Hot Rods Ashamed of your disc brakes? This might be a solution.

Salvage yards have vintage air!

 

There's an outfit in Texas that sells Vintage Air. I've seen ads in Street Rodder.

 

My Falcon has Vintage Air! I am basking in it, right now!

 

There was a thread on here some time ago to try and redirect your attention from the disc brakes on fenderless cars. I copied it and enjoy some of the comments from others. Took a '40-something backing plate and bolted caliper bracket to same. Drew bracket outline on backing plate, cut on outline, bolt back together and weld bracket to backing plate. Then tack welded two widths of 18 g, steel around b-plate to simulate drums, spaced a bit apart. Looks like drum brakes from axle side, but won't fool the connoisseurs of all things traditional. Like the way it stops though.

 

I've seen a lot of creative ways of improving he looks of later model upgrades but this is really unique and something most people can do, if not it wouldn't be to expensive to hire it done.

Looks great. HRP

 

One potential problem with this design.....
What about heat?
Will this cause problems with the calipers and rotors?
Will heat warp this drum face piece causing all sorts of trouble?

 

Probably not any more than a plain steel wheel, over a disc.

Plentiful examples of those.

 

This does a good job of hiding disc brakes on a fendered car alright, if you feel the need for this. One problem though is it does add to unsprung weight.

 

You took the words right off my keyboard before I could post 'em.
The OP didn't like the look of disks on HIS car. He came up with a fix that he's happy with. I can appreciate that. But I come from a performance car background and personally, I appreciate upgrades. Adding weight out on the hubs is a downgrade. I have to score it a plus1, minus 2.
Now, if that was done in aluminum that weighs a few oz and painted to look like a cast piece, I could maybe add a point or two to the plus side.


I don't know anything about these. This is just an example of what I'm talking about, though......

 

That 'loss' of clamping force is actually another advantage over drums. Most (but not all) drum brakes are self-energizing, when you get near their limit it gets very tough to modulate brake force to avoid lock-up. I have to laugh when some drum brake owner claims 'my brakes work fine, I can lock them up' when in reality that means loss of control and extended stopping distance if the tires aren't turning.

I would think that a simple fixture and the proper die for a bead roller could duplicate this in aluminum, have it sandblasted with 'gravel' to give it the right texture. If it keeps the luddites at bay, success!

 

Damn a guy comes up with a simple and probably cheap way to hide disk brakes on a rig that you don't want them to show though the mag or wire wheels on and we get three frigging pages of bitching and whining.
You could cut the ring of the drum off with a saw and chuck the rest in a brake lathe and dress it up in a few minutes to have a nice edge and not be out of balance

 

Would that fall under the heading of "fake news"?

 

My Suburban street rod does too.

 

There’s no getting it back but I miss the old Hamb.

How the hell can anyone make a claim that disc and drum brakes are equal in any way???

Set up the stopping distance test...
All road conditions equal and drum brakes at tip top shop shape vs discs at mediocre, well the stopping distance will probably be pretty close.

Now immediately repeat the test with hot drums,,, guess what? Discs win and the distance for the hot discs will be repeatable time after time, not so with drums.

Drive thru a puddle and repeat the test,,, guess what discs win again.

Drum brakes work and are perfectly capable of stopping a car and especially a light hot rod and even BIG ASS HEAVY TRUCKS! Been doing it for nearly a century now. No one can argue that. Disc brakes stop better and no one can argue that either.

 

^^Yes, but do they have that ol' skool patina?

 

It’s funny, because I’ve been told that the fastest way to stop a vehicle and maintain directional control is to lock up the wheels and slide to a stop. That was on this board. I no longer get too involved in such discussions. I agree discs are superior in every way, in my part of the world ( rural Northern Alberta ), drums are adequate.




Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Yep! I've had this discussion many times around here. Folks don't seem to grasp it.

 

A couple of things; first, I applaud what the O/P did. It looks like his solution is completely satisfactory. Second, I have cars with disc brakes and drum brakes. Quite frankly, in daily driving, I find no difference in the functionality between them. Perhaps if I kived in the mountains where fade might be a problem, I might prefer discs, but here in the "flatlands", drums are just fine. Anyone who has a problem with them probably has maintenance issues.

 

One last concern......
Pay close attention to how it drives.
Check the lug nuts often.
I had a K5 with factory wheels. The PO had used the wrong lug nuts. This was the factory aluminum wheel and they used standard lug nuts for a steel wheel.
The nuts did not fit correctly causing some slack, thus shearing off three lugs on the back wheel. I just happened to be almost to the tire shop.

Pay close attention as that extra mass may shear the lugs especially if they are not right.

 

Yes but that is in an application using a standard length nut. In general wheel lug nuts for alloy wheels are much longer (even the short versions) so there is much more thread engagement on the stud, especially with the shanked versions. That said the stud length becomes the major consideration when you add anything in the way of a spacer (the drum in this case).

Roo

 

Anyone who doesn't realize the limitations of drum brakes probably doesn't drive very hard....

But "maintenance issues" is a good point. How often do you have to adjust disc brakes?

 

Times change and so has the Hamb, but your last statement sounds nothing like the Hamb of old.

The old Hamb would have said F__K disc brakes, if you want disc brakes buy a Honda. HRP

 

My F100 has Romeo Palemides wheels, standard Ford lug studs, so tall nuts are about flush with the ends of the studs, 1 thread showing...
An 'expert Race Car Inspector' (his claim, nobody else's) informed me that to race my truck (local drags, unsanctioned) I'd have to equip it with 3-inch studs, 1-1/2" showing!
Guess he'd seen some pics of road-racers, with the long studs.
Trouble with 'information' is that it makes authority figures out of mere mortals...

 

Right!
We start up old HAMB ways and people will cry, snowflakes will be screaming for a safe space, and others will just hide.
Sometimes it seems like a good idea!

Disc brakes belong on the HAMB - one could argue that.
Disc brakes stop better- no question there.

 

The Old HAMB... I miss it, for sure. An idea like putting a cut down brake drum over disc brakes would have received a lot less support and much much more deserved ridicule. Adding to unsprung weight is dumb. But, mainly this hiding the brakes with this mess is the equivalent of a roll of socks in your pants. A lot of effort to be a poser. On the other hand, it will go well with those fake Olds valve covers for your small block Chevy.

 

The current NHRA rule book (General Regulations, Section 21, Page 31) simply calls for the thread engagement into the hex portion of the lug nut to be at least equal to the stud diameter.

Roo

 

I don't think this is at all the same as fake valve covers. I see it as a decent solution to keep the car looking period correct. As for unsprung weight, mentioned by several posters, we're not talking about cars that operate at the limit of physical stresses, or pull high Gs, so big deal. We violate common sense and practicality every time we drive or build out cars. OP wants his car to look right, but survive a road full of dumb fucks. I like his idea.

 

willie bill: You don't show your location other than "TN"in your profile, and it shows "nothing running right now" as to your stable of hot rods or customs.
So I don't know how you drive, what vehicle, or where you drive it. But I can tell you that if you drive at all "enthusiastically", and your roads are like many nowadays here, that have potholes, ripples and other defects, excessive unsprung weight makes it awful hard for your springs and shocks to maintain your tires in contact with the road to an optimum degree.

 

Good idea, that.

 

Of course disc brakes work better............they also look terrible. You have to decide what you want out of your car appearance and performance wise and go from there. I also miss the 'old HAMB' and honestly, I don't have the energy anymore like I did when I first signed up here nearly 16 years ago. I probably would have spent the next three hours posting Liberace memes about disc brakes on a 'traditional' car after reading a thread like this back then. Now I just laugh (or make a quick post like this one) and go read a thread about stuff that actually belongs on the HAMB.