Not sure if you remember seeing this car, but a few months ago I showed pics of a '57 Black Bel Air Gasser that had been 'found' in the Seattle area. I ran across it on Craigslist, and 'conned' a friend of mine into buying it, and he brought it to Oregon. As fate, luck and a little dtermination would have it, I ended up with the car. My goal is to return it to a wicked little street/strip car (more strip!). I have taken pics of these front brakes and shown them around to builders, brake guys, hot rodders etc, and no one has a clue as to what kind of brakes they are. The bolt pattern on the hub is 5 on 4 3/4. It appears the calipers attach with pins, maybe more? Possibly some sort of floating caliper. This chassis was removed from the car sometime in the mid to later sixties I am told, and sent to San Diego to a pro chassis builder of the day, and was straight axled, engine set back 10% etc. It's a pretty nicely done piece. These mounts don't look totally fabbed, the toip 'clips' pivot out of the way, the brackets appear stamped or maybe cast? I am stumped. Any clues or any idea of who would know what they are??? Thank you for any possible help!! PM me, or email me, or give me a #, I would be happy to call you if you can help put this thing back as it once was. Tim
The hubs look like 54 - 62 corvette and 49-54 chevy, if they have ball bearings thats probably what they are, especially if its a straight front axle with chevy spindles. Thats what they used. If the rotors looked like they where pressed into the hubs it doesn't look like a stock set-up from the pictures. Some one could have made it up, I did on my Willys and used alot of different parts.
I just double checked the lug pattern and it is definitely 5 on 4 3/4. I thought for a minute that the slots may be unilug, and I was misreading the size, but the wheel bones don't lie. Is the Volvo brakes/rotors a guess, or do you recognize it from personal experience? The bracketry that apparently holds the calipers is pretty integral to the steering arms, spindles etc, and I would rather keep it as it is, then re-invent it. Making it a squeak easier, and keeping the heritage of how it was built as well. It appears that if they used chevy hubs - they were adapted to the spindle of whatever donated the brakes. Wish I could talk to that chassis builder!! Any pro chassis building places still around in San Diego from the earllier days?
The hub does look like it could be an early Chevy. Does it use ball bearings? are there 3 cut off rivets that used to hold a drum onto it? The caliper mount is really funky...never seen anything like it.
The Jalopy Journal
