History Help Me (Where did this front end come from?)

Okay HAMBers help me out here if you will. I am building a replica of a rather famous short track car from the Midwest that ran in the mid 1960's. I have found some great information on here regarding the origins of the "wide-5" three quarter ton quick change rearends that stock car racers adapted and later Frankland etc. built upon. However the question here is the right front of the 1962 impala. It is obviously heavy duty, almost looks like a 4 wheel drive front hub. Thoughts anyone. Thanks.

 

Looks to be an actual axle flange, and not just a cap.

 

get yourself a speedway catalog and check out front spindles for racing, it works for me, a lot of pictures!

 

It's nothing more than a round track wide five. We ran quick change rears with a wide five, the front hub was just like the rear hub, only the front didn't get a drive flange it just got the tin bearing cover

 

Back then you could get adapters/snouts to allow 3/4T hubs to be used on a variety of spindles.

 

A lot of circle trackers used the 3/4 ton ford parts. Later on some started using International 1 ton spindles/adapters and bearings. There are also Winters, Wilwood, and others that make ally wide five hubs.

 

Thanks for responses. My inquiry is because I want to be as acurate as possible in the restoration/recreation. I don't want anything from Speedway, no Wilwood, etc. As you can see in the added photo below, this is the only "wide 5" style hub on the car. Even the left front is stock bolt pattern and he was not running the 3/4 ton quick change on the rear. The left front on this old car never touched the ground albeit for aircraft touch and go style occaissionally on front or back stretch. That was a ton of pressure on the right front.

For you race guys from the period that answered, what hub do you think that is on the front and in your oppinion, do you think that is all he changed? My thought is he could have also changed over spindles, A arms etc. How much difference would it have made to just change the hub and left everything else stock. Thoughts?

This guy was an innovator, not that all racers back then weren't. But this is one of the first cars of the Legendary Larry Phillips. Phillips went on to become the "winningest" driver in Nascar history, one of Nascar's top 50 drivers and never left the short tracks of Winston West while racing primarily in the Midwest. Thanks for any advice on the subject, your input is truly appreciated.

For other projects check out my website, www.RACEvintage.com Thanks again.

 

Are we out of gas on this one? Just checking.

 

That's probably a racing spindle made to run the wide 5 hub or a home grown spindle with the snout of a 3/4 ton rearend welded on to use the wide 5 hub and wheel.
The fact that the left front rarely touched the ground is testimoney to how poorly setup this car is. A race car chassis that is correctly set up has all 4 wheels working to make it corner not just 3.

Frank

 

There were two ways this was done when I was involved back in the early 60s. Most guys hacksawed the end off a 3/4 ton truck rear end, and welded it over the stock spindle pin. The original nut was used to center the spindle on the outside, usually after being ground round on a bench grinder. Whatever combination we could come up with was used on the inside, usually some junk bearings all welded together.

If we didn't have an original spindle that was good enough to use, and really bucks down, we welded the whole end off a Ford 3/4 ton front axle to the lower A frame, and used the Ford kingpin to steer the wheel. Yeah, I know, but it would run another week that way.