Hey Gang: Am pondering putting Buick drums on the front of my 34 coupe. I'd like to have a 60's style look. I have never liked it when the damn drum hangs out too far on the inside of the wheel. What wheel diameters, widths and offsets are needed to enable the majority of the drum to stay inside the wheel. Anybody have any pictures of their setup -- so I can get a visual clue. I must admit, from a stopping and ease-of-use perspective, I'd rather run disks on all 4 corners . . . but then I have disks and the car ends up looking like a real ******* child. Fricking mix of 3 styles . . . 50's, 60's, 90's. How about Buick drums on the rear? I'm running a Frankland Q.C., 3" axle tubes, etc.. Decisions . . . Decisions . . . pain in my *** these thoughts are . . .
I have run 53-56 PU wheels with some success, took a thin spacer to keep the wheels from contacting the fins and there wasn't to much drum sticking out. Doing Buick drums with Lincoln backing plates on a Winters rear now appears that it will take a spacer to get everything lined up, will know shortly.
Keep me posted on the Q.C. setup --- want to do the same thing to my Frankland! What type of axles, axle tubes, bearings (Big Ford), etc? Which Buick drums - same as on the front? What modifications were necessary? What bolt pattern are you running - I'd like to go 5 x 5.5 Drop me a line and some pictures when you have a chance -- am trying to get this figured out so I can get my dang car rolling!
I'd be interested in seeing some pics also. I'm ordering a Winters QC this week and going to run Buick drums also. Did you order the rear new ? Is it Champ size ? What differential ? Put up some pics of it all & the backing plates. .
It doesn't make any difference whether it's a Champ or the V/8 rear, the ends are the same. My ends are the late Ford big bearing (Torino) and I had Wilson Welding do a backing plate to fit that bolt pattern. I am using Currie axles with the 2.5 bearing spacing. 5.5 BP. This may or may not work. First time I have put Buick Drums on the rear. It would be a lot simpler to order Johns complete kit but the 900.00 is a bit steep. I'll get into this deeper next week. Maybe someone else has already done this?
Thanks for the info! When you mentioned "John" complete kit -- whos is John and what is in his kit? Thanks a bunch -- I'll keep you posted on my end as well. I'm probably just going to order some 3" QC axle tubes that already have the Torino ends on them -- then cut them to whatever length I want. Since I haven't yet worked with the Buick drums - was wonderinig how well they fit the axles (the OD of the drum flange). Did you have Currie do anything special? By the way, which Currie axles did you buy -- and if you don't mind sharing, what did you pay for them? Take er' eaxy . . . Dale
Cool setup! I like the amount of drum showing -- not too much, not too little. I'm thinking of using Wilson Weldings finned backing plates and the Bendix style brakes. I was really torn between modern Wilwood style brakes (for the stopping power and the ease of maintenance), but I just can't put them on my 34 coupe -- just won't look right. Thanks for sharing your info.
Tommy The trouble with your setup is the King pin inclination angle is way off. This can make an evel handling car. Check this out.
a few years back , i ended up with a old franklin that had aluminum drums with a wide 5 pattern on them .....hindsite being what it is......they could have probably been drilled.....might be worth looking into ......on a side note.....there was a article i think in the hot rod and restoration magazine .....showing a rear buick style drum brake setup for 9" ford ends from randy's rearends......might be worth looking into ....looked pretty cool....i want to say it has a buick style backing plate.......brandon
good thread! i just had this conversation with a fella here in town that is starting a traditional hot rod........the conversation lasted about 30 seconds because i don't know.........i do know that too much finned drum is ugly.....i just like to see the outer teeth... i'll be watching and learning...
I did something that I've never seen done---I used Buick drums as "covers" for my F 100 brakes--F 100 brakes are 11 inch and Buicks and early Ford brakes are 12 inch---F100 brakes LOTS cheaper than Lincolns---used the F 100 wheels too---got some picks that won't go on this site---e-mail me if you want em---wb1937@aol.com
Thanks for the note -- kind of a new way to do it that I hadn't considered before. Appreciate you taking the time to send in a photo.
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