56 corvette rear

ok the rearend on my 50" is from a 56 corvette...i would like to put rear disc brakes on it...i see the kits for 10 and 12 bolt GM stuff but dont know if they will work on this rear...i went to willwood.com and looked at the flange dimensions and offset diagrams...can someone school me on this...i cant not afford the willwood stuff....would just like to find a oem style kit that will work...or i could piece it together ,thanks

 

Have you checked Speedway motors ? They may have something you can adapt.

 

Check out some of the Corvette suppliers or '55-64 Chevy purveyors, I believe the rears have all the same flange/bearing retainer design.
Also check Scarebird for disc brake setups, I think they are an Alliance vendor.

 

i have to ask do you want discs on the rear?

 

Yeah WHY ! Then you need to engineer parking brake system etc. Waste of time and money on 99% of normal street cars.

 

x2.

 

Did you check out ECI in Ellington, CT, USA ?

www.ecihotrodbrakes.com

Ralph is an old timer and builds good brake products he might have what you need or can direct you to it.

 

Go to Danchuk, or any of the other tri-vive vendors (I know Danchuk has them). Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

ECI's kit for this rear end works very well. Installed front and rear on a '56 Corvette some years back along with a dual master cylinder. C1's never had such good brakes.

Charlie

 

thanks guys....them real reason is im putting mags on the car....so its alittle asthetics as well as function

 

Look at early CCorvette disc brakes if that is what you want and adapt them. I think Coevette had 4 wheel discs by about '65 or so.

Otherwise get yourself some hats the right depth for your rear axles and some calipers and make your own brackets to hold them to the brake flanges.

If you are interested in asthetics let me throw something out for you. The same 12" Buick drums that everyone puts on the front of their hot rod will also work on the rear. Pretty easy to adapt buick backing plates and drums to the vette rear.

Look on the rear of this old altered. These are 90 fin Buick drums, they are cheaper than the 45 fin drums as a rule. But they show real nice through a set of mags. This is the same basic setup that I am using on car that I have been working on. I am using '62 rear backing plates it gives me an E brake as well as big stopping power. Using the 90 fin drums myself but 45 fin drums are also doable.

 

Honestly if that's a real Corvette rearend it might be worth waving it around on eBay and the like to see if some vette guy needs one and will pay you enough to round up something like an 80-81 Trans-Am/Camaro factory disc brake rear. Or I think possibly some of the S10s had them (the Olds Bravada?) also. Usually early Corvette stuff is stupid money.