Hey guys, I am new to the H.A.M.B. I wanted to post pictures of the drop axle I put together the other day. It seems when I was researching I could not find any good posts with pictures. So please comment and tell me if they helped. Ill post a couple at a time and explain what I was trying to show in the picture. The First was the test fit of the bracket on the old axle.
This next Picture is the new king pin set up close and the difference between the dropped and old axle.
I painted the calipers to inhibit rust and the outside of the brake pads for the same reason and to give it a little extra. and here it is.
good thing you already flipped the tie rod with the modern ends to run under the springs, if you're taking any leafs off the spring pack to go lower keep in mind you'll have to shorten your pitman arm. my 54 has a 4" drop axle and 5 leafs removed from each side, i had to shorten the arm 4" along with also flipping the tie rod to underneath the springs
Yea, I put it on the top to begin with and I could tell there would be interference, so I swapped it. I am also looking at the power steering conversion kit from CPP. That would eliminate the original pitman arm. I have a couple of my leafs removed (it was done already) but im not sure how many. How many do you have left on yours?
Did you get the axle and disc brake conversion from the same place? This looks like it would be a good setup for my 58 Apache.
Welcome to the HAMB Great pics i'm doing a 57 GMC See you have 5 lug hubs did you convert if so what donor And where or who did you buy the drop axle and disc setup from ?? Looking good
I got the drop axle from a guy on ebay. His user name is stay-tooned. He accepts cores and that was a BIG deal for me. I ended up sending in two axles and that saved me $100 !!!!!! (prices may be different now) He also has a website, www.droppedaxles.com . He does good quality work and magna-fluxes the axles to test for cracks and is precise on measuring, really very thorough. The disc brakes derrived from a couple places. The conversion kit (consisting of the brackets, roller bearings, bearing adapters, nuts bolts etc.) came from classic performance products (CPP) (www.classicperform.com) <- This site is heavenly. At the time the kit with the bearings was somewhere around $120! beat that! I work at autozone part time and this kit utilizes the brake parts from a 70-78 camaro. So the calipers, brake pads, caliper bolts. etc. all came from there. Oh yeah the tie rod ends and the original king pin set came from CPP
Well this axle is actually the beginning of a whole build for the truck. The truck itself is actually nothing to look at at all right now. I bough a 55 with a wrecked rear end and bent frame and a 58 GMC with a good cab and frame. I will mate the two together to get a 55 chevy looking truck with a GMC cab. I built a rear end also. Now I am fixing to take the 58 to peices and blast the frame to put a c-notch in the rear and install all this good stuff.
Thanks for the links and info. $300 to drop my axle is pretty good. Save $100 or more. What was freight to and from to this dude?
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