This is old school, probably dangerous at some level but I figured some one here will find it interesting. This is for my NA project that's 5X5 and the axle is from an E150 which is 5X5.5. I'm not quite done yet but figured I'd post my photos up for everyone to see what I'm doing and how I'm proceeding.
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The first thing I did was I popped out the old studs and cleaned 1980s rust out of the holes.

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After that I wrapped the bearings up in foil. A lot of people would replace the bearings. However they look great, there's nothing wrong with them and it goes against the cheap skate nature of this build. Also notice the copper heat sink I'm using as a backer as I weld. I have a 170A MIG welder I filled in the holes with using flux core. Not as fancy as you folks with a TIG or something but I would have certainly used stick had it been in my possession at the time.

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After that I cleaned everything up some to prep for drilling.

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A drum off a 1978 LTD-II with header paint on it. I did it out of boredom and because I had some paint left over. What's interesting about these is the hub is the same diameter as a GM hub is not a Ford one typically is. I'm wondering if they just sent a GM drum as a Ford PN. I mean it looks cool with the fins and all but I may just re-drill my current drums and call it a day. I'll probably end up turning a jig down to let me do that or something.

 

Up next the jig. This went pretty well.

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I don't see this happening without having the lathe. The Atlas really let me make bushings to keep the drills true.
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This was otherwise the start of the jig. It was a brake rotor off a Jeep. It's really close to the size of the hub on the 9" Close enough I'd think about trying to make some brackets to use these if I ever wished to go to disk brakes.

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Here's the plate after I fitted it to the axle. It's really tight gotta kinda tap it on there with a hammer.


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The jig in place and ready to use. I clamped it on with a few sets of vise grips. Ready to rip! Notice how there's 2 bushings to align the drill. I need to add a third (not pictured) in order to get the final hole size. This will get me up to 9/16. I'm shooting for 43/64.

 

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Drilled out 2/3 steps with a stocker for reference. I need to either buy a 1/2 shank bit or make an adapter for the bit I have on the lathe. Probably will do the second since this is an off size drill, I may do another set of these as spares and a cobalt bit of this size (pretty much a requirement) is more than a couple bucks.

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I'm using 5/8 wheel studs. Part of this is that these are are going to have something like 275 ET Streets on them and I'm paranoid but the bigger reason is that I have 15X10 Bassetts that are going on the rear that are set up for 5/8s. I had a bad experience running 7/16ths lugs on wheels set up for 1/2 so I'm not repeating that again and will just take what comes going to 5/8.

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Clearance before I swap in the 9". A bit tight the 9" is a hair wider which should help. I am actually surprised as I thought I'd be narrowing things not going wider. This was just to check fitment, I wouldn't want to try this as it seems like a great way to pop an axle shaft.

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Pic from the side. Going 4X4 or 70s dragster style with the body height. I'm not keen on the idea of an axle flip yet but maybe one day I'll man up for the fabrication work it entails and tub, go to a 3 link and rework the sub frame at once. Then again maybe not.

 

I forgot I made a video of how to use the jig as well. Pretty simple, just gotta keep rotating and drilling.

 

I wonder why you didn't just drill new holes in between the old?

 

I would have had to plug the 6th hole that's there for you to get to the bolts that hold the ends in. I like having that access and honestly I trust plugging the small holes more than I trust plugging the big one and everything staying put even if I did get a piece of plate to put in the hole and weld it in.

If I do the drums they will be done like that. Nice and easy.

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The test fit went great. I'm not sure on the hubcentric aspects of it but the studs fit right into the lug holes on the wheel. Obviously this doesn't account for the true arbiter of its efficacy which is a road test.

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Here's the final jig. If you notice I had to make one hole bigger (you install 1 wheel stud then drill the final hole) as well as installing the final drill guide.

I also had to make an adapter for the drill bit. I ordered a bit neglecting to realize that I didn't have anything bigger than a half inch drill chuck. Whoops! A bit of time on the Atlas fixed that right up. Not pretty but I was jamming through it so I didn't really care. Just needed a tool, not a pretty tool.