I've been looking at some of these Speedway disc brake kits for my 47 Ford coupe, and they all mention that you need to use wheels designed for disc brakes? What does that exactly mean, can I use stock steel wheels with some mods, do I have to use newer wheels???
Earlier steel wheels didn't allow clearance for the caliper. Are you trying to keep the original bolt pattern? And wheel?
I have the set of steelies that came with the car that I was thinking about using. I'm not dedicated to using those wheels.
None of the stock steel solid wheels will work, even the 16" look like they might hit. The kits I've seen used a F150 rotor (if you keep the stock bolt pattern).
On my '40 I used the Speedway kit with the F150 rotors. My Ford F100, 15"x 5" wide wheels fit using a 1/4" spacer sourced from Advance Auto parts. Stock '47 Ford 16" wheels would fit with no problems. Many comments from folks who have not done this.
I'm building a '51 Chevy sedan, wanted to use the original wheels and hubcaps but the hoops wouldn't clear the disk brake caliper. The solution was to replace the Chevy wheel hoops with hoops salvaged from 60's-70's Ford pickup wheels. (Note, the early Ford pickup wheels are riveted together so you can easily drill them apart, later wheels are welded together).
It' not "a width thing", It's a "taper thing". The inside portion of an early Ford rim is tapered, unlike most later wheels designed for disc brakes. A 1/4" spacer between the hub & the wheel allows the "taper " to clear the caliper.
Thanks for that info 42 Merc. I have been debating the install of disc brakes on the front of my '40 pickup for a while but I have been put off by the claim that I won't be able to use my stock ford wheels. The solution is simple now.
I think it would be a good idea, if it hasn't been done already, to got to Speedways site and mention that to them
Another thing to watch is the center bore hole. Most disc brake wheels have a larger center hole since the disc hub is larger.
If you buy the 5X4 1/2 kit be aware that the inner portion of the mopar rotor(the snout right before the disk face) about 1/4 inch has a step in it and all my ford wheels would not bolt up flush to the rotor but a set of mopar wheels of the same size would slide on with no problem. I'm going to knock out the studs and have the snout turned down to the rest of the diameter of the outer snout(where the outer wheel bearings are housed). Pain in the ass seeing how this is a "FORD" kit and ford wheels don't fit onto the rotor. Caliper clearance was a non issue. The 5X4 1/2 kit uses Cordoba rotors. Just a heads up.
Had a similar situation with a Dodge where I wanted to use the original wheels. Ended up using the centers from the original wheels and grafting them onto the rims from a later Ford truck. All this, in order to run NOS hubcaps. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I used Speedway's # 91031945 brake kit on mine with 15x6 Wheel Vintiques Gennie steel wheels. Worked fine. You can see pics here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/a-tale-of-two-cities-1948-ford-build.1021019/.
The Jalopy Journal
