Brake conversion - labor rates

I'm thinking of having a front disk brake conversion done on my 73 and was quoted about $650 to do it, does that sound resonable? I know parts run anywhere from 250-300$. Labor rates here tend to be high. I'm thinking of pushing back a bit to see if I can get a little better price. I was also thinking that while some of this stuff is apart I may have a detroit locker put in the front (ie dana 30). He had quoted about 1K for that a while back.
thanks,

 

How converted? Replacing the knuckles out? Does that include a new master cylinder or changes to the master cylinder? How about a proportioning valve? How much new parts and how much used?

$650 sounds pretty reasonable to me, if they provide all the parts and stand behind it.

 

$650 would be a great price if they are providing the parts. You could easily have an hour or more on each side just swapping the knuckles they can be coroded into place. Then there are the hard brake line changes that have to be done as well. I could easily see 5 to ten hours in labor and maybe more if things don't go as well as expected. When I upgraded my 72 parts which were a mixture of used and new set me back around $550 but I did also change to a power setup.

 

I've got in the $550 range (parts only) in my conversion as well including the conversion parrts, booster and master, new lines, residual and proportioning valves, etc.

 

I believe new calipers, caliper brackets, rotors, same master cylinder, new lines from brake to axel. I think that was all, we were talking and those were the new parts mentioned. Anyway sounds like it might not be a bad price. Those old drums do stop her but occasionally with swings wide right and then left, w/o notice.

What you guys think about the locker price? Detroit in a dana 30 which needs a carrier.

 

JMO - there's something wrong with your brakes if they don't stop straight. A disk conversion would fix it, but so would fixing the drum brakes.

AFAIK the main reasons for the industry going to disk brakes are 1) longer service interval (shoes wear out in fewer miles than pads, and drums are more time consuming to service) and 2) disks are self-wiping, which improves wet weather performance. You can improve the wet weather performance of drum brakes by drilling the drums - a few members here have done that and are pleased with the result. Disks have a higher unsprung weight, and are hard to activate mechanically (think parking brake - that's why there are so many cars with disk-drum combos).