SO I have to admit after pulling the tires off (the rears were a pain to say the least as they are 215s and the tightest fit requiring wrestling to get them free), seeing the brakes and broken parts I just feel over whelmed.
There is so much to do on this car, and my game plan took a serious blow. I wanted to do the brakes and then work up through the car, as suggested by a good friend. That's rather hard when already I have a hole in the welded shortened Ford 9" differential tubes, broken springs on the brakes (that look like Chevy springs), and a mess of a fuel line.
I will admit that being raised as a Chevy girl is rather... unhelpful when it comes to this rear end. I don't know Ford, and I don't know these brakes. My neighbor brought over a manual for a ford truck, and that is my saving grace at this point. Still with this rear end and all it's little issues, including the need to drill the drums (which I think might need replacing) to fit for the  Chevy lug pattern, I am considering ditching the rear end. The fact that I have a car I was going to part out and sell, just makes it all the more tempting to just put that in the '57.
I guess I can at least move on while I think this over, and ground the gas tank and get the full rubber fuel line front to back fixed.
Part of me wants to just start ripping everything on the car off, but for now I guess I will just move on the best I can while I weigh the pros and cons of this ford 9".