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Hello all

I have a 1942 Chev truck that I am about to start working on and looking at Brake and wheel options. The truck is a Holden bodied 2wd 160 inch wheelbase ex Australian army truck that has 10 stud spit rim wheels and drum brakes. This thing measures just short of 2 meters (6 foot 8 inches) across the frond guards so a bit wider than the standard pickups.

I am not looking to do a resto but would like a regularly derivable truck. I am not interested in looking for a different truck as I started driving this truck from the age of 5 until I was 16 and left home. I have a spare chassis of a shorter wheel base model that I will most likely use. For the purists this is not a pristine example and was used hard as a farm truck. I remember many late nights driving in circles with the hay loader on the side and dad stacking hay bales on the back. I also remember putting it in first gear and pointing it across the paddock whilst I got out an climbed on the back to throw out those same bales many years later to half starved cattle in the middle of a drought.

What I would like to achieve is 5 or 6 stud steel wheels with hub caps and more modern drums or disk front and drum rear. What are the options. I am leaning towards keeping the front I beam axle but if cross member swap from something like a C20 is the only option I am keen to hear. I would also consider an I beam of a late model Japaneses truck. I understand there are some postal vans in the states that may have parts that may work but we did not get them in Australia so I can't just drop into my local wrecker.

Thanks in advance

Steve

Later model GM trucks with IFS or solid axle might be a possible transplant. Get both axles from the same vehicle, matching brake master cylinder and steering box. Get out your scale, start measuring anything to get started. Be aware of obsolete wheel/bolt patterns, use tubeless tires.

Ed

Ed

Thanks for the reply. Tubeless tyres/tires is one thing I definitely wanted. In recent years just about every wrecker has closed down near where I live which makes measuring harder to achieve. I am not sure if I would be better posting this question in the Hipo section as someone may have done this before. I don't want to reinvent the wheel I just want to find what will work.

Steve

Have a look here, if you have other GM products from the 80's and later you might have trucks with same bolt pattern axles available, and those come with disc brakes and 19.5" tubeless wheels.
https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...4-1-1-5-and-2-ton-trucks.html#Post725027

Otherwise you can adapt axles from anything you think fits reasonably, use your tape measure.