well, the winter season is almost here in upstate ny and i'm starting to set up my winter projects. i would really like to upgrade my brakes. i'm already planning an under floor dual master cylinder conversion but what i really want is to put more modern self adjusting drums on all four corners. does anyone know if i can do a frankenstein bolt on parts swap? no disc brake stuff, though. cars like this should be a little dangerous. just wondering if any 60 -70 dodge brake stuff will fit. thanks... its a coronet by the way... here she is

Nice roof & glass. Just had to.

The issue with updating the drum brakes can be simple, or real complicated. Its all about size. Most of the older cars had 12" diamiter drums with narrow shoes and most "newer" drum brakes are 10" or 11" with fairly wide shoes. Also, the much of the 50s stuff had two wheel cylinders per wheel, where almost everything since early 60s have 1 per wheel.
The biggest issue is the wheel cylinders and brake drums. You could just swap over the shoes and springs from the newer drums, but the dual wheel cylinders will still cause the brakes to work on the same tech as original. You could swap out a newer brake backing plate and use the newer system completely, but finding a newer setup that will bolt up to your spindles will be the hard part. Adapting newer backing plates to mount to your spindles might be a chalenge by itself, but would be the way to go, if the newer system you choose will work in your drums, or the newer drums will fit your old spindles.

I would suggest you look into the late 60s Dodge 1/2 ton pickups, they will have the largest diameter drums with the narrowest shoes of modern brakes, and those backing plates are mounted to a beam axle. Those would be the easiest backing plates to adapt, I would think, and everything is still pretty easily available for the light truck brakes. Gene

rock auto has a great in fo on each vehicle,work with that site and you can learn to cross refrence parts t osee what would fit your spindles im sure,, but may take time,,

example,, friend of mine is building a 55 nomad,thinking of using a I beam straight axel,and discovered from crossing part numbers on rock auto web site that some 70s camaro rotors will fit the I beam axle spindle,,easy disc swap to an I beam

Your car, your time, your money, your choice...

But I'd think hard before doing the work to put different drums on.

I know that there were different sized drums for different models of passenger cars in that era; I'd look into what might be a bolt-on swap.

Of course, that still leaves you with the funky brake adjustments (adjusting the pivot point and the middle of the shoe), and the kinda' expensive brake hydraulics to boot.

If it were an open-fender or straight axle car (where the brakes could be visible), I'd be with ya' all the way - to hell with putting discs on that!

But if it's an 'original style' thing, then you'd better be running hubcaps with a '70's drum swap; when people see studs intstead of bolts and an alignment pin, the cat's out of the bag!

If you decide to try swapping hubs, I'd recommend going to timken's site. They will list a TON of info on bearings and stuff. You can find cups that will fit an existing cone, but adapt to a different diameter or depth.

Remember that almost any wheel bearing ever used was a 'shelf' part that some engineer picked out of a catalog. This fact is our friend when swapping.

Having done what I recommended above, I was able to adapt '54 Chrysler hubs to a '48 Ford axle. So, I'll go out on a limb and say that adaprting the hubs is the easy part. At worst, you might have to get a machine shop to whip up some spacers or something to get the side-to-side thing right for you.

Trying to find a backing plate for the old 'kingpin' style steering knuckle that will take a brake shoe that will work with your 'modern' drum... well, that'll probably be the fly in the ointment.

Oh, and you'd still have the goofy 'double leading' wheel cylinders if you were to adapt different drums onto the existing backing plates. If that were interesting to you, then I'd look for a backing plate to take 12" shoes; I think that the cool old finned aluminum Buick drums were that size.

For me, I'm just dragging my truck out to scarebird's shop once a certain Alfa is out of there.

-Bill