Featured Projects 56 Mercury Monterey

You still get what I mean though right? Just to basically brighten up the wheels. I would have gone chrome reverse on my Chevy if my budget would have allowed. So what you're talking is right up my alley lol

 

On second thought, I will probably paint the wheels and go with white walls, baby moons and beauty rings.

 

Well, got the rear drums off with no problem. Rear brakes are like new! Trying to get the front drums off and it's not happening. Tried spraying a penetrating fluid and beating them with a brass hammer. So far managed to break about a 3" long piece of one drum off. So looks like I will be hunting for at least on new brake drum for the front.

I could only get the drums to move about 1/4" and that's it.

 

On my 53 bel air the drums were riveted to the hubs. Wonder if the merc is like that

 

Did you remove the wheel bearings on the spindles to pull the drums? If so, maybe they are just have a lip catching on the brake shoes and you need to back the shoes off?

 

First thing I checked for. No rivets or screw holding them on.

 

No, I did not remove wheel bearings. Just trying to pry the drums off. Like you said though, probably a lip catching. Ill have to see if I can adjust the brake shoes to clear. Just sucks that I broke a chunk out of the right front drum. Gonna be fun trying to find a replacement. I may end up doing the front disc brake conversion after all.

 

Quick Google search hinted that the from drum do tend to have a bit of a press fit on the hubs.

 

I have a set of good drums off a 55 if you don’t go disks.

 

I would prefer to stay with the original drum brakes. Are the 55 the same as the 56? I would be interested in buying them.

 

Remove the front wheel bearings, then pull the hubs with the drums. Ford products usually had the studs swaged to the drums...

 

Some one on one of my other forums just said the same thing. I wonder how far out of balance the drum I knocked a chunk out of will be if any?

 

A picture would help us a lot on answering that. And, might also confirm that the ones I have are the same.

 

I will be pulling the front drums later today after I get back from the gym. I will post up pics then.

 

Dennis Carpenter advertises front brake drums. 11" x 2 1/2"

 

Ok, got the front brake drum off. Good news is, the front brake shoes also look like new! Here's a pic of the area on the back of the drum with the damage. I dont feel it will effect the operation of the brakes. Im going to clean up the damage area with a dremel tool and put it all back together and see if it has any balance issues after I drive it a bit.

 

I would suggest that if you are going to drive it like that, take it somewhere and get the tire and drum balanced as a unit. Surely there's somebody still balancing on the car.

 

The lip on the backing plate fits in the groove to keep out dirt and debris. The inside of it is the important part. If it causes a balance issue, I'd chuck it up and turn the lip off just till the till the breakout was removed all the way around. In fact, that's exactly what I would do instead of spin balancing to compensate. If you do that you must be sure to put the wheel back on exactly the same stud rotation to keep it in check.

 

Id replace the drum. Very common when iron cracks it send stress cracks throughout. Could come apart

 

I wouldn't use that drum. It will definitely be out of balance. There is a fairly long crack eminating from the broken off piece.

 

Pics posted. Are yours the same?

 

I’m 99% sure they are the same but will verify and post pics. I need to go look at them in the shop.

 

This may be a dumb question, but, once I remove the hub/drum, how do I separate the drum from the hub? Knock out the studs?

 

Pressing them out would be best.

 

You'll have to cut the swage around the stud to get the drum off. I use a hole saw that just fits over the stud to do this, with no centering drill bit installed. After this is done, you MAY be able to remove the drum without removing the studs from the hub; or you may not... If you press or drive the studs out be sure to support the backside of the hub so you don't warp the flange!

 

Two door hardtop, looks like a nice interior that would go with any color or combination you want to throw at it. You have it made. I like the side trim on the tangerine one, but I’m not sure that is the same body style- or lots of body mods. Lots of options.

 

Is there a company that sells the hub and drum together that anyone knows of? I can only find just the drum for sale new.

 

Id just separate them and install new drum slip on style. No actual reason to keep them locked together

 

So, my drums look a little different, but I have both sides with spindles and newish brake hoses. These were likely rebuilt before being taken off of a restored car for a disk brake swap on a friends car.

 

Hmm…some quick research says that 55-56 Mercury drums are not reproduced and somewhat unobtainable? Maybe swapping them to easier to find Ford parts would be more practical? Just thinking out loud…