I have the scarebird kit for my '55 super 88 coupe, I'm having trouble with wheels, I have spoken to scarebird and they have been helpful, I still need to sort a few things out, but. Has anyone actually got this kit on their car that I can pm a few questions too, and also my biggest issue at the moment is finding wheels that will suit the 5x5 stud pattern and clear the bracket and caliper. scarebird list 1975-82 gm 1/2 ton truck as the source for wheels. Well their just not available here in Australia. So before I go and source some in the US, I want to know 100% that they will work ok, or can anyone tell me another car that I can also search for that the rims will work? I'm working locally to see if I can find a 15" rim that will work, I'm even at the point of being willing to change the stud pattern to standard ford or gm if I can find a wheel that will clear the caliper. I didn't think this was going to be so difficult, but its proving to be a bit of a headache. Anyone with any idea's on other wheels I can search out? I have already tried some early 70's fords/mercury/thunderbird? that had 15" 5x5 but they won't fit. I have a 70's 15" galaxie wheel that I thought if it cleared the bracket/caliper I would re-drill the stud pattern, but that wont clear. thanks . this is how close the disc is on a stock rim.
Hi. Hamb member”Young man” did a Scarebird conversion on his 56 Olds. Shoot him a Pm and ask whatever you want to know http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/member.php?u=70666 Per Ornberg
You may want to try some adapters- then you could use what you have locally and gain some inboard room for the caliper without redriling. I put the kit on my 57 olds and had to shave a little on the corners of the calipers for my wheels. I think for my application the rotors were rear thunderbird and the calipers were chevy truck. i have some pics and can check stuff if it will help. good luck, danny
thanks, problem is that the 55 is still kingpins, I"m happy to shave the calipers some, but even a little shaving won't help with what I have seen so far. plus the adaptors will move the wheels outboard and I will end up with turning circle problems, plus they are illegal here in Australia ( pain I know as it would be handy sometimes!)
I went disc on my 55 olds, but used a Pontiac Trans Am sub frame. Just used 70's GM 15" rims with no problem. Stock rims are nowhere close on this set up either. So find a rim off anything 70's and up with disc brake on with a 5" bolt pattern and you should be good. Unless you plan to cover it up with hub caps, you probably won't like the style of the truck rim.
I used astro van wheels off an 90s model. Had to clearance the caliper just a little though. Don't know if you got astro vans or some equivalent down under but just what I had used Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Most full sized GM cars use that bolt pattern. Things like Impala, Caprice, LeSaber, Roadmaster, Bonneville, Oldsmobile 88, 98. Cadillacs of that same vintage as those trucks. While they may be scarce down under, it increases you chances.
Flatoz - I'm in the same boat as you... I just bought a '56 Rocket 88 and I am in the process of doing this conversion right now. The car came with the scarebird brackets and I have them mocked up but I dont know what other parts I need. I emailed scarebird but havent heard anything yet. What bearings did you have to use??? I need to get mine rolling soon so as quickly as I can get that stuff figured out, then I can get the wheels for it and hopefully let you know exactly what fits so you can find the right ones! If anyone else has any info on this set up it would greatly be appreciated.
Actually, those wheels should be on all of these vehicles - 1971-1976 All GM full size (Impala, Caprice, Bonneville, Catalina, 88, 98, Centurion, LeSabre, Electra) 1971-1989 Cadillac all full size RWD 1975-1987 Chevy/GMC 1/2T 2WD pickups 1975-1991 1/2 ton Suburban 1975-1996 G10 G20 vans I get that through the interchange for the rotor on Rock Auto's website. It shows only to 1993 on the vans but that's because the 94-96 have a reluctor ring for anti-lock brakes, the rest did not change. You should find these wheels on certain 1977-1989 Chevy and B-O-P cars as well, but it's more complicated as to which ones - usually station wagons, the Electra 225 and the 98 cars, got the ch***is with the bigger brakes, while the Caprice, Impala, LeSabre, 88, Catalina and Parisienne sedans and coupes got a lighter duty ch***is with a smaller bolt pattern wheel. For instance, 10 years ago when I needed tires for a 1989 Suburban, I pulled used ones at the junkyard off a 1988 Buick station wagon and they fit fine. Some of those should exist down there.
j have a 1958 oldsmobile,i need front bumper. i have parts 1953 olds,doors trunk lib,rear gl***,radio,clock,front and rear bumpers and trim parts call 787-874-6792
start by grinding the calipers, it worked for me when i did it on my 50 pontiac. " the OEM rim is quite constrictive and the steering arm is mounted OUTBOARD of the spindle. I tried for an afternoon with an Olds rim and could not do it with the large stock of rotors/calipers we have. Our solution is to use a 72-mid 90's 1/2 ton rim as the wheel cover dimension is the same." also this might help http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247623
I know you did a cut and shut, I would probably nearly have prefered this but this car is my daily driver, so I can't afford to have it off the road for weeks until that would be done. eventually I will put a Jag front end under it, but that will happen another time, I want to make this thing a little safer as far as stopping goes. I will be using full size wheel covers so the look of the wheel isn't a real problem. Thanks, no Astro vans out here, but it increases my cars I can search for in the US> Any idea on the years of those? if you get on their website it lists what you need, I will see if I can attach the scarebird instructions. Thanks, the cadillac is probably the best bet, BOP are not common here at all. I think I am going to have to grind the calipers, I am also going to pop out the studs as they are metric and replace with proper studs, but as I said, if I can find something local that fits and is ford or gm standard bolt patter I will go that way , as the car will get a 9" rear eventually.
Flatoz - Do you happen to have an pics of your install??? I'm not sure what comes with their kit since the pieces came with the car when I bought it so i'd love to be able to figure out if I'm missing anything. If you do have pics of the pieces and all of it installed (front and back sides), could you please post them here??? Thanx-
I don't have pictures at the moment but will take some tomorrow night and post them up here. I was looking at the link to the 51 caddy conversion and the parts I have seem to be different. Anyway, if and when I get this figured out I will do a post on here with plenty of photos to help others out. As the kit covers a few different cars, it would be helpful if there were more specific instructions for each car, so some photos on the install will help there. will get back with photos tomorrow night.
Flatoz- Maybe you could point me in the right direction from where I am... I have a list (from the scarebird site) of all the bearings, etc that I need to round up. I went and pulled some rotors off a van at the junk yard. Here's where I'm at so far. I think I'm missing a spacer??? What goes behind the bearing inside the rotor to fill the gap? On scarebirds site, they have a small picture of the kit and it's hard to tell what I'm missing. Hopefully you'll know from these pics... Picture A: Am I missing a spacer? Picture B: I think this was an original piece from the ***embly i took off the car when i got it. Do i use this here? Picture C: (This is the backside of the rotor as it sits on the spindle) Do I use that bearing/spacer (from picture B) or is there something else I need? The fourth picture in the set is of the parts that were originally on the car with the drum set up. Do any of them get reused? Hope this wasn't too confusing... Thanx in advance-
liquid you are missing some spacers. you should have larger one similar to the one shown and a smaller spacer for the outer bearing. i think you have the bracket on the wrong side on my 55 the bottom foot of the bracket goes behind the spindle im pretty sure. i would send scarebird a message he helped me with the questions i had. hope this helps
I'm currently uploading the pictures to Photobucket so will post all that soon. As to what I know on your pictures. A. It looks to me like you have the bracket on the wrong way. the instructions say to put the 'foot' part to the back B. that looks like part of the original inner bearing, and no its not the spacer. And no you don't use it , at least as far as I can see from the instructions I have I'm hoping Mark from Scarebird might chime in and help us out. I will get my photos sorted and post up what I have which hopefully will help you, but I am suffering some issues I can't seem to sort out, I'm probably just missing something small in the way I'm putting it all together, but I'm scratching my head thats for sure. I went and took a heap of photos this afternoon hoping it may help you too.
Ok here we go. First up the instructions. No the bearings, On the list of the instructions, it lists the inner bearing as an A51. This is the A51 and the spacer I got with the brackets problem is that this bearing wont go over the spacer in discussion via email with scarebird I tracked down this bearing. Problem being that bearing numbers don't always cross countries and I couldn't get the numbers locally so had to convert them - what I'm saying is this timken number may not exist in the US, but then it may. Here is the bearing slipped over the spacer, perfect fit! beautiful job on the machining too. Here is a comparison of the Timken that will fit the spacer and the A51 bearing that wont. here is the outer bearing an A3 here is is fitting over the small spacer provided
spindle. ( I purchased a second set of spindles as I wanted to set this up on the bench and just swap the whole ***embly over , reason being my Olds is my everyday car, so I didn't want to start the swap and find some trouble and end up having to take public transport everywhere until I sorted it out) spacer on Timken bearing on ***embly together ( didn't think I needed to show you how to put a disc on or the bracket) you can see the spacer at the back. and this is where I'm currently running into trouble. in the below photo as you can see there isn't enough room for the outer disc pad to fit in??? Now if I go the other route using the A51 bearing. You can see that it fits directly onto the spindle, ok good going so far. if you compare the two below photos , what I'm trying to show is that the outer bearing is as far in on the spindle as it can go, so much so that the spacer has bottomed out. but if you look at the bearing you will see that I can move the disc still about 1/4" along the spindle. from the back you can see it as well. photo of the timken bearing sitting in the inner race of the disc photo of the A51 sitting in the disc, doesn't look right. Now the big thing is, when I push the disc as far inward as I can and then check the caliper for pad fit it looks good?!? looks like it would work, but it can't if the disc can float on the spindle So that's where I"m at, with the spacer I don't seem to be able to fit the pads in but the disc is on perfectly and all seems right. Using the A51 bearing without the spacer, the disc has movement, and the outer bearing isn't seated right but the pads look like they would fit. And of course I'm still no further forward with finding wheels to fit locally. But that doesn't seem as bigger issue at the moment.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! These pics were a HUGE help! I've been emailing back and forth with scarebird and seem to get very short, non descriptive responses that make it very hard for a newbie to understand and its pretty frustrating. With the help of your pics, I think I'm going to do some searching with the local guys at the NAPA store and see what I can come up with. Scarebird want $80 + shipping for the spacers and I don't want to spend the money if it's not going to fit... If there is anyone on here that has done this successfully, please post up to help us out! Thanx-
Same issues for my 57 olds, did not get the spacers in my kit and got to do the ask a question and get a one question reply back thing. He did make it right but it took a month of emails to get the thing worked out. The only thing out of his control is Napa seems to be constantly changing part numbers and actual parts. During my installation I damaged an oil seal taking it off and on and in two months Napa changed the part and number. I could not tighten the castle bolt because the outer bearing sat below the bottom of the threads. He made a really nice pair of spacers and its perfect now- but he had to go check a local car before he could make it. Good luck. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Liquid, It seems that the inner bearing ( A51) fits the stubs well without the spacer and the outer bearing the A3 needs a small spacer but doesn't pull up into the out race. I think , if you could find a bearing with the OD of the A3 but the right ID then you might be in luck. I've partially given up on this at the moment as I'm not getting anywhere and have other things I need to spend my time on, but I really want to sort it out. I have a feeling that its just something easy that is stopping it from going together as it should be. Its about now I wish I had a lathe, as I would sort out what I needed and just make it myself Darkharts, That does make it difficult for Scarebird if Napa is doing that. I would really like to get this sorted out asap.
Hello Flatoz Long time no see! I'm using Cragar Crome Smoothis 7/15 they got 5 and 5 1/2 bolt patton, no problems whit calipers. Your engine swap.... I contackt you tommorrow it's late evening in Sweeden just now. God nigth
I know this thread is old......but are there any updates? I'm getting ready to put 4 wheel disk on my 1953 but was hoping to keep the stock wheels. Anyone know if a spacer would fix the clearance issue with the caliper and the stock wheels?
Sorry, don't know. I still havent sortedthis out. The other option was to have the discsredrilled to suit the olds pattern. Then put in proper studs.
OK, I'm resurrecting my own old thread as I still haven't sorted this out and really want to. I'd prefer to be playing hot rods but after 5 years of getting no where I need to get this sorted. I would suggest to others looking at scarebird to read this thread and look at other suppliers as the whole experience has been very underwhelming in trying to sort it all out. I was hoping some of the people who replied ( rustynewyorker etc) might be able to have a look at the link to the wheel I found to see if this looks to be the right thing and will suit? the 95-99 1/2 ton 2wd wheels are 7" width, I'd really like a 6" rim, these look to be right but as a furiner I could be way mixed up. So any help would be good. I even went to look at some new wheels vintique rims and they wouldn't clear the rotors. these are the rims. http://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Remanuf...ash=item43f684cea6:g:n8gAAOSw4shX87av&vxp=mtr
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