There are cages and Summit does sell them, probably made by S&W and resold by Summit. Do a search on pre-bent cages here and you'll find a TON of threads with the same info over and over. The pre-bent cages seem to still require trimming but at least are bent, so all you need is a welder and ideally a holesaw or other notching setup.
Brakes ... hmm. For many trucks, an upgrade would be a new, stock replacement master cylinder, maybe rebuild the calipers, and get some nice semi-metallic pads (not ceramic, takes too long to warm up, and not that organic crap!) DEFINITELY do a good fluid flush. (When in doubt, bleed some more.)
Lots of people complain about their brakes when they have old parts -- and sure, putting new fancy ones on makes it better. So would putting on new stock types, and it's a LOT simpler and often cheaper. Been there, done that. :doh:
If you haven't already done so, convert your rear drums to disc. Drums are heavy, painful to service, and most rear disc conversions give you so much grabbing power in the back you have to throttle the rear down with a proportioning valve. There are some issues with the parking brake, but the solutions are well-known and documented.
The next step is swapping your vacuum booster to hydroboost. Especially if you have a radical cam or for whatever reason don't have good vacuum, you'll notice a big difference. Hydroboost has smoother and steadier assist IMHO.
That means swapping at least the reservoir, if not the entire pump, some hoses, the master and booster unit, and the brake pedal assembly -- i.e. it's a lot of work. It also gets complicated if you're doing hydraulic assist for your steering. (Do your homework if this is the case.)
If you've read this far and are saying "Been there, done that" I wanna know what the hell tires you're running that your brakes aren't stopping them... and at this point you're on your own, as to the best of my knowledge nobody's identified off-the-shelf brake components as upgrades to our trucks. I see some manufacturers make pimpy cross-drilled and slotted rotors for our apps, but I am not convinced that these do anything besides lighten the pocketbook.
Should you come across any parts that might offer higher performance and bolt up to our trucks, by all means post 'em. Part of the value of CK5 is that we're generally on the cutting edge of this stuff and there are lots of folks willing to try crazy stuff, especially if it's off-the-shelf parts for other applications that happens to bolt up.
-- A
