For my '69… I bought a hardware kit for the front disc brakes (from WCCC, of course), but they don’t include those little caliper mounting bolt rubber boot thingies. Mine were toast and kind of melted together in an unsalvageable fashion when I tried removing them. Are these still available at parts houses, or are they special order items? Seems like I got a set for the last round of front brakes I did last year in the hardware kit I bought last time.
Kim,
As you are recalling, they should come in the HW kit, at least they always have in the ones I have bought. Here’s an example (but you should be able to buy a smaller kit without the caliper brace pieces): http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_disc-brake-hardware-kit-wearever_10201932-p?searchTerm=disc+brake+hardware+kit
Regards,
Bob
I got my replacement caliper bushings at my local car store, I wanna say it was CarQuest.
I’ll call around since those rubber thingies are all I need to finish the job…if not, I’ll hit up Rock Auto.
You can get them at Oriellys. Part # H5200-2. They run a couple bucks a pair.
http://images.oreillyauto.com/parts/img/large/bhh/h5200-2.jpg
Great John–thanks so much!
Our kit does in fact come with the rubber boots as shown in the picture on our site. We checked all packages in stock and if yours came with none you must have got an incomplete set. If you already bought them please send us a bill, if not we can mail you the missing parts.
I used to throw those away… didn’t know what they were for. DOH!
Dunno about 67/68 but you certainly don’t do that on a 69/70, if you do the caliper can slap around on the spindle in a BIG way!
typically the calcified crusty rock-hard remains would still be in place. The new part looked so different that I didn’t even realize it was the same part. Just part of my MIT education (Mistakes I Tried).
All that black goo on the shop towel? That’s one of the caliper bushings as it came to me on the car. It was sort of like tar. Just totally melted.
I was told that’s what happens when you use the wrong kind of grease. The replacements went in with brake grease. 
Not sure it was really the grease. I have a bunch of 69-73 NOS shift seals that did the same thing, they just turn to goo after a number of years.
"nothing left but a greasy spot… " LOL!
Yep, nothing left but goo in the holes in the spindle is a common fate for these!
Thanks for the offer, Don! But I ripped you off on that door pull for the Cougar and haven’t paid you yet, which is certainly worth more than a rubber boot or two [I haven’t forgotten and of course I will pay you 
]. I went out and looked thru the never ending/brake job from heck’s pile’o’parts and can’t find the caliper kit box tonight (since I “cleaned” the garage weekend before last). Since I was bright enough to put the shoes on backward and button it up before realizing my error, I cleaned the garage and messed around instead of redoing my work since I got kind of discouraged. Have I mentioned that I really like front discs about 1000 times better than drums to work on?! I’ll just get a set of boots from Schuck’s and be done with it. I’m sick to death of working on brakes!