Bumps on Buick Brake Drums?

I put some Torq-Thrusts on my '65 Riviera.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=497626
The front drums had some bumps on the surface. The stock wheels had hollow spokes where these bumps are; the T-Ts don't. I drove the car around the block with now shimmy or shake, but I don't trust it. Should I grind off the bumps(easy) or drill some big, but shallow, holes on the mounting surface of the wheels(more of a pain it the ***, esp. if I change wheels around later)?

 

The bumps are the rivets holding the hub to the drums, I wouldnt grind them off. To fix the issue, just go to the parts store and get a couple wheel spacers, they usually come in 5/16" or 3/8" if I am not mistaken. Just measure how high the rivets stick up, and get the appropriate spacer. Good Luck! -Joe

 

Rivets correct. I don't know how necessary they actually were but they do keep your drum indexed so I'll stay with jdubbya on this one.

Spacers.

 

like jdubbya said they are the rivets holding the hub....but dont be afraid of grinding them off....just make sure you remove the rivet when your done....they did it back in the day...and it's still done today...

 

I would do spacers, or even better, make recesses in the wheel mounting surface for each rivet. I just used a small pilot bit and then a large countersink bit to do that a long time ago on a lowrider.

 

I had the same issue on my '62 le sabre. I threw some 3/16" spacers on em and haven't had a shimmy since. Temporary for sure, but good for now.

 

I'd just grind them and stake them and be done with it. I had to do that a lot with aftermarket wheels back in my tire store days. The main purpose they serve is to keep the drums from falling off the hubs on the ***embly line.

 

What if I grind them and the rivet doesn't come out?

Staking them, could someone explain?

 

my point exactly..think of all those Buick drums on ford hubs out there....and none with rivets....

 

Grind them down flat, then take a center punch and punch them in the center while supporting the rivits from the other side. Your expanding them at the surface so they don't move.Also a couple well placed punch marks on the seam where they meet will prevent them from rotating.

 

it makes the drum removable w/o removing the hub kinda a good thing for brake work ..

 

I understand.

 

In that case, should I not stake the rivets after grinding the heads?

 

Have you ever tried to take a finned Buick drum off it's hub? They are not coming off just because he removed the rivet. I'd do as said before, just grind the rivet head off and maybe stake it in the center, with hub & drum off the car and support the rivet from behind.

 

My '59 Chevy truck had the same issue when I put chrome reverse wheels on it. Grinding down the rivets does no harm... because if it did I'm sure my truck would have crashed with the freakin' luck I had with that thing.

Leaving those rivets will cause the wheel to shudder, eventually leading to broken wheel studs and your wheel and tire caroming off across a field like a possessed soccer ball... THAT I do know for a fact!

 

hmmm
now are the only thing holding the drum to the hub is the rivets .. i forgot that some ol buicks use wheel bolts instead of lug nuts with 1 wheel centering spike (my 52 buick had that)

i was thinking of your removing the rivets like i did on my 60 chev truck the drum comes off now like a rear wheel

dunno what you have but be careful

 

There are studs from the hub inside, holding the drum between the hub and wheel.