Technical Rear Brake Drums - '57 Pontiac

Hi,

I have an American 1957 Pontiac Super Chief. I need to replace the rear brake drums as they are deeply pitted (can't turn them). I'm having very difficult time finding rear drums. So I have a few questions:

1. Are the front drums different than the rear drums?
2. Will '57 Chevrolet drums fit on the Pontiac? (again, it's not a Canadian car)
3. Where can I find these drums?

Looking forward to your help.

Dave

 

Some pictures of the old drums as well as the diameter and width of the shoes would be helpful. Maybe even a shot or two of the rear axle to help identify if it looks correct for a Chevy or Pontiac. The HAMB loves pictures!

 

I have a 57 Olds/Pont that I adopted Tri Chevy backing plates and drums to. Backing plates gets indexed and moved outward by spacers I machined. They serve as bearing retainer as well. Also machined axel register down to accept Chevy drum register. I opted to redrill axels to Chevy pattern since it’s going under a Chevy. In your case, redrill drums. So yes, it can be done but it’s not a straight forward swap.

 

Pontiac is 5X5. Chevy is 5X4.75. Won't swap.

You can use later (up to 1964 I believe) parts as long as you swap it all out. (backing plates, etc) if I recall correctly.

 

https://fabcraftmetalworks.com/?s=brake+drum&post_type=product

 

https://www.pontiacparts.net/

 

Bought '57 Ford car drums from Kanter but haven't bought Pontiacs yet. May need to get a pair for one of my projects though. https://www.kanter.com/i-30563604-rear-brake-drum.html?q=#!model=GRAN SPORT||make=BUICK||year=1965

 

57 Pontiac rear brake shoes are 11x2 #228 shoes

Drums are available for 99 dollars US plus a ton for shipping Rear Brake Drum 1949-1957 Pontiac NEW 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 | eBay

There are a lot of 60's 70's and early 80's rear wheel drive GM cars with 11 inch drums with 5 on 5 bolt pattern. The issue is that they probably have clearance issues with the backing plates.
A very common one is this one that I looked up for an 84 Olds 88 Royal Brogham .
If you have a parts house clerk who is willing to work with you a bit and pull a few drums so you can do a side by side comparison you may find one that with minor trimming on a brake lathe or lathe will work.

This is the real common one for 11x2 shoes. BrakeBest Select Brake Drum 2059DGS | O'Reilly Auto Parts (oreillyauto.com)

 

Would drums from other '57 Pontiacs like a Chieftain, StarChief or Catalina fit my SuperChief?

 

Probably, since it would be expensive to design new for each model of the same basic rearend. Just make sure they are the correct diameter.

 

Might look at 57 Olds brake drums. I think that Pontiac and Olds shared a lot of the rear end stuff in those years. Might look at Hollander interchange manual and see what they say.

 

The brake drums on all the 57 American Pontiacs are the same as far as I know.

 

Good news. I discovered that 1962 Corvette brake shoes are an exact fit for the '57 Pontiac Super Chief. But the drum won't work because '62 Vette bolt pattern is 5 X 4.75.

 

There’s the offset of the drums as well between Pontiac and Chevy.

 

If the Corvette drums are the right dimensions just redrill the bolt pattern.

 

Fabcraft has the rear drums for Pontiac, see link posted earlier by @34Phil.
From what I have read, 57 and earlier had 1-3/4" wide shoes/drums (rear), later (59-64?) they went to 2".
I believe you can upgrade to 2" with the later backplates, which have more "offset" pressed into the mounting flange.

 

I actually had the drums turned at a local shop. They still had some meat on them and came out really nice. Thanks everyone for the input on this thread. Now to go and make some new brake lines.

 

1937-1957 rear drums:
NAPA ND 4401199
A/Z 8819
O Really? 2065DGS