Stockcars were running Buick drums and Wide 5 dating back to the early 60's. The stockcars often used the Buick backing plates as well.
The pictures show them also using full floater hubs as well, which is what I remember from my brief involvement back then.
i have the remains of an old frankland (?) sprint car rear end, and yes it looks like the above car, wide 5 on an aluminum full floater hub, with a buick drum. never had it apart to see how they did it though
Here's how I did it, to use the Buick backing plate you'll need a 'squareback' spindle, '40's era and I used a '56ish, '58? backing plate. They are almost made for each other, after you machine the center spindle hole. The Ford is much larger and its easy to cut out the Buick backing plate, the mounting holes need to be welded and redrilled too. The top of the spindle boss needs to be ground back a little and the top of the kingpin needs a flat, see the pic. Its just at the top that needs clearance. This is all a very tight fit, but it does fit. The Buick backing plate steps back and gives you the room for the linings. The drum needs to be machined flat across the top and that will leave a raised outer edge. That edge registers the Ford hub (you'll need the hubs from the 2pc Ford assemblies, dunno what year they were), that edge fits the Ford hub perfect and lets the studs act as a clamp, not as a centering fixture for the hib-drum. I have them offset in the pic so you can see them. From some of my recent comments on here you can gather I have yet to fully mate the hubs & drums together, its a nasty business finding and pressing studs into these wheels, the next pic show a fixture I made to help press the studs in. Once you are past THAT hurdle it should all go together. And here's the near final mockup with the drum assembly pulled into place and the lip of the backing plate up inside of the drum to where it should be - note that neither have had to be cut or modified and that means we can use the full 2 1/2" Buick linings - I think. The wheel cylinder has been mocked up and a brake line connected, it was tight but you can get a wrench on that fitting with out problem. And here is a pic of the spindle with the drum assembly removed showing the location of the inner bearing, I intend to remock this up without the little greasehouse in place so I can see if the bearing is tight against the shoulder. And that is how far I've made it, I haven't had any linings on it but don't see any problems. I think from this point forward it is all stock Buick parts to finish it up.
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