68 brake calipers. Rebuilt OEM vs Remanufactured

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Maintenance Restoration and Repair
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First of all - Happy Father’s Day.

Secondly, is there any performance advantage or desirability advantage to getting a set of OEM calipers and rebuilding them? New calipers are the only thing I can think of to get my car back on the road.

Current the brakes on my 68 X Code go all the way to the floor. Over the winter I rebuilt the entire front suspension. It seems that the right caliper is leaking fluid no matter how tight you make it. After close inspection the old bleeder was sort of crushed and distorted. Assume the previous owners struggled with it. Only sealing because of corrosion. Lol

I rebuilt the caliper by taking everything apart. Wire brushed and sand blasted down to the metal and repainted etc… Booster and master cylinder are new. Front brake hard lines and rubber new. Rotors are within spec etc… Bled everything to the best of my abilities.

Leaning towards getting OEM parts and rebuilding. Also note that Don made a video about the same. Looking for confirmation I guess.

Thanks.

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This is the level of rebuilding I performed. Really disappointed that I got stuck and didn’t make the beginning of the car show season but that’s life. I’ve come to the conclusion that these are aftermarket calipers and have been second guessing myself having put a lot of time into them.

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IMG_20240218_183028_7081504×3264 347 KB

IMG_20240217_191051_863
IMG_20240217_191051_8631504×3264 263 KB

IMG_20240217_191039_069
IMG_20240217_191039_0691504×3264 200 KB

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you can buy new pre loaded calipers and they are not expensive. However I got one that didn’t have the bleeder screw hole drill all the way through. Drove me nuts trying to figure out where the problem was.

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I’m thinking something like that is going on with this caliper. Driving me nuts alright. Risk of defects due to poor quality or age no matter what I try next.

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I had my original calipers rebuilt for my '67. IMO better than buying reproduction parts. Either source original take off calipers and have rebuilt or go for aftermarket performance braking option

Sean

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