This is my first build, so please be gentle. Building as fun cruiser, NOT a show car. The questions: 1) How much clearance should I have between the backing plate and the frame/leaf spring? 2) Would disk brakes give me more clearance than the stock drums? 3) What is my cheapest solution? (What have others used with success?) The details: I am using a RB's Obsolete (ironic name now) rear end kit on my '46 Chevy Coupe. I have a '68 Cougar 8" all mocked up. The rear end seems a little narrow. My first thought was, "Sweet, lots of room for tires with no need to narrow the rear!" I have stock (skinny) steel wheels from a '64 Fairlane bolted on so I could roll this project around. The sidewall is very close to the lower lip on the top hat shaped frame. Due to the combined narrowness of the rear and the fact that the RB's kit uses very large lowering blocks, I don't see enough room to get a brake s**** in the slot for adjusting the rear brakes. If I can get the right combination of offset wheels (and possibly spacers) to move the tire sidewall away from frame, will I still have issues with the baking plates hitting the frame? (I don't want to design/fab a Panhard rod or Watts linkage to control sway.) One thought is to bolt on disk brakes since I need to rebuild/replace brakes anyway. This would eliminate the need to access a star wheel, but would this make the fitment better or worse? I have read the suggestion to use 68-74 Nova or 67-69 Camaro rears with a 60" flange to flange measure. The Cougar rear is listed as being 59". I'm looking for an alternative to dropping lots of $ on a GM muscle car rear. Any suitable cheaper alternatives? FYI, I am much more familiar with Ford rears and prefer their drop out design that lets me play with gears.
I put a 9" Ford in my 41, 60" flange to flange with a centered pinion. Just used a stock center and bought 3" dom tubing and later style Torino bearing ends. I also used the Explorer rear disc kit, that will space out your wheels another 1/4 inch per side (we built my housing with that in mind). Speedway is selling a housing 56, 58, or 60" for $275 plus shipping. If you're using leaf springs there is no need for a panhard bar, maybe you could get by with some wheel spacers and change to rear discs. Hope this helps.
If its just the ch***is flange in question, cut it off and weld the edge of two pieces. That will give you about 3/8" to 1/2" of additional space. Pat
Thanks for the replies. I have also thought about cutting off the flange and welding closed. It would still be very tight between the backing plates and the leaf springs, making it almost impossible to adjust drum brakes. Looks I need to price out disk brakes on this housing vs. a different housing. Seems like I am the guy that needs that wide housing nobody else wants! Might not be too hard to find a full size Ford car or even F-100 rear of the right width.
My 46 was built with a 68-74 Nova rear, 2 inch lowering blocks and cheap 1/4 inch wheel spacers with 7 x 15 standard offset wheels which work fine. About as cheap as it gets but I have heard some folks use the S10 4x4 rear.
Do you have your actual rear wheels and tires you intend to run yet? Don't do a thing until you do. Where your at right now I'm guessing you have enough room to run about an 8" wheel with about a 3-4" back space which has been kinda a standard size on fat fendered cars for quite awhile. Never set off into a build with out having the intended wheels and tire at hand... Then make the car fit them!
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