1952 Chevy truck build advice

I picked up a '52 Chevy 3/4 ton. Fairly large project but very solid minus a little rust in the cab corners. My plan is to build a fairly original light custom / shop truck. I want the truck to drive decent and may even daily drive it (~20 miles per day). These old trucks can feel a bit like driving a tractor in stock form. What I'm thinking:

-1/2 ton frame swap (sourced already)
-freshen up the 235 in it
-car rear end and car 4 speed
-flip the front and rear axles over the leaf packs
-front discs? Possible car front axle swap?

I'm looking for input on how the plan above looks and whether it will net a truck that will be fun to cruise city streets with.

 

You are better off with a drop beam, than putting it on top of the springs. There won't be much space between the top of the axle and the frame. They can reliably be dropped by 4". You can match that with a 4" block in the back.

I like to do power steering on these, and a T5 5-speed, too.

All of the cars in that era were IFS, so no beam swap.

 

Do a mustang II it's a ton nicer!!

 

Power steering would definitely be a huge plus. I like the idea of the 5 speed too but I also like the idea of building it with 50's-60's era parts

 

Nobody will know what's under the floor.

 

i got a 3/4 ton AD chevy I bought down in Nogales area. Mothertrucker on here has a lot of parts and findin an 1/2 axle can be done, send it to Sids and get it dropped. the rear is a lil but harder cause the rears on the 3600 are huuuge. but you can always replace it with a chevy rear or whatever. ive pulled 3 leafs outta each corner but still have my truck apart so i dont know how low she really is. always be lower. a lot of guys put an older pre-89 chevy s10 t5 trans behind these motors. go join the AD group on here.
now post some pics!

 

speedway motors sell a disc brake setup for the 1/2 axle
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Deluxe-Disc-Brake-Kit-1941-1959-Chevy-Half-Ton-Pickup,4622.html

 

Thanks for the info guys. The Speedway Motors disc brake kit looks good. I'll probably go with a dropped beam in the front. Here's a picture of what I'm working with.

 

If you want to keep the long bed and save swapping the frame the 1/2 ton axle is a bolt in swap- they use the same springs in 1/2 tons and 3/4 tons. the frames are almost the
same from the cab forward, just slightly heavier steel and the heavier axle/spindles.
The rear of the frames are different but not a big deal. Jim