Well, not quite sure about your second question. Some people have changed out the dropout (pumpkin) on the axles and retained the stock braking. Either way you go I believe you are going to have to do some welding. The original torque tube rear end is pivot mounted. without the tube it will roll causing catastrophic failure.
What you may want to look at is centering the wheels in those advance design fenders. The factory didn't do a particularly good job of that.
John
