1969 Chevy Camaro - The Four Corners

One of today's hottest musclecars is the first-gen Camaro, most notably the '69. Whether it's the timeless looks of these cars, the choice of original powerplants, or the interesting options available when new, owning and driving an early F-body is just fun.

For '69 the JL8 four-wheel-disc brake option added bigger Corvette disc brakes (11.75-inch rotors) and four-piston calipers at each corner of the car. This package added $500 to $700 (depending on the model) to the price of any Camaro. Considering most Camaros at the time listed for $3,500 to $4,000, the JL8 package bumped the price of the car by a huge margin.

Today, the JL8 four-wheel-disc brake setup is one of the early Camaro's most coveted options. Not only is it difficult to find a JL8 rearend-either production or service package-but it's tough to track down all the smaller unique parts necessary to install the major components. Fortunately, Rick's First Gen of Athens, Georgia, has solved this dilemma by making available almost all of the supporting JL8 parts and stocking (when available) complete original JL8 rearends. We recently hung out and watched as a bona fide '69 Z/28 that had been fitted with a service-package JL8 rearend during the '70s underwent the transformation to complete the JL8 system up front and had a few missing incidental items added to the rear. When completed the installation looked and performed just as the factory JL8 package was intended

JL8 Swap Parts List
Here's the parts list for this installation. Rick's First Gen also sells complete JL8 and service-package rearends, front JL8 assemblies, and other rare and reproduction early-Camaro parts. Brake lines manufactured by The Right Stuff are available from Rick's First Gen.