wheel bolt pattern '41 Ford car question

I have 3 '41 Ford cars 2 business coupes and a sedan the sedan and 1 coupe have 5 on 5 pattern but the coupe I just bought has the wide 5 front and rear with 16" wheels. Any thoughts?

 

maybe the build date, could have changed in the middle of production.

 

Do you mean that the 5 bolt pattern is 5 on 5.5? As far as the wide 5 front and back, change the drums to the smaller pattern.

 

My thoughts. Should be 5 on 5 1/2. Wide 5s must be '39's.

 

Wide 5's and mechanical brakes were phased out in the '39 model year, fairly early I think. Not many '39's didn't have juice brakes. Your '41 could have had the hubs switched back when. It's a simple swap either way. Some guys liked the wide 5's.

 

As far as I know, all '39 cars and pickups had hydraulic brakes with the wide 5 bolt pattern, however very early '39 big trucks got mechanical brakes, the change on the big trucks coming a couple of months into production. Although '39 cars and pickups have hydraulic brakes, they carried over the same brake drums. Rear drums will interchange '36-'39, fronts '37-'39 ('36 fronts are unique to that one year). Lincoln Zephyrs went to the 5 on 5.5 pattern in '39, Ford and Merc changed to 5 on 5.5 in '40. The wide 5 pattern was popular with racers, so much so that racing hubs and wheels are still made in that pattern. All you need is a hub puller and some '40-'48 hubs and drums to put it back original.