You're in luck there. The cast iron Powerglides used a separate adapter ring so that one transmission could be used for both 6s and V8s, so find a 265-283 adapter ring and it should bolt to your early PG.
I thought the stovebolt PGs were different than 55-later cast iron glides, the "air-cooled" ones, you'd surely have to run a smaller flywheel to fit in the old 6 cylinder ones. I'm guessing you dont want to go open drive, right? And as far as power brakes, they're not necessary. a 1" manual master cylinder will stop it just fine.
Which ones are you referring to as air cooled? Both my '53 BelAir and '57 convertible had cooler lines and coolers. The '53 cooler was in the middle of the lower radiator hose.
Your '52 came stock with a "torque tube" configuration (enclosed drive-line), which Chevy impemented until '54... by "open drive" he's referring to your standard, run-of-the-mill "modern" rear wheel drive car setup. You know motor-******-drive shaft-rearend... all visible and, for all intents and purposes, easier to deal with/work on. Hope this helps...
Open drive is refering to your drive shaft. Your 52 chevy has the drive shaft mounted in a tube connecting your transmission to your rear end. AKA closed. Later model cars like the 55 chevy have no tube covering the driveshaft.AKA open. If you can see the ujoints its open.
You do know the actual brakes on a '52 are exactly the same as a '55 - same wheel cylinders, same shoes, same hardware, same drums - right? 1951-1958 Chevy brakes are all basically the same. None of that changes from power brake to manual. Disc brake would change it, but that's entirely another story.
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