brake questions: 62 c10

[Bullett]

i am ready to do some brake work to my truck. I want to take the single bowl m/c off and put on a double bowl. My truck does have the power booster. What are you folks using for a direct bolt on m/c? I found a good article with the search function on how to plumb it, looks pretty straight forward. My truck has front and rear drums, which is fine for what I do. Where is a good place to buy all new drums and shoes? a decent quality for a fair price works for me. Also, do most people change the wheel cyl. and hardware each time they do a brake job? I had my drums off earlier this year and all that looked relatively new. My drums actually looked pretty good but I want all new to be done with it. Oh, also, Is there a front sway bar that is a bolt on to my truck? There are pre-drilled holes, it appears that it had one at one time. Thanks...

[craiginaustin]

I re-built the rear drums on my 64 last month and I just used wheel cylinders, shoes, drums and replacement springs from O'Reilly's. Everything seems to be working fine. I'm sure there are better quality options out there though.

I also put a swaybar from a mid-70's C20 about a year ago. I just pulled it from a junkyard, cleaned it up and bought the frame mounts from ECE. The heavier-duty trucks have thicker sway bars, up to 1-1/4" I think.

[Bullett]

Did the sway bar make a considerable difference in handling? Do you still use the single bowl m/c? The more I get reading through some of the old posts, the more I am thinking there are plenty of people still running the single bowl set up. My truck is just used on occasion, maybe a couple thousand miles a year, at most. Maybe the double bowl isn't necessary. I will stop by O'Reilly's tomorrow and price the stuff. They are 2 miles down the road. Thanks..

[craiginaustin]

The sway bar made a huge difference. I think it's one of the best bang-for-your-buck upgrades available.

I'm still on the single master cylinder but looking to upgrade. A dual, drum-drum master is like $30 for a reconditioned one, from a 67 C10 I think is the first year of duals. It's all about safety, I don't think it'll change braking performance.

[phraza]

I just gave my brakes a massive overhaul. I stayed with a new single master cylinder though. Basically I replaced all 4 drums, shoes, cylinders, hardware, master cylinder, pipes and hoses.

I got the majority of my parts from rockauto.com, seemed to be pretty good priced and had everything I need

Cheers

[Rust-O-Matic]

I went the same route as phraza, except I swapped my stock single reservoir master cylinder for the dual version intended for a '68 with drums front and rear. My truck doesn't have a booster so I can't say for sure, but I bet you can use a '67-up cylinder with yours too. Rockauto is usually cheaper than all the local parts places in my area (O'reilly, Advance, Autozone, etc.) even with the shipping cost, and they have a better selection. Seems like most brands are the same Asian made junk these days anyway, but at least you get to pick who's label comes on the box.