I don't think the later roller bearing hubs will fit, they're shorter, and different sized inner race on the inner bearing. And there's really nothing wrong with the old ball bearings, aside from that folks are scared of them...I've been running them on my old truck since the 70s, as long as you keep them greased, they work fine. Just like rollers. I'd use the 51 and later brakes, not the earlier Huck style (the brakes changed in 51, not in 49).
Cant help you with the cars history, but here’s a flyer from Maryville Dragway. ps I’m a pharoah down here in Maryville.
I never measured or looked them up we always said that they were 4.25. Someone undoubtedly measured some wrong. I don't have any here but I do have access to a couple pairs of them at a buddies house. Chrome reverse and stockers. I think 14".
I don't know how you guys measure bolt circle. I've always done it like the drawing. Outside of stud, skip a stud to center of next stud. I never even heard of a 4.25 bolt pattern until I bought an O/T '99 Taurus wagon as a daily driver. Small mopar were always 4", 4.5 was mopar and ford and gm 4.75 except olds/pont, full size later gm and trucks were 5". Old Ford and some jeep were 5.5.
Jim, what is this 108mm you speak of . I live in the mid-west and don't speak foreign, lol 108mm=4.252 so I guess .002 is close enough
Another confirming the small Mopar pattern is 5 on 4". It's referred to as BVD pattern for Barracuda (A-body 64-69), Valiant and Dart (NOT the early full size Darts). They are all A-body cars, and this continued up thru 1972. 73 and later disc/drum was normal Mopar size (5 on 4.5") and there is some question if the drum/drum cars were small or large. With Mopar, I'd bet it was rare to have a drum/drum car and they just ran thru inventory at each factory. As for the rust, I'd be curious if a kiddie pool with a small pump, a hose over the roof and a few gallons of Evaporust would be feasible.
I have spoken briefly with Pat Ganahl and he suggested that I look for the article he wrote about the brake conversion many years ago. I did find it and it was helpful. Also found a guy who does a lot of these as his full time business and he recommended finding a 48-54 Chevy truck front axle because it's a bolt in swap and disc brake kits are readily available. Now I just need to find one of those axles..
Cool Car. As usual the bolt pattern thing brings out a lot of wild ass guesses that don't make much sense. I'd agree that you can swap 51/54 car backing plates, drums and hubs. The Filling station says that the bearings are the same from 25 to 59. I have had to mix and match inner bearings putting 54 drums on Chevy pickup spindles in those years though. On the truck at least there is a year model break on the Id of the inner bearing OD of the bearing contact surface on the spindle.
I am. Slowly since it's Winter and costs a bit to get it warm in the garage. Currently hanging the doors after replacing all the rotten wood with metal.
To answer the questions about the brakes: Rear axle is a 57 Olds which is 5 on 5 bolt pattern. Front was quite a chore putting disc brakes on it. Nobody makes a "kit" but that's what makes this stuff fun right ? A friend who races gassers in Cali was gracious enough to offer some conversion parts made for a 55-59 Chevy pickup that uses Camaro rotors & calipers. 4 3/4 bolt pattern. But the kingpins were all wrong to fit the truck spindles. I had to ream out the holes in the 36 front axle and also have a local machine shop fab up spacers. Then naturally by reaming out the kingpin holes the pinch bolts had to have the flats shaved down a bit. Lots of head scratching and as Jethro would say "Cyphering" (math type stuff) and I have disc brakes. If I had to do it over again I'd buy a Speedway complete axle kit but this is an old school low budget build done the old school ways before catalog parts were a thing.
I think you could have used a front disk brake kit for the C1 corvettes. The spindles look the same. JMHO
The C1 is basically a 53 Chevy. What does the king pin angle have to do with where the disk brake bracket bolts to ? You are not using the spindle .
I did need to change spindles. Nothing fits the stock 36 spindles. The caliper bracket would fit the Corvette spindle but it won't work with the 36 front axle. I beam axles have a 7 degree kingpin angle. Cars with independent front suspension have a 4 degree kingpin angle. This info came from Pat Ganahl.
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