Hey guys I've played with this a few times and I really want to get it done. Looking for tips, tricks, and advice. I have a 55 special and because I want to daily drive it I'm trying to get the best brakes I can out of it. I don't want to convert over to disc and mount a booster and master on my firewall. I'm trying to keep the car relatively stock looking to the untrained eye. I picked up a set of 96 fin drums off of eBay I think they were off of a 61 Buick but I'm not sure. I figure if they could stop a much bigger heavier 60s car they should be able to stop my little 55, plus the aluminum should help with brake fade. I want to swap the 2 1/4 in drums on the front of my 55 special with the aluminum ones. Then move the 2 1/4 inch drums to the rear of the car to replace the 1 3/4 drums that are on there now. I slid the front drums on the front spindles just to see what would happen and of course they stick out too far for you to put a bearing and castle nut on. I read somewhere that 58 hubs would fit but I only read it in one place so I don't know if it's accurate, I thought about trying the hubs out of my drums to see if they would make a difference. What have you guys done? I'm hoping some of your hot rod or knowledge might come into play here. From what I've read aluminum drums can crack so I don't want to go pressing out the Hub and pressing a bunch of different hubs trying to guess and test. MODS if this is posted in the wrong spot could you please move it for me I'm trying to put it in the right area.
Do you mean 90 fin? I don’t know anything about the Buick hubs cause I just throw them away when I use the finned drums on old Ford brakes. But I can confirm the basic sizes and architecture of the 45 and 90 fin drums from about 1958 to the early 1960’s is the same. I can interchange the 45 for the 90 fin in my conversions.
Mounting depth should be easy to figure out if you have both drums and spindles on bench and a ruler. Compare the stock drum to the finned drum and see if it is deeper from mounting flange to edge of drum. That should tell you if a spacer is needed.
My son, Joe, ( dual quad 55 ) on the HAMB has a 1955 Buick special with the Buick finned drums on it. Contact him and ask him how he did it.
I am sur that my son, Joe will respond as soon as he can. However, Joe is a full time Policeman, part time EMT, and part time Fireman. He is quite busy, and I am quite proud of him.
Hi all. I fit 45 fin drums to my 55 Special years ago. I used the inner race from the originsl inner ball bearing and cut it down to space the late roller bearing.i don't recall how much I had to cut it back? Using the original race allowed it to sit flush on the spindle as the inner races have a bevel on the O.D. to clear the spindle radius. You could start by placing the original inner race on the spindle, then setting the entire hub with bearings on the spindle. Take a measurement to see how far you need to go in to get the spindle nut on. Cut the original race that amount. Now keep t******* it until you get the drum close to the backing plate without rubbing. This will get the shoes to sit in the drum properly. If I recall, the stock shoes may have only been 12"x2". You should be able to go up to 12"x2 1/2". But measure yourself, it has been like 25yrs since I did mine so I don't recall the specifics. Hope this helps some.
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