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Riding Those Brakes?

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Our roads are dotted with cars that constantly sport their brake lights. Often, your following of one of these riders of the brakes leaves you frustrated and impatient. Not only are these instances irritating for people pushing the speed limits, but it can also be quite dangerous. Your car’s braking system was designed to absorb a lot of friction and abuse. Many drivers focus completely on their braking ability. It is common to use the two-foot method for automatic cars. The thinking is “in case of an emergency I can stop quicker!” However, keeping a foot on that brake pedal can adversely affect your brake rotors and pads more than you might think! Pirate Jack Hot Rod Restoration is your specialty vendor for high quality disc brake conversion kits. Our focus is on brake performance and safety. Today we’ll dip a toe into the advice stream and hopefully enlighten those who ride the stoppers.

Wear And Tear

Excessively riding your brakes over stretches of time can cause a variety of problems. The most common consequence of this practice is abundant friction. That friction is expected; your brakes should last you around thirty thousand miles for the front brakes and almost double that for the rear brakes. People who religiously ride the brakes may be replacing their braking system components four times as often. In financial terms, this can be seen as a very unnecessary expense. More importantly, your safety can be compromised. As we have mentioned in previous blogature, your brakes heat up significantly during periods of heavy use. In excess temperatures, components such as your rotors can take damage and warp. Parts that are not meant to withstand this heat (such as seals) can also fail, shear, and melt. In the long run, these newish issues can put both you and your wallet at risk. Our performance brake rotors can mitigate and displace brake heat significantly, but over time damage will be done.

Stopability

Science can explain the higher risks of excessive brake use. Remember when you were coming down from the mountains or were towing a heavy trailer and your brakes felt less effective towards the bottom? Brake fluid is used to translate the force from your brake pedal into pressure for applying the stopping mechanisms. Under extreme heat, this brake fluid boils, introducing gas to your brake line. This gas is worthless for applying pressure. Therefore, your brakes will either work in a much reduced capacity or fail entirely. Brake failure is a major issue that can lead to dire consequences.

When it comes to brake conversion kits, Pirate Jack has you covered. We focus on aftermarket muscle car parts and high-quality brake kits. In our experience, any activity that hurts your brakes should be avoided at all costs. Braking constantly can be comforting for the average safe driver, but in the long run it can be damaging to you, your car, and your finances. The importance of having proper brakes cannot be stressed enough! If you’re looking for performance brake rotors and pads, don’t hesitate to contact us today for the advice and equipment you need!

The Warning Signs Of Worn Out Brakes

If you’re driving your vehicle, it’s a guarantee that you are putting wear and tear on your car’s braking system. Pirate Jack Hot Rod Restoration knows the value of having operational brake rotors and pads. Whether you are looking for an upgrade after utilizing our disc brake conversion kits or simply needing brake rotor replacement [...]

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Master Cylinders 101

Last week we looked into the use and value of brake proportioning valves. A small device attaches to your master cylinder and runs through to the rear brakes. This week we’ll look at the all-vital master cylinder and its importance for your vehicle. Here at Pirate Jack Hot Rod Restoration, we focus on delivering high-quality products [...]

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Proportioning Valves 101

When it comes to your car’s braking system, several components come into play. Here at Pirate Jack Hot Rod Restoration, we offer quality replacement auto parts for your old-school hotrod. We strive to bring you all of the tools and equipment needed to optimize performance vehicles. One such product we sell is the brake proportional [...]

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The Physics Behind Braking

Like so many systems we use on a daily basis, we trust our brakes to work without thinking about why they do. However, the physics of braking a vehicle tells us something very important about what kinds of brakes we need and why. We’ve mentioned you need to ditch the drum brakes with one of [...]

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Mopar A Body Disc Brake Conversions: Power vs. Standard

We know when it comes to your 1960s-1970s Mopar® restoration, you want everything to be perfect, but you don’t want to spend years finding the right parts for every single job. At Pirate Jack, we make your brake conversions easy, so you have a car braking system you can count on to perform when you [...]

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A History of Automotive Brakes

Braking Systems: An Evolution Story Early Days Where there’s a wheel, there’s a way to stop it. This has proven to be true for more than two centuries, when a horse stopping wasn’t enough to stop the carriage behind it. These early braking systems (dating to the early 1800s and possibly before) consisted of a wooden block [...]

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Why You Need to Use a High Quality Disc Brake Kit for Your Mopar B & E Body Vehicle

There are so many benefits from using a disc brake conversion kit on your Mopar B & E body vehicle. They can improve the handling of your hot rod, give it a more polished look, and in many cases it can even increase the resale value of your vehicle. The key to all of this, though, [...]

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Get a Disc Brake Conversion Kit for Your B-Body or E-Body Vehicle

One of our disc brake conversion kits in our online store is made to fit both B-Body vehicles from 1962-1972 and E-Body vehicles from 1970-1974. While these are both really popular model types, what's the difference?  B-Body was used from 1962-1979E-Body was used in the 1970's (and a different version on vehicles made in the 1980's)Both versions [...]

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The Benefits of Tubular Control Arms for Your Camaro, Firebird or Chevy Nova

If you are fixing up an old Camaro, Firebird, or Chevy Nova, you probably have enough on your plate that needs to be done. So should you really worry about replacing the control arms? The answer really depends on your personal preferences and what you plan on using the hot rod for when it is [...]

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