Hey guys I pickup up these drums, hubs and backing plates at a swap meet this weekend. The Buick drums have been machine on the inside lip already to use the 42-48 backing plates which makes sense but I’m not sure what the hubs are from he said he was going to put them on a ford pickup but I forgot to ask what style spindles. Also they have been machined as well to fit the drum. But they are machines on the inside instead of the outside with the ring spacer. I read the Buick brake tech article by I believe Gashog but I’m still confused. So I must have 46-48 hubs? and need to put the drum on the inside of the hub? But that seem kind of weird to me to have stubs going through and aluminum drum that’s not getting sandwiched between hub and rim. Or am i looking at it all wrong?
I've done dozens of this conversion with Buick drums and 46-48 hubs mounted on the outside of the drum. You'll need the correct studs so they grab the hubs tightly. Looks to me like you have all the right ingredients.
Would one of these stub be the right one. Also do I use the original brake components for 42-48 ford backing plates or since the drum is larger do I need to use different components thanks.
Looks about right. make sure the studs "bite" into the hub as well. This is almost exactly what I'm running (sorta shown below). Just use all the original ford stuff for the backing plates it will work on the buick drum very nicely. Try and arc the shoes, not as much adjustment with the 42-48s on the bottom side.
You will need to mic the hub and drum thickness to make sure whichever stud you choose has knurls that reach all the way through. I couldn't find one that did, so I used 1/2" bolts instead and tapped new holes in the hubs. I figured if the pros like Winters can use bolts in their axles, I could too.
Drilling and tapping the flange as outlined by @alchemy is the way to go. Done a couple with press in studs, years ago; but didn't really like dealing with the engagement in the thin cross section of the flange. Seemed at the time that none of the "recommended" studs worked in real life.
The Ford F-250 ('48-'52) backing plates are what you need and are so much cheaper than '39-'40 Lincoln repops, the "popular" backing plates that rodders use if they have lots of money.
Why not dill the Buick backing plates to work on the Ford spindles like the oval trackers were doing backing in the early 6os
Robert, what else is required with that Buick backing plate use? Seems spindle shaft adapters for the bearings for starters. Do you recall, would be a help to the OP.
If I remember right; besides drilling new holes, you need to open up the center hole on the Buick backing plate, use a piloted spacer between it and the spindle, and either adapt the Buick hub and drum to the Ford spindle with 29Rat style bearing adapters or use the '48 external hub or an F-100 internal hub with the Buick drum. With the F-250 backing plates suggested you will need either a '40 style inner or F-1 hub to put the Buick drum in the right place.
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