'53 Buick rear swap

[Fryguy]

Ok, I am going to try and document my rear end swap on my '53 Buick and give some details as to what, when and why. Right now I am in the beginning phases of the swap and a week or so before we actually get into the build. The car I am doing this swap on is a 1953 series 40 Sedan automatic. I picked up a bendtsens transadapter for the 263ci straight 8 with a Chevy turbo 400 trans. Here is the link for the Bendtsens website.
http://www.transmissionadapters.com/...installkit.htm


The nice thing about the kit is that is has an adapter plate for a mini high torque starter.

I have the adapter, turbo 400, custom drive shaft. This kit was originally installed on a donor '53 frame attached to a Ford 8 inch rear that was 57 1/2" wide. This is actually 2 inches shorter than the stock Buick trackwidth of 59". I continued to search for a suitable rear that would be close to the stock treadwidth. I did pickup a Ford 9inch from a 59 Ford pickup which is 60.5" inches wide as well as a '72 Chevy C10 12bolt rear that is 61" inches wide. I finally picked up a Ford 8.8 rear from a 97 explorer. The rear is 59.5" same as the Buick but the bolt pattern is small Ford car pattern. Not a huge deal. Its a coil over rear with disc brakes and internal E-brake. The rear suspension setup in not important to me as we are going to cut all that off and go with a ladder bar setup with a panhard bar.

The explorer rear is a nice setup as it matches the width of the Buick. The years you need are 1989-2001. From '89-'96 all rears where drum brake setup. From '98-'01 were all disc brake. 1997 was a year that had either drum or discs. These rears are readily available and can be had for really good prices(under $200 and sometimes as low as $100)

I am going with a new dual master cylinder setup for Disc/disc. I am also replacing the front drums with a disc setup using the stock spindle. There is a guy in Washington State (Scarebird Classic Brakes) bthat makes brackets for most 50's-70's cars with drum brakes that can convert to disc's with his brackets and common aftermarket calipers and rotors. The Buick setup I am going with is for '46-56 Buicks all models. You use the brackets he makes with 71-76 full size Buick rotors and 1990-2002 Chevy astro calipers. The kit sells for $135. The website is http://www.scarebird.com/

[Jim Carmichael]

That will be a nice project to watch, keep us posted.

It would be nice if there was a technical section where some of this information could be easily located.