I once had the idea to put adhesive sandpaper on the inside braking surface of the drums, and gradually tighten the starwheels as you rotated the drums back & forth.  Bought a roll of sandpaper, but never got around to using it, since as the linings wore in, braking improved.  Used to be, you could buy shoes with extra-thick lining, to compensate for drums turned near the limit.  I used to watch ebay for such NOS units, but none ever turned up.  I see the T-Bird parts suppliers sell repro drums, but I was wary of how asian iron would work out.  Though NOS front drums are pricy & rare, they were usually factory-staked to NOS hubs.  I always wondered how you could duplicate the centering accuracy of repro drums mounted on OEM hubs?  I couldn't even figure out how to properly un-stake my originals.

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

 I can't even find anyone in my town that actually measures the drums when they turn them, or are even aware of the limits.

The last time I did drums I could not find anyone to arc the shoes. I put them in a vice and used an old body file. Took about an hour to just the fronts to get about 90% contact. Always remember to chamfer the leading edge to keep them quiet. Good luck.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Properly "tuning" drum brakes is almost a lost art. In the old days they would arc the shoes in. What that does is make sure you have full lining contact. If you have had the drums turned, they are now a larger circle but the new shoes still the original size circle. If the drums have been cut toward the limit, new shoes will only contact a small patch, way less than half. The quick fix is to run new drums. If having them turned, remember, they both need to be the same size.
 Lining material is another area. The more expensive metallic ones last longer and are more fade resistant but they are also harder on drums. I always like the cheapy ones best. They are softer and brake better and are usually bonded so you don't wear rivet groves into the drums. Trade off is they don't last as long.

Oh...and 5.1 brake fluids.


Hyvinkää, FI

I am thinking that if it doesn't stop as well with disc brakes something is not right with the disc brakes. Could be wrong but never seen disc brakes that didn't stop a heck of a lot better than any drum brakes.

This list of parts was up a while back with the kit numbers to convert 54 brakes to self adjusting. Might help. I think the kits for parts are the same. There shouldn't be any requirement for cylinders unless yours are bad.



Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

I'm not up on t-bird brakes, but i run drums on both of my dailys, a 59 ford and a 65 l79 el camino.

The biggest things right off the bad is to have them set up RIGHT, meaning arcing shoes if needed, fresh rubber lines, new steel lines if needed, ect. Ive seen brakes be 100% useless because of bad arcing out of the box. 

Secondly if you are a machinist you could always adapt some aluminum drums to eliminate brake fade or even bigger brake. A good set of shoes will help too, if they dont make them you could always rivet a better set of linings to them from a different application. Some guys groove shoes and other racing stuff but i dont know how much that actually helps. My model t hot rod is getting '59 buick finned aluminum drums on '39 ford front and vintage frankland racing rear hubs which i had to machine the drums to fit, it's a lot more labor intensive than the standard hot rod use of '59 buick drums where they adapt them to the 5 on 5 1/2" 1940 style hubs(redrill lugs, and open the center slightly). I had to cut a 10" circle out of the center of the drum, and a locating lip to fit the hubs. I still have to cut my backing plates for a different offset and i'm debating on a set of wider shoes since the'll fit.

The sky is the limit!!

I regret installing WILWOOD disc brakes on my car. I will be re-installing the stock front brakes!     I take it that you want to improve the rear brake effectiveness
because the car doesn't stop as well as it did before the conversion? Join the club!


"FREE SAMPLE"

Roger,

I didn't. Been there, done that. We're both on Medicare. I was thinking about his daughter.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ