Getting ready to concentrate on brakes. Does anyone have good references for companies that make conversion disc brakes for a 1940 Desoto?
I have done this upgrade to DCPD cars from that era more than a dozen times. Every single customer was, and still is extremely happy with the results. Several are daily-drivers, too! The only returns were for new pads! Single best upgrade that you can make, especially if you drive at modern freeway speeds.
The Scarebird kits are well thought out, well designed and outside of a few parts that they fabricate use over the counter parts. Unless it is a 7 p***enger this should be the kit. 1940-42 Chrysler Six (ex. 7 p***.) front disc (scarebird.com) As far as those "woven Kevlar shoes, they aren't without issues either and the minimum 100 dollar cost plus the fact that they tend to wear faster and in the end wear the drums faster is something to consider. Throw in that I have never had disk brakes fade but after three close together rounds at Little River (Temple Acadamy) ended up going out the gate while trying to stop after the third p*** and was damned glad that I had room. That wasn't on some 80 year old car, that was on a three month old car with drum brakes.
For DIY, this thread has lots of info https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/p15-d24-to-95-2001-explorer-disk-conversion.702258/
My company has over 1,000,000-pages of data, spanning 55-years that all very clearly illustrate that no matter what you do to improve a drum brake, it remains vastly inferior to a disc brake. There is not even room for debate here. If you are open-wheel, there can be an asthetic debate. If you are full-fendered and you want the best in braking, it's not drums.
Gimpy, I cannot argue that disc brakes are superior to drums in performance I will argue that I will take my drums over the vast majority of disc brake “upgrades” that we see questions about on here.
Looks like ScareBird is closed for business. I have what appears to be an older kit for my 1940. I purchased it about 6-7 years ago and by what I can tell has a indention on the wheel side (outer side) of the caliper mounting plate for the mounting nut . Seems to allow the nut to sink in a bit and help clear the rotor. My kit uses the stock hub. Installed studs on the hub and uses; - 97 Ford Probe rotors - 90 Celebrity calipers -Stock drum hubs - changed from reverse threat bolts to 1/2 studs Looks like there is a newer kit that without the indention on the mounting plate and uses different rotors and calipers.
About 6-9 months ago I was able to contact ScareBird for a replacement part I had lost from a 50 Olds conversion. At that time all they were only responding to emails. They were having staffing issues like everybody else. It took a day or so, but they were able to help me.
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