I removed the front disc brakes that came on my 32 and replaced them with 12" Lincoln drums. Disc brakes look like hell on a fenderless hot rod and aren't needed on a light little hot rod. We are not trying to stop 18 wheelers here guys. Drum brakes worked fine on relatively heavy cars for many many years..... and they still will.
Which famous car builders of the 1950s used cable-pull brakes "to be traditional"? Are you kidding? They used the biggest, most modern dual-action servo drums they could find, they started using discs 5 minutes after they showed up in wrecking yards - 40 years ago. Tell me: is a Roth car with discs built in 1965 with Corvette discs "traditional"? Drums work fine in a panic stop? Yes, from 40, but from 120 a single panic stop will send you straight back to have discs fitted - if you live. Hasn't anyone seen cartoons of the guy with both feet pressed down to the floor on the pedal as the car hits the abutment? From 120 to 90 it stops, from 90 to 60 it "sort of" stops, and from then down it just makes noise and emits smoke. Hot-rodding is, and always was - performance first.
I was always kind of partial to the "non famous" builders myself. I'm kinda going out on a limb here but I was never into shit Roth built either, or Corvettes. That's just me though. Also, I don't drive around going 120, if I did though, yeah, I would probably install disc brakes. But they still wouldn't be traditional. I will agree however, that hot rodding was always about performance, if money permitted. I would think the first thing any common hot rodder would have bought if he got some money, would NOT be brakes.
I actually have to agree with my learned friend above. Just replaced the shoes (front) on my daily driver '49 Chevy 1/2 T only vehicle after 44 K miles. Reason? The adhesive failed and 1/4 of the shoe friction material was cracked off and I noticed the brakes were making a funny noise. They were wearing perfectly, as I adjust my brakes every quarter and change out the brake fluid every year without fail. I believe the guy who started this post is a 'car show driver', apologies extended if this moniker does not apply to you sir. You wanna go fast or play in traffic in that hot rod with drums after your daily driver Honda? IMHO you don't have the experience to handle it in a pinch drum or disc. My best advice is to stay with the drums and stay in the right lane. I'm a left hand lane driver as my town has only fourty thousand residents and I am able to negotiate without fear in lighter traffic. When I do go out of state into heavier traffic areas I'm OK with the drums as I behave accordingly. Your results may vary.
Got '40' front drum set up on my 32. I was using a set of original drums that were overturned and they were a bitch to adjust, not to mention they didn't stop that well. Last year I bought a new set of drums from Dick Spadaro and they made a huge difference. Once I adjusted them correctly they now stop on a dime. More than enough braking power. Yeah drums may stop you better, but if you don't plan on doing any tailgating a good drum setup will do, and look better on the open wheels.
You will like the look/feel of the drums, until your first panic stop. Once that happens and your car jerks you into on coming traffic, you will go home clean out your shorts and install discs.
I agree 100%. My '65 Riviera weighs over 4000 lbs, and has drums all around, stops in Houston traffic no problem.
I thank you all for your input. I am not much of a car show guy, so I plan on driving mine to work and running around on the weekends with it. I do like the look of the disc with the backing plate made to clean it up and still look like a drum brake set up. I dont think this little truck will weigh that much. IF I can get a good hook up on a new set of drum brakes, Im going to at least try them. Worst case, I wont like them and will have them posted for sale.
and buy an anchor. the only time i have ever had to "clean out my shorts" with all the drum brake cars i have had is when i out drove the brakes. and as for brake fade,....well for work i drive a new ford product with a disc/drum set-up. i can tell you the fade is worse on this car than any other car i have ever driven. my 49 chevy stops fine on the highway...wet or dry...and the only time its ever gave me problems was when i stood on the brakes hard to see what they would really do. once i figured out where and when the lock up point was i havent had to get near is since. i wont call you a pussy or a goldchainer or a car show guy for whatever set up you use. if disc brakes are better suited to your driving style then roll on lilttle buddy but the drums probably will look better.
The situation you describe didn't EVER happen simply because they were drums, unless the driver locked up all four and shut his eyes and kept them locked up! You can do that with discs too, absent abs. But any mechanical defect that caused pulling to one side would be just as likely with discs. I have drum/drum on one Jalopy, disc/drum on the other, have been driving drum brakes since 1950. If I were to change either one, it would be to return the one of them to drum/drum. I feel no extra stopping power or need for it on the one with discs. Drum brakes or disc brakes, can be used to best mechanical efficiency, when stopping power is at the maximum, which is just short of locking them up. YOu can lock up both. Drums do fade more than discs when they heat up, after continuous/frequent use with racing or or on a (very long) downhill mountain situation, but with equal temperatures discs fade too. It's just a fact that drum brakes don't cool as well as discs so the time it takes to reach a fade situation is longer with disc than with drum. I've done a lot of mountain driving and have felt the fade, but have never had a complete failure. Even with fade they still have a good percentage of stopping power left. Most cars, absent a trailer behind pushing with extra weight, never reach an unsafe situation even on the steepest/longest hill in the Rocky Mountains, which is Crow Hill on I 70. Heavily loaded trucks and cars pulling heavy trailers do get in a crack once in a while. I respect the old technology, it works good and lasts a long time, and I guess what bothers me most is people chimin' in, dissin' drum brakes, without factual reference to that, saying things about them that just isn't so, some to the point it don't even sound like they have ever driven a car! Sometimes I wonder, how many of those are selling disc brake conversion kits?
I drive my cars 365 days a year, and not one has disc brakes. I have had more panic stops than you can shake a stick at, and not once have I wanted to go home and switch to discs. I have had to clean out my shorts occasionally, but not because of that. People just need to quit making lame excuses for putting gay shit on their cars.
I look at it this way. The glass '29 roadster I'm building will weigh out at just under, or at 2,000#, I'm guessing. 454, and a four speed. The brakes I'm using are fronts from a '53 F1, and rears from a '70's typical ford nine inch. A '65 Chevy dual m/c makes the pressure. This set up was designed to stop a 3500# pickup at REASONABLE highway speeds and worked fine. I used to deliver car parts in one when it was a new truck. Never had a problem stopping in time. Now, I've taken 1500# off this set of brakes, and still have the four speed to decelerate with. I'm guessing I've just increased their stopping ability a few precentage points. I believe that a PROPERLY set up drum brake set will stop just fine, inside thier limitations, and I'll take the feel of drums over discs anyday. If you can't stop, you have one of two problems. Either you are out running your brakes, or those brakes need attention, it all depends on how much time you want to spend maintaining your car. Me, I'm using drums because I had them, and I see no problem with them. Mike
I love the drum brakes i got on the Fiddy.... Its my 1st car with drums, and after seeing everyone else run off and put on disks on their rides, i expected the brakes to be a bit scary. They are not, period. Been driving on them daily for a year, almost 7000 miles..... I love em, and have no complaints. I did upgrade to an under the floor dual master and dumped the hucks for self energizing bendix. After making it through friday night traffic on lakeshore drive in chicago, plus everywhere else i drove in chi-town, ill trust my drum brakes anywhere.
You should take a good look at all your drum parts you have and see whats usable first. theres no question the drums look better (traditional) but if you have to get drums ,wheel cylinders,shoes relined and hardware kits it could get spendy not knocking your truck or anything but there are other things (not traditional) on it already so if you save some money and time by going with a disk set up do it. Its your truck and you are the one that has to like it IMO
If its not going to be seen, I don't see what the big deal is. I have a nice set of F-1 drums, but used disks on my full fendered 34...I'll save the drums for my next fenderless project.
From personal experience, one panic stop in a car with drum brakes isn't a problem at all. Its repeated useage in a short time. When I had an O/T car with 4 wheel drums, it stopped fine if I needed to jam the brakes. Where I got into trouble was commuting to the highway - lots of hills between my house an the highway, it was either fly down the hills and hope a cop didn't see me, or ride the brakes to keep it under the speed limit. Doing the latter, by the time I got to the highway, I had to stand on the pedal to get the car to stop at the intersection. God help me if someone pulled out in front of me. So, for the OP, it depends on your driving situation - if you are going to be repeatedly using the brakes in a short time, I'd vote discs. Otherwise, drums are fine, as long as they're properly adjusted and maintained.
The Auto parts store cleaned up my drums today. I hope they didnt turn them down too far.How can I tell? Does anyone have any advice on where to shop for the best deal on brake shoes,wheel cylinders, and hardware?
For Wheel cylinder repair, NAPA, just need to know the diameter of the cylinder, it's molded into the rubber cups, then hone cylinders with cheap hone from harbor freight. For relining, If there isn't one local, try http://www.skinnerdieselservice.com/brake_reline_shop.htm
I put discs on my f100 because I want it to stop better my dad has mustang 4 piston calipers on his Im not going that extreme but my theory is when my truck was made everybody ran drums now they all run discs and ABS and stop way sooner than my truck is designed, I would rather stop sooner than rearend them in my 50 yr old truck that still wears all its original sheetmetal. If my discs are considered non traditional oh well you can buy it and change them back.
I can appreciate your desire to run discs, and since it's your truck, who the hell are we to tell you what to do. However,one of the main points some of the posters here are missing is that drum brakes require a different driving style to discs. IMHO, if one keeps in mind that those are drums under your foot, you will give yourself enough extra room. I have an old Triumph Bonnieville with a small disc on the front and an old tired drum on the back. Won't get on the freeway with it, it's asking too much. Conversly, I have a brand new Suburban with discs on all four corners that I have no qualms going fast with. At 5200#!! Drums still work fine. As for going 120 mph with drums, I don't think so, thanks. Mike BTW,53floored, that first sentence in your post took a few reads before it made sense.
Are you sure you are used to driving with drum brakes? You should be able to lock them up, just push on the pedal harder. If you can't there's a mechanical problem. Weak in the leg, want 'power' brakes?, Upgrade to a MC with vacuum booster When driving thru water deep enough to submerge the tires/bottom of drums, ride the brakes to help keep them dry or they will be inadequate until they have been dried off. Continue riding the pedal for a few seconds when out of the deep water will keep them effective.
Traditional rods did not have an alternator or twelve volts. Does yours? Does it have seat belts? Traditional didn't. 'Yeah, but they're required by law.' True. But there's a higher law. Does your child ride in your car? Does a child ride in cars on the street you drive on? Do children play near the streets? Put disc brakes on it. 'But I can get by if I just ease around and watch my top speed' won't do much to help me sleep nights, when a child is injured or worse, and I could have prevented it. 'But it only really makes a big difference if I drive through water.' Isn't that by itself more than enough reason to have discs? Unless, of course, you intend to always have it on a trailer......
Wouldn't the tires be the limiting factor in most situations anyway? I mean in most daily driving. Discs will lock up the tires as well as drums, then it's up to the driver to actually know how to drive. The majority of folks on here probably don't do a huge amount of mountain driving; I'm sure some do. Those that do probably, or at least should, know how to drive in the moutains. I sayed in western N.Carolina for a while, in the mountians. I once drove a ways up and down some steep stuff and tried my best not to abuse the brakes. When i stopped at my hosts house I washed the car. Even after having sat for several minutes the front wheels steamed when I hit them with the hose; they were hot. I mentioned this to my host and he said the locals drive the mountain roads and don't use the brakes hardly at all. I noticed this when driving down the mountain to town one day; I thought I was cooking right along when a local in a Camaro flew up behind me, honked and passed me on a downhill steep tight blind curve and drove away. I guess what all this means is that if you have enough brake to lock up the tires it's a moot point in most stiuations. If you have a specific situation that calls for special techniques you already know that and should know how to compensate for it. There was no disc barkes when i learned to drive, at least on anything I could afford to drive. I never once had a problem with not enough brake in a drum brake car. The single bowl master cyl.? Well that's another whole debate...
Belchfire8, you present a well thought out, and articulate point of view. And you do so in a most gracious manner. And yes, if the car is being constructed for you, and no one else will be driving it, go for it. I trust your judgement and your skills, and I would be delighted to be invited along for a ride, cruise, or hell-bent-for-leather either one. (I would prefer the hell-bent-for-leather, by the way. ) On the other side, If I were building the car for my daughter, or for myself, but my daughter may take it out by herself on even one occasion, it will have discs. Here is my logic, if you can call it that. I believe you when you say "I never once had a problem with not enough brake in a drum brake car." But, unlike you, I have. Many times. And not 'not enough brake'. But no brake. Totally useless. After driving in or through water. My dad taught me (didn't they all?) to drag the brake against the drum when in the water, and that prevented the loss of brake to a considerable extent in some cases. So I'm thinking... I could tell Candi that. Demonstrate the technique. And she would master it. Right? And she would never be in that case where the technique wasn't successful. Right? And she's probably not going to ask to borrow the car anyway. Right? And it's probably never going to rain when she does. Right? Sorry if I'm wrong in this stance, but Candi will be clamping pads against disc. If that makes me a bad dad, I'll just have to live with it. Again, I respect your position, and I appreciate your manner of stating it.
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