37 Chevy brake Upgrade

I have a 37 Chevy Pickup with stock front axle is there a way to swap to newer drum brakes something with 5 lugs small chevy pattern ? Or should I just have the stock hubs redrilled

 

I don't have all the details right at hand,but 54 chevy car brakes are almost a bolt on.BBT

 

A '51 to '54 half ton chevy front end will bolt right in from what I understand. The center to center distance on the springs is the same. You end up with self-energizing Bendix drum brakes, modern type tie rod ends on the steering, bigger diameter kingpins and tube shocks. I found a '54 3100 rusted up to the the door handles that I am going to strip the front end out of next month. You'll still have the 6 on 5.5" pattern, but I guess you could still drill for whatever pattern you want.

 

Thanks, 54 car brakes sounds like the way to go, Wish I had more info. Anybody?

 

49-54 cars drums will fit on some chevy truck axles to replace the 6 lug. i did it on my 54 truck although i am not sure how far back this works.

 

I'm pretty ceratin that the 49-54 car hubs/drums will retrofit with their backing plates using a spacer or two and a little common sense all the way back to 1936 on beam axle cars.

 

if you do this look for the self energising brakes not the huck style.

 

I am very interested in doing this swap but I'm not real familiar with 50,s Chevy brakes. Anyone have photos of what I should look for? or maybe somebody has a set I could get.

 

Any 51 and up car and truck will have the bendix self energizing brakes and thats waht you want,I should have a complete setup off a 52 1/2 truck for the 6 lug. Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff. I want to go 5 lug so I will need car parts.

 

Does it still have the original rear end as the 50s brakes will work n it too but the backing plates are rivited on and can be replaced with bolts. Jeff

 

use 51-54 car parts, the backing plates will bolt on using the 2 orig. top holes and spacers. You'll need to drill out the lower 2 bolt holes in the backing plates below the 2 orig. car bolt holes. You'll need to make spacers for the lower bolts (I just drilled out some 1/2 inch nuts and used 3 nuts & 2 washers on the lower bolts).

Use the orig. truck inner bearing race and everything else from the car will bolt rite on...here's a pic that may help,...use grade 8 bolts...the bolts shown in my photo are not the correct length, they were swapped out for the correct size; the steering arms bolt onto the 2 lower bolts also.

 

Thanks for the info & pic. very helpful, the search is on.

 

Here is another thread about with a similar brake question:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3444826#post3444826

Here is another link with brake info:
http://www.chevytrucks.org/tech/FrontHucktoBendix.htm

Here is a link with an article on Chevy spindles and brake stuff:
http://www.droppedaxles.com/TECH_ARTICLES.html

 

heres some old mag arcticles given to me by a killbillet member

 

On my 38 chevy coupe I used 56 Chevy 1/2 ton spindles and backing plates. I had to machine some special spindle bushings since the 38 king pins were smaller but the old ones were worn out anyway. I used 54 car drums. It was all bolt on except for the bushings.