I just picked up a 1951 Styleline Deluxe a couple weeks ago and when I did a search for a 50's Chevy forum, this one came right up. The car is all there and in one piece. I was able to get her fired up and she's running nice and smooth! My next order of business is brakes. Right now I dont have any, so I have some options. I'm not sure if I should keep the 4 wheel drum or change to power front disc. I want it safe, but from what Ive read so far, I would have to change my front wheels to clear the calipers....but I still have some more research to do. Looking forward to reading lots of the info on this site!
Welcome. If you don't want to get abused remove any mention of those two plastic cars you have. The grouchy, inflamed prostate gland, old geezers on here can be real pricks at times. Just saying.
Hahahaha, Gotcha! I know message boards can be tough sometimes and I'll never understand why. At the end of the day we all have the same love for beautiful vehicles!
Unless you are building a real hot rod ( as in lots more motor) the drum brakes will stop you just fine as long as they are in good shape. You can get everything you need from your local parts house, hell even Autozone has vintage parts on their computer any more. If it were mine and I was keeping the six I would just rebuild the stock brakes.
That's the direction I am definitely leaning towards. I was surprise how available the parts are. Like you said, advance Auto and Auto Zone have most everything in stock. The only upgrade I would make is the dual master, which, is pretty much my only option aside from rebuilding the current MC (cant seem to find a MC for an automatic trans). I haven't done much research yet on other MC options, but the ones I'm seeing for the dual with a bracket online is like $280 bucks. I would love to save some money there....any options?
Just buy a master for a drum brake mustang and make it fit. Another option and an early upgrade is firewall mount and hanging peddles. The stuff from a tri five chebby is pretty easy to work with or if you look around you can find an Ansen style setup cheap enough. Try a search in our classifieds. I am using a Willwood master in my model A. I found a brandy new willwood master in the classifieds a couple of years back for 15 bucks. If you look there you can find a deal every once in a while and help a fellow HAMBer at the same time.
Places like The FillingStation.com offer a dual MC conversion. Send them your MC and they will graft on a modern dual MC. That way you get the (relative) safety of a dual MC, but get to keep your pedals where they are, you don't need to modify anything (except add an access panel in the floor), and everything looks stock unless your crawl under the car. I had a '50 Fleetline with stock Huck brakes and a stock '55 235. Worked fine even in Chicago. My wife had a '51 Bel Air with stock Bendix brakes (better, cheaper), but she upgraded to the dual MC conversion kit. Worked great. Her car had a '60 235 with a slight overbore, dual carbs and headers. Brakes worked fine.
@Hellfish is right. Get a catalog from The Filling Station. The brake and clutch pedal pivot is built into the master cylinder on that car. so changing the master to a dual master is not as easy as just buying an adapter. Also for the brakes. look up Muscle Car Brakes. http://www.musclecarbrakes.com/bib5170chevy.html they sell a complete kit that is everything in the front brakes. The quality is very high. I have used them for complete brake overhauls for about 10 years and they stop way better than some of the junk autozone sells. I have the stock drums on the front of my 51, I did convert it to power brakes, but it has a 300 horse 350 with an auto in it and it stops better than most of the 50's cars with disks I have driven.
Here is a bracket I made up following this thread as a guide.....it looks like a lot of the pictures are gone because of photobucket's new policy but there are a few other pics in the thread that should give an idea of how easy it is. On a different note, I am in the process now of rebuilding the stock MC on a 1951 much like the one you just acquired. It cleaned up real nice....I'll take some pics later and post them. I bought the kit @ Oreilly's for around $25. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-49-54-chevrolet-master-cylinder-upgrade.367041/
when a late model 4 wheel antilock disc brake car slams the brakes in front of you at 60 MPH it doesn't matter how much horsepower you have. the original brakes "work just fine" otherwise.
Welcome! I live near Allentown, Pa so we are almost neighbors. Feel free to reach out anytime as I always have extra parts. Great car!
I may not be using the Skirts for my '49 Project. The Wheel/Tire combo looks too nice to cover up! I'm also here to help if you have any questions. Just finishing up a 1+ year build, and I researched the Hell out of everything before spending $.
Do you know what visors would work on the 51? Someone on the board has one from a 51 Olds, but I dont want to pull the trigger unless I know it's gonna work.
First drive was a success! Runs & stops great. Tires are like rocks (and have some flat spots), so they need to be replaced and she definitely needs some new shocks, but overall she drives nice. Felt good to take her out for the first time and cruise around.
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