Chevy Truck daydreaming

In reply to wvumtnbkr:

Nothings wrong with the drums now, they actually stop pretty good. I haven't checked the shoes lately, but the truck stops fine with what its got. It's more of a "what if.." deal than anything else. I had this question in my head "Once I start modifying the truck, what would it take to swap to rear discs?" I've never seen them on an OBS chevy, and it doesn't seem like it would be like moving heaven and earth to put them on since the parts are out there in one form or another. Just to have something a little different i guess.

but the parts for an easy bolt on disc brake upgrade with junkyard parts aren't out there.. they used a bigger wheel bearing on the truck rears than the car rears, which means that the bolt pattern for the backing plate is bigger.. i think the offset from the wheel mounting flange on the axle shaft to the backing plate mounting flange might be different, too.. you might be able to use the caliper mounting bracket from a 99 and newer truck, but they went to 6 lug wheels across the board with that body style, so you are either looking for a different rotor that has the 5X5 bolt pattern or trying to drill 5 new holes into a rotor that already has 6 of them..

but you could chop the coil spring stuff off a B body rear end and weld the spring perches on and do it that way- but those disc brakes are crap and you'd need to see if you could even get the perches where they needed to be due to the width of the axle housing..

Well. That pretty much answers the question right there. I could do it, with a mix of new and junkyard parts or all junkyard parts if I could find the right ones and do the fab work, but if the result wouldn't be any better than what i've got now and may be somewhat worse then why would I want to..