I bought me a pair '46 - '48 Ford brake drums that I want to use on my coupe. The thing is that I'm running '49 Ford 16" wheels and those wheels have a smaller bolt pattern than the drums. Is it possible to use '49 Ford drums on the earlier backing plates or should I just use a pair of wheel adapters?
The best thing to do would be to run pre-49 rims. The adapters will screw up the front end geometry. Butch
`46-`48 ford brakes are 12" diameter , i believe your `49 are 10" or 11"..so that is not going to work. you would be better off re-drilling the `46-`48 hubs/drums to the 4-1/2" bolt circle before you do , check the ID of the `49 wheels , they have a small center hole and i'm not sure if they will fit over the earlier hubs.
You're right the '49 Ford drums are 10". And I will take some measurements before I start drilling...
Simple fix...Get the pre 49 rims....Why screw around with all the problems you are creating for yourself?
You're right about that. But finding pre '49 rims on this side of the pond is much harder than re-drilling my drums...
You're already running the 49 wheels? I picked up a set of Econoline steel wheels a while back. Nice and narrow they were, bolt pattern was right, but the center register hole was too small for my 37-41 Ford re-pro spindles. 49 drums are probably 10", I know the 50 drum and up to 54 is also 10". Station wagon drums on 52 up are 11" both ends, but you'll need the backing plates and all. A bolt-on swap fwiw and a good one if you plan to run drums all around. Take note of the lug stud hole size in the brake drum. I just re-drilled my 62 Ford pickup drums and the hole is just under 9/16" (5 1/2" to 4 1/2" fwiw.) Since the drums are flat and the lug studs are 1/2" you get a little bit of leeway in the accuracy dept. Be careful anyway....
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