the 57 project truck im working on was 6 lug front and rear. iv junked the old rear and it now has an s10 5 lug rear. the front has a dropped solid i-beam axle. when i go to buy new spindles will i be able to buy hubs with 5 lugs? a friend of mine said i could put chevy car hubs from the same era on the truck spindles or if that doesnt work they said i could get car spindles and fit them onto the new axle i-beam and new spindles for chevy car also, not sure if this will work though.
There are disc conversion kits to do just that. It generally involves sleaving the spindle to accept a different bearing etc. This should not be Rocket Surgery
51-54 chevy car front hubs and drums will fit the original 57 chevy half ton truck front spindles and brakes. Make sure you use the car dust shield that goes between the backing plate and inner bearing, the truck shield will hit the hub. If you want disks...you can get a conversion kit to fit them on the stock spindles.
By switching out the hubs and drums, what is needed? Sorry for the question if it's stupid, but I have searched everywhere for early 50's car hubs and I can't find them anywhere. Is it simply getting the drums and re-using the truck hub? Any suggestions on where to buy the stuff for the conversion? Finally, will the swap work on the rear the same as the front? I just bought a 59 Apache and want to put 5 lug wheels on it. I like the drums and straight axle, and I really don't have the skills or money to do the IFS swap. I also plan to do the bearings too since I plan on going with wider wheels, but don't want to do anything until I find out what is involved in the swap. Any help would be greatly appreciated! The new guy has enough info to be confused.... Thanks JJ
Go to the chevy truck site 67-72chevytrucks.com and search the past threads for you desired year. There are a lot of threads about brakes over there.
We have those kits in stock. They are complete and ready to bolt on. They come with the spacer as others have mentioned. We sell them for $249.00 plus shipping http://shop.eztbucket.com/Chevy-Brake-Kit-3011.htm