72. It consists of reworked stock calipers. They have be drilled internally allow the use of a single input line. This elimnates the stock "monkey work" to feed both halfs of the caliper. Bolts and washers are used to block the unused holes resulting from the removing the external piping. They can be used with the stock setup by removing the plugs and pluging the center bleed, that is what I did to keep the stock look.
I had no trouble at all with low padel once I got the system bleed properly.
Hope this helps. Good luck.

[This message has been edited by b4_thndr (edited 04-03-2003).]

[This message has been edited by b4_thndr (edited 04-03-2003).]

One more thing, the calipers must be installed on the correct side. They will bolt on to the incorrect side. This places the bleed at the bottom of the caliper making it impossible to get a good bleed. The results is no or very low padel and a very soft padel.

[This message has been edited by b4_thndr (edited 04-03-2003).]

Thanks for the responses! A simple rebuild of the original calipers was the route I wanted to go. My friend just "ponyed up" the $$$ and got the Hall kit before we discussed it. The Hall kit consists of 4 rebuilt Girlings and 4 SS lines and some misc fittings. It's not the kit with the Chevy calipers. The car has the original booster/master.
I got a response from Hall on the advantage of his modification over the stock hard lines. Here's what they sent: "We have rebuilt over 1000 front and rear calipers. The stock brakes on the Pantera will stop from 60 m.p.h. in 140 feet. The modified calipers will stop you in 122 feet from 60 m.p.h., as you can see 18 feet is a lot better."
If this is the case, I'm Ok with it. I just don't like to use things that looked "cobbled" together, especially on brakes. It's all and good to go fast, but I want to be able to STOP faster... I made sure the new SS lines cleared everything before putting them in service.
As for the proportioning valve. I want to replace it with a "T". Any suggestions on where to get a proper one? Just get an autoparts store variety one? Or maybe an aftermarket valve? When I put it in I hope the pedal travel isn't quite as far as it is now. The car stops excellent, just have a long push on the pedal to get it... Prefer not to get a new master booster if I can help it too.
Thanks Again for the input.
Sean
BTW: Calipers are on the correct sides, bleeder on top... Otherwise we'd need to flip the car over to get them bled correctly... :^)

The problem with getting fittings like a tee for imported cars is, virtually no one stocks fittings for European bubble-flair connections. Instead, they all use US inverted-cone flair fittings. The simplest way for you to do this is to cut the bubble flairs off one end of the lines & double- flair the ends for US fittings, then use a hardware-store tee. Even this is not real simple 'cause the Euro tubing is undersized for US flairing tools, so holding it while forcing the flairing cone in is difficult. I wrap a tiny strip of 0.020" thich aluminum sheet around the undersized lines, then it flairs properly.Finally, after considerable work & money, you'll probably find that with stock calipers & rotors & bigger-than-stock tires, no adjustable proportioning is needed and can be one more source of trouble. I'd replace the stock stuff with simple tees & try some max-effort stops that way (in a deserted parking lot!) before adding things.