mopar street rodders?

I occasionally see threads where a member is doing a 40-50's mopar. I have had the hots for a 50's car and found a decent one cheap enough other day. A 50 2 door ply. cranbrook. OK who named it cranbrook??????
Everything costs and I have always ben a hands on, get it done for as few as possible kinda guy. I had a 49 Chevy in HS 50 odd years ago so I know this car will need better everything! I have a good 318, A833, 8 3/4 all that but what I need is a receipe for the suspension, steering, ,, I see where people have used the Scarebird deal for front discs ( yes rather have something even less $ than that!!!!
I really do not want to drop it on a Dakota (or whatever fits) frame is possible. No cutting and welding front sun frames off IF bodies. NO I do not want chevy and ford parts (too much) IF possible. OK so I am picky.
Any and all advise /suggestions are welcome!

The P15/D24 forum has a pretty good area on the 49-later stuff. I understand the Rusty Hope disc brake conversion is cheap and works well. Later Mopar 8.75 are pretty much a drop-in depending on your width and the width of the donor - I will be using a 71 B Body 8.75 in my 47 sedan. The Cavalier rack and pinion is a popular upgrade. There’s several guys on the forum who are into/doing 50’s Mopars. I’m sure some will chime in as well.

Should be able to get the Cranbrook front end up to snuff. I would look into M body spindles, might get them to fit with a balljoint swap. B body rear with b body springs should do it. Always a way around something.

The Rusty hope brake setup will probably be the cheapest way to do a "bolt on" disk conversion, about $400 total w/brackets, rotors, calipers, pads, hardware, etc..
The biggest hurdle to overcome when putting a v8 in one of these cars is the steering column, it's going to want to occupy the same space as the driver side exhaust manifold or header, the engine needs to be moved over to the pass side about 2 inches to clear.
This is the 318 in 46 Plymouth

The rusty hope brackets are decent. I didnt use his bearing spacers as they were quite loose on my 55s spindles. I had some turned up that I thermal fit on. Here is a pic of his brackets installed.


I use the stock 55 front suspension, it is probably very similar to your cranbrook and while it is not a road racer by any means, it is not too bad and drives well.

I used a ford explorer 8.8 with discs. It is the same width as my factory 8 1/4 was and has the 5 on 4.5.

Good luck with the project!

FYI, the rusty hope bracket uses a volare rotor and Camaro caliper. They are cheap on rockauto.