finned aluminum drum upgrade

[bebop138]

This info is for upgrading your old steel drums on the front to the finned aluminum ones. This set up will only work if your 40-50-60-series has the ball bearing not the taper roller bearing. If your spindle uses inner bearing# 909762 and outer bearing# 909725 this should work on your car. My car is a 57 Special, you can use this for a reference. The parts you will need are front drums off a 59 or 60 and backing plates off a Roadmaster of the year car you have and the brake adjuster---you then order new shoes and spring hold down kits for the Roadmaster of the year of your car.You will find that your old brake adjuster will not fit over the Roady brake shoes--you can file the groove to make it work--this the only difference between the two.You need Roady hold down kits because the hold down pins are longer because the shoes are a 1/4 wider--everthing else goes together as normal. Getting the adjuster out of a Roady just makes things go a little easier---don`t have to file. Getting the drums with enough left on them to turn is the hardest part--they should not be turned more than 12.080--myself I would like to have a little more to spare. This larger shoe and better drum will greatly increase your braking power. I have all these parts on my 57--the project is ongoing with 700R tranny swap and opening up my driveline,changing to alternater, different carb, removing foot feed start, timming chain, fuel and water pump---just an extensive upgrade. I will give results in the spring, but I have no doubt I will see a mass inprovment in braking power!!!!

[theoldguy]

If you are going to do all this work, why not sub-frame it and get rid of the 57 ball joint system which is REALLY bad? You can use a Camaro sub, and get disc brakes and parts available at any auto store.

[heidigirl]

if you were building the car to original factory appearance, etc. an argument could be made for this approach, but you are already compromising the originality of the car with the changes in the transmission, carb and alternator. these changes will certainly provide you a better performing vehicle, but at the end of the day, your brake swap is still going to leave you with drum brakes. your effort is not going to yield anywhere near the braking performance you are expecting.
from the amount of detail in your post, i'm guessing you may have already accomplished this changeout, but if you have not, give serious consideration to adopting disc brakes. search out opinions from people in your area who have made the change and talk um into a demonstration ride if you can. the difference is between night and day.

[bebop138]

I know the 57 suspension is not as good as sub-framing, but it`s all new underneath 20K ago. Most of the parts I had already. Plus I have a good friend in the junk yard business. My expertise ends with puting in the sub-framing. I had a friend help me put in the ladder bars, the rest I can do myself. It still isn`t cheap. I`am not a purist but I do like the old nailheads--mine has always ran well. As far as the brakes, we had non-power to begin with, so I installed a booster out of a 67 Caddy,new drums rear the finned drums up front--to me it will be a big inprovement. You can put disc on it, but it is not a bolt up--there is some welding and fabricating--and as the Old Guy says I may as well sub-frame.All this falls within my budjet and knowledge so we do it this way. Even using my old rear housing--pull the tube pop the axels throw in a pumpkin out of a 61, do the ladder bar thing, all done. When it`s done you won`t know anything was done unless you crawl under the car..she won`t ride like a new car but as good as I expected....and my wife likes driving it--her name is on the trunk lid----Mary Lou. Thanks for the feed back and if my little article helps anyone all the better..

[Tom Gallagher]

[img]graemlins/wavey.gif[/img] Hey, bebop!

We have discussed the Improvement of Braking with the Buick 45 Finned Aluminum Drums at lenght. I agree with You that this bolt on Modification will improve Stopping Distances.
The Beauty of it is that You have made an Significant Improvement in Braking and still not compromised the Intregrity of the Vehicle and still retain the Nostalgic Qualitys that make our vehicles Classics.
Personally, If I wanted a Camaro subframe I would buy a z/28. My son has one and I'm able to use it whenever I want. I want a Crusier not a Brusier. I like the Idea of being able to drive around and have the comfort of my Living Room.
What I want is to be able to stop on a long downgrade at a reasonable speed with out brake fade. With the use of the Aluminum Drums I'm able to accomplish this. It is a relatively easy fix, without modifying the entire brake system. The front end was never designed for Disc brakes, which if used could develop into big problems. The Buick front suspension has about 22 grease fittings which is a maintenence issue in itself and I have no intention of compounding any existing problems.

[img]graemlins/shield.gif[/img] Tom Gallagher [img]graemlins/shield.gif[/img]

[Dan]

i too am not a big fan of sub frame swaps and i still have no problems running drum brakes (even if it is upgraded drums) but again that's just me.

[YellowLark]

You might try improving the effectiveness of your drum brakes by using Praise Dyno semi-Kevlar shoes. I have them on my Skylark. Various tests show them to be about 70-75% of the stopping ability of discs.

www.praisedynobrake.com

[Tom Gallagher]

Thanks, YellowLark

For Sharing Your Valued Information with Us!

I hope that they have the proper application that suits our Particular Needs.

From Their Web site It appear that they have made vast improvements in Brake Adheasion Materials.

I hope that they will have the right size shoes for my system.

Do You have to send in Cores so they can match them up and them resurface them?

Thank's again.

Regards,

Tom Gallagher

[YellowLark]

I did not have to send in cores to PraiseDyno for my '66 Skylark. But, then again, GM A-bodies like mine are a big market.

If they don't stock your size, you may have to ask them if they do custom re-facing.

[Ted Nagel]

This looks great, my Wagon needs brakes and these look like the ticket.