New guy from AZ.

Hi, I currently do not own an International truck. I have a 1938-ish Mack truck cab that only came with doors. I just purchased a 1953 R120 rolling chassis with hopes of building a daily driver. Nothing fancy, just a mechanically safe truck to enjoy for driving around locally. Thanks.

Welcome to the site! Looks like a great start to a cool truck.

Suggestion: Check the condition of your brake drums. Replacement drums are nearly impossible to find. The good news is that half ton, five bolt hubs will fit on the front spindles you have, and a Ford rear axle has the same bolt pattern.

Dean

Dean 466, thank you for your reply. With regards to the brake drums, I will eventually be selling the axles, springs, drums and any and all of the steering. I have a 1/2 ton Chevy front axle and rearend that I will be replacing the R120 running gear.

What year half-ton cheby? That will probably give you a wider-than-stock front track width, and may put your wheels outside you fenders. That may or may not be an issue, depending on what you want the finished product to look like. Another possibility is to use newer OEM wheels with lots of backspacing.

If it makes a difference, disc brake conversion kits are available for the half-ton IH front axle.

http://www.tsmmfg.com/Front%20Disc/inte ... al_tr.html

Dean

Dean, the front axle is a 1947-1954 Chevy 1/2 ton and I plan on converting to disc brakes. I will be running stock steel wheels with zuess fastened full moon discs, possibly an inline GM six cylinder with an auto trans. The rear axle will be a 10 bolt 8.5 Chevy and will keep the drum brakes. My truck will be based on a warbird theme, in honor of my late father that was a paratrooper in WWII. It might kind of resemble the attached photo but not with dual wheels. Robert

I can picture that era Chevy axle working. I was thinking for like '73-'81. I see that the frame has been modified at the front and the angled braces have been removed. Hopefully with what has been added, that won't be an issue.

Dean

Hi Running Ron

I am the new guy on here too...and I dont have a Binder yet either....on my last project it was a 1953 Chevy truck that I did the CPP disc brake kit on...I bought it with the under the floor master cylinder / booster set up too...I think for everything I got it was less than $900.00 shipped from the West coast to the East coast..

This kit makes a world of difference in the stopping end of things...

MikeC

MikeC, Thanks for the info. I am definitely going with the disc brake conversion from CPP. Drum brakes can be scary when some knuckle head jumps out in front of you and slams on his brakes. I definitely want it to stop when need be. $900 is reasonable to get peace of mind when cruising around in old iron. Bob aka: runningiron.