Brake repair...Just got a 1983 Pontiac Bonneville for $600 (Page 1 of 2)

Brakes are free.  No budget considerations.

Sweet. I'm gonna get started on brake repair then.

For when we get started selling stuff off of it, does anyone have a list of the best (highest dollar) things to sell off of it?

You can have sliders on the seat.  I'm in the same situation and ended up with the fixed seat anyway cause it is simpler just found a spot where it was comfortable for the tall guy and I could reach the pedals.  Acutally I think the tall guy sacrificed some of his comfort to be nice and it is placed exactly where I would want.

But there are a few things you need to make sure with sliders. 

you either need an adjustable seat brace or make sure the seat can not go further than 6" from the harness bar

You pretty much need a dual lock slider, its not written in the rules but that going to be the way to make sure there isn't any play in it.

You have to make sure that the harness angle is always within the rules at minimum possible distance and maximum distance.

Also when making the cage be sure that there is enough space between the cage and the tall guys helmet.  Sliders sometimes end up raising the seat more than you would like.

for the brakes: find a 90's Caprice cop car or wagon in the junkyard and grab the spindles- they are interchangeable from 77-96, but the 94-96 had lighter and stronger spindles.. this gets you 12" front brakes.
if you are lucky, the same car will also have an 8.5 rear end in it with 11" rear drums or 11.5" discs.. if it's a 93 and older cop car, it will have 3.42 gears and probably a posi. 94-96 cars only had 3.08 gears in the 8.5.
this is also a good place to get suspension upgrades- the springs and sway bars from a cop car will be HD parts that are stiffer than the "ride on a cushion of clouds" springs that are in your car now, and the steering box is just over 3 turns lock to lock and much stiffer than what you've got not.
all of this will change the wheel bolt pattern to the 5X5 pattern so you will need different wheels, but 15X8 steelies from an 80's Chevy/GMC 1/2 ton 2 wheel drive truck fit nicely and look really good on that body style- or you can get stock car steelies dirt cheap..

We'll start searching for those brake parts.  thanks novaderrick.  So you typically by your brake parts used even though they don't add to the $500?

Bob, we had seen your ride on other parts of the forums.  Did you put the rims on, or did it come that way?

Here is my friend with the bonneville.

I can't believe no one has recommended reading the rule book 3 times yet.The link is at the top of the page. Read the rules (honestly they only take like 15-20 minutes), then look in the forum for the How Not To Fail Tech, and Common Tech Failure posts.

Brakes are budget exempt. The reason you will be buying the brake upgrade parts uses is that unless you want to order new spindles from your local Chevy dealer, they aren't readily available anywhere. They aren't a wear item, and they almost never break.

Just remember that you can only deduct off your budget things you sold if they are a non-budget exempt item (if you were to buy them). Interior pieces don't count against your budget if you were to buy them, so you can't take it off your budget if you sell those items.

This. What you need from the junkyard are the spindles. Once you have those, you can and should buy brand new calipers, rotors, etc. Shop Rockauto or your local parts store by asking for the brake parts for the donor vehicle, i.e. the car you got the upgraded spindles from.

Partially true,but mostly false. The rule about selling off budget exempt items not contributing money back to the budget applies mostly to wheels, tires & brakes. Before the rule was written it was perfectly legal to sell off the OEM wheels, buy another set of aftermarket wheels, sell those off,and keep doing it until you had as much money as you wanted to spend in your budget.

You can sell off your factory interior, gauges, seats, trim, etc, and count that money back against the budget, but you cannot then buy a set of budget exempt race seats then sell them against the budget.

Whatever you do I would not sorry too much about the budget. With a full sized GM sedan that is not a cop car,and doesn't have a full NASCAR V8 in it I doubt you will be nickle and dimed when it come time to judge you.

Okay much clearer now.  Thanks.

I just realized that the '83 Bonneville is actually a G-body, which means it's not quite as cool as the earlier full-sized Bonnevilles. That means that I will be looking for excessively cheaty suspension upgrades, so don't go too crazy there.

Don't forget theme! There are so many awesome themes you could do!

Also, as you hunt for parts - remember to grab spares for things you never want to replace; and brakes.