The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop 48 chevy - 49 crossmember ?

i know this is a truck site but maybe someone can help me. i have a 48 fleetmater coupe that i would like to adapt a 49-52 crossmember to or atleast the brakes and spindles. anyone done anything like this ? i went to a scrap yard and found a 50 car and measured the frame widths and the 48 seems to be 1" wider than the later models.

any help is appreciated thank you. chris

i would put bendix brakes 1951?-1954 take them with the spindle and brake hose they will bolt on your 48 check my website out if you want 6 lug use 54 truck hubs on the 54 car stuff

Chris,welcome to the Stovebolt.I noticed that you are from Janesville,I have a daughter that lives there.I plan on visiting sometime later this year.

Chris, Best thing you can do is contact Buffalo Ent. this guy knows all the best mods for your coupe. I've used several of his kits to improve my 47 coupe. You'll have to call him, doesn't have time to fool with computers but he knows all the tricks on old Chevies. Call 360 652-7684, he's in WA state.
Also may want to check out www.inliners.org

Also, that later 1950 steering can be a problem, has a weird pivot assy instead of the normal steering tie rod.

ok thanks for the info . any help is greatly appreciated. tntrucknut i sent you a pm

Transplant the entire front suspension including the front crossmember from a 1951-54 Chevrolet passenger car, This will give you the Bendix fromt brakes, The ones I have seen the crossmember was welded to the frame rails.

the newer model cars are 1 " narrower, i guess i could plate the frame to make it narrower. thanks

I have disc brakes, a modern saginaw steering box all on my original 47 front end. No real nead to change every thing just to get to another worn out OLD front end. If you insist on gutting the front end then go to a Mustang II set up.

Just my 2 cents.

i would like to keep the look of the old front ends , a mII is nice but pricey. if i could just upgrade the brakes relatively cheap i would like to do that. did you buy a brake conversion kit or did you find stuff that worked without buying a kit?

Actually a friend modified the spindles to accept Chevy S-10 disc brakes and had made a bracket for the caliper. I do not have any patterns but there are several companies that have this stuff, including Buffalo Ent that I mentioned. The 40-48 Chevy passenger is a very good front end, only issue is the upper A arm shocks, I had mine rebuilt, but also Buffalo has a kit to ad tube shocks if yours are worn out. Since I had a complete 54 torque tube (3:55 gear ratio) that made me think it's time to go 5 lug in front and the kit made that happen. I'm still using the stock master cyl btw and next addition is a kit from Buffalo to adapt a dual reservoir unit. Buffalo's kit to use a modern non power GM steering box is great, the old girl steers better than ever. There is a photo of this coupe on Langdon's Stovebolt.com look in Rides 40s cars.

ok cool. i am going with a 235 , t5 and a tri five axle but want to figure something out with the brakes and spindles. could you ask your friend what he did to the spindles ? machined them down or what ? i can get machining done and can make brackets easy enough just don't want to hack job my brakes and steering on my first real old project. thanks for all the assistance.

jim that is a very sweet looking car , i was thinking of going with a 46 or 47 grill. cleaner and simple looking i like that. do you have any pics of the brakes on your car ?