so hear is my situation i have got to the point where i need to figure out what i am going to do for the front end of my 54 f350 i am basically looking for disc brakes verses drum for the reason that i am putting a 351 v8 behind it. know i am lookin for the most economical build here, now i have also got a 1980 Ford f350.my idea was to mate the front end of the 80' ford  to the front of the 54 ford say like at the fire wall. or should i buy the kit to swap the fronts to disc keep in mind its $900 out of LMC truck.the front end in the 80 ford is twin I beam is that a junk front end or no because i have heard some bad things about it?plus it needs some work due to rotting.any adivse is helpful thank you!!  

Brakes are a real good place to save some money. Myself, I don't really use them that much, but if killing a carload full of kids going to church or something worse sounds kind of ugly, I would go with LMC's setup. Look at all the money you will save by not getting sued and having to pay some shiny-faced laywer to get you undone.

That's my two-cents.  

dcammuso2,  

dcammuso2,

If I were you I would sit down and think about what YOU want! Do you want to stick with the stock '54 setup, and convert the brakes to disc? Or maybe you want the added drivability of a twin-I Beam setup with disc brakes? There are a lot of options here, expensinve to meer hundreds, that you could go with. but before you go take a route and choose which option, sit down and think about what you want out of the truck. Because trying to do the most convenient thing often times ends up being not what you want, which leads to a swap down the road, loss of interests, selling the project, etc. Another option is to go to a junkyard and get a  2nd Gen Camaro front clip. That would give you IFS, disc brakes, rack and pinion steering and would cost next to nothing, if cheap is your ideal situation. but remember think about what you want out of the truck, after all you're the one who has to live with it.

Dakota  

Your truck is an F-350, you were thinking about grafting a later F-350 front end onto it — A red flag pops up this is a 1-ton setup. If you graft a Camaro, Volare, or anything else onto it from a car you will end up with less than a 1/2-ton rating. No big-deal if your truck is only going to be a hot-rod. The key to customizing anything, truck, car, or motorcycle is to first decide what you need it to do. The next question is do you have the money, time, and skills to do it.  

First of all, if I'm not mistaken, the F350 is basically like a 1 ton truck,being considerably heavier than the average 1/2 ton pick-up. That being said, in my opinion tha camaro front frame-clip would not be a good choice at all. Incidently, the gen 2 camaro never came with rack and pinion steering, they had a power assisted gearbox. I would go with John Gilbert's recomendation on the brake kit from LMC. The last thing you want to do is short change the brakes on a heavier truck, such as your F350. Things could get real UGLY with an inadaquite brake system on a truck that size. I would also scrap the idea of grafting the twin I-beam set-up onto your frame. Rebuild what you have and call LMC for the correct brake conversion for your truck and have a safe day.  

yeah i have decided to go with the kit from LMC. boy when i started this project i thought this will be an inexpensive build but as i dig deeper into it is never an inexpensive build.but if you want to play you got to play. thanks for the advise.  

Glad to have been some help, and also glad to hear that you made the smart decision. You'll be happy you did it that way in the end, especially safety-wise.