Hot Rods Ashamed of your disc brakes? This might be a solution.

I gave them as many chances to work well as I could. My drum brakes just weren't satisfactory. Usually they would stop straight but once in a while they would pull one way or the other. Sometimes pretty hard. I tried different shoes, which made it better, almost good enough. But once in a while they would still act up. It was driving me crazy. So I bit the bullet and bought a disc brake kit for my 1954 Corvette. It was a breeze to install, but I felt a little guilty about copping out on the drums. The rest of the car is so period correct looking I didn't like the fact that you could see the rotors and calipers through the wheels. Sure they had disc brakes in the 50's but they weren't common. Once the kit was installed I had an idea. Check this out. I took my plasma cutter and cut the ring off an old drum.

 

Once the ring was off I ground the edge smooth.

 

Clean up in the blast cabinet and slip it on the new hub

 

Put the wheel on and presto! looks pretty good.

 

Terrific idea!

 

Nice!


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Very creative!

 

Great idea! Curious though on how many threads are left to catch the lug nut after adding the spacer?

 

That is a novel idea, but now what will be designed to hide the IFS

 

why would a person be ashamed of disc brakes on a 49-54 Chevrolet? I wish I had them on the back as well.

 

Thats for sure, I'd be too busy staring at the car to notice..

 

The drum face is only about .110 thick. So about 2 threads are sacrificed.

 

You may want to have them balanced, as it may throw the wheel and tire out of balance now.

 

Nice work there!

 

The question remains......what's wrong with the look of disc brakes?

 

Ashamed of your disc brakes? How embarrassing! I feel your pain. I'm happy that you solved this important dilemma. Good for you!

 

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Good question. I've been trying to understand how drum brakes somehow have a superior aesthetic quality to them than discs.

 

Looks good

 

you need to have at least threads one half the diameter of the stud into the nut part of the lugnut one half inch thread one quater inch of thread engagemant into the nut not the shank more is much better

 

I don't mind the look of disc brakes but I've seen people hammered on here for installing them. He doesn't like the look and I think he had one hell of a good idea, cheap too. What about those buick drums with the disc brake inside them? They only cost a little over $1500.

 

Brilliant, love it!

 

I like that idea and might cut down on the brake dust and did you have to get longer studs,everything I have now has steel rims so the discs can not be seen but if I ever go back to 5 spokes I will have to remember this.

 

Depending on the the wheels you chose there are lugs made by Gorilla that go down into the stud threads. They worked great on the American Torque Thrust wheels available today that d not use washers.
I really like covering the discs this way....great work.

 

A lot of disc brake kits set the wheels outboard, some more than others. I realize the drum isn’t very thick but it is something that should be considered.

 

The FAA, no slouch when it comes to quality, specifies that there be 3 threads showing past the nut.

 

You have to remember, this is a forum for TRADITIONAL hot rids. The first American car to have disc brakes was the 1965 Corvette (they were an option) which barely sneaks under the period we are concerned with.

 

Why not just buy dust shields? I could care less what anyone thinks about my disk brakes. They might want to get a life.

 

I might agree with you if it was posted on the "traditional hot rod" specific forum but I only visit the general discussion forum, much more progressive minded here.

 

Rule is actually minimum thread engagement in the nut equal to the stud or bolt diameter….it's in the Machinist's Handbook.
If it is a bolt threaded directly into a soft metal like aluminum or bronze then the rule is minimum 1 and a half times the bolt diameter engaged in the material.