Finding Brake Parts

[EnderWatts]

I hope this is a good location for this if not please let me know and I can move it somewhere else.

Quick background. Have always loved older cars. Have always wanted one. Am now deciding that getting something older that I can work on and doing some of that work myself is much cheaper than having to have someone else do everything else for me. To that end I have recently been looking at some classic Marauders and have found one from 1970 that I am considering for a purchase. My problems and question that I pose to everyone here is when you have a car such as the Marauder that is 50+ years old and at least currently no one seems to carry any sort of brake pad for the front disk brakes are there easy options for upgrading to some other caliper that might work on the car but uses different pads and other stuff that are much more readily available? I have found multiple sights and or manufacturers that are making or have stock of the read drum shoes but not the front brake pads.

Something as critical as that being unavailable scares a neophyte like myself who doesn't ultimately know a whole lot about how to go about changing things such that I could use something more available. Any advice or information would be incredibly appreciated as I go through this consideration process.

[RubberCtyRauder]

Rockauto.com

[EnderWatts]

Yeah that was the first place I checked but every listing for the pads they have for the year I need (1970) all show as out of stock. So I checked directly with all the major parts warehouses and some of them have listings of some of the same things that I saw on RockAuto but they are also listed as Out of Stock with no planned date for restock. I checked with some of the manufacturers directly and then checked places they linked to such as Jeggs, Summitt Racing and even some of their corporate Amazon stores but I didn't see a single location that said they were in stock. I also checked some other sites such as 1aauto.com

I had even read somewhere that the Marauder back then was based around a few different other models such as the Mercury Marquis and the Ford Galaxie 500 so I checked some of those models to see if they had any of the same part numbers but I didn't even get that far because as soon as I pulled up the listing for the 1970 Galaxie they were all listed as Out of Stock.

So my concern is, being someone who is new to the whole process and idea of having a driving restoration/fixer upper if I can't get brake pads that's possibly a problem especially if it turns out that it needed pads replaced. They do ironically have rotors and some calipers and the like...so that all being said with no idea of when or if they will even be getting more of these is it a fairly straight forward or easy process to be able to try and move from the original stock bracket/caliper/rotor/pads to an option that is newer and has more support.

I really want to find a way to make this work but I also can't afford to make a purchase and then have it end up sitting in the driveway far more than it is ever used because I am stuck waiting on some part to become available or my ability to afford some huge costly upgrade.

[RubberCtyRauder]

Try R1 Concepts, or see about a whole brake kit upgrade, rotors, calipers, pads

[EnderWatts]

R1 Concepts was the same as the others unfortunately. I checked so many I couldn't remember all their names at the time.

Do you have any suggestions on who to check for complete upgrade kits? I already have an email into Wilwood as they seem to have some but everything they have seems to be listed as for upgrading the rear drum brakes and not upgrading the front discs to something more modern with easily attainable replacement parts. I checked with Brembo but they don't seem to have anything for vehicle's in the early 70's at least not Mercury anyway.

Thanks got all the ideas so far.

[RubberCtyRauder]

Power stop, SSBC,The Right stuff, CPP, I would try joining an 70's Ford group/mercury group.

[Mr. Man]

Try Todd at TCE. His info should be in the sponsor section.