honestly, who came up with the idea for drum brakes. discs make way more sense. you would think that engineers would have figured out discs first...

go with the discs but if you dont have the $ then just wait till you need them.

 

What is the cost ofthe disk conversion agasint the cost of not stopping when you need it, ie emergency.

Jav

 

The main reason i said 5 lug swap is theres a lot more rims out there you can run and the stock v8 disc are bigger and better then most inline6 disc kits i seen.And most inline6 disc kits i seen use a odd cailper like the s10 which has crappy brakes on it.

 

i'd be interested in kit for rear too just axle swap i dont need a bigger rear as i aint gonna make too much more power

 

At the risk of commiting blasphamy, I like the 6 cylinder engine and cars. They weigh quite a bit less where it countsand make good torque. The 7 main bearing L6 engine is very stout. Its main fault is the integrated intake manifold/cylinder head. Carb choices are limited.

The axle swap will allow a simple 4 to 5 lug conversion.

 

I'll be the contrarian here. I am keeping the drums on my 65, but I want it original. Also, it isis not my only car. Its my fun car to drive just when I want and probably won't see wet weather again. I grew up on manual drum brakes in the sixties and they never were a problem to me. Rain did not really affect them, but driving through deep pooled water did. Ride the brake lightly for a little bit after driving through water and they will dry out real quick. Our family's second cars, the ones I drove in high school, had three on the tree, manual drum brakes and manual steering. Our good family car - a four door 65 Buick Wildcat - hadpower drum brakes and power steering (and a 401 CI 4 barrel).

 

My 72 coupe came with non power drum brakes. I rebuilt everything and put it back to factory. Basically the only thing I didn't change was the backing plates. When I was done, it would stop decently if it was dry, but if the drums got wet you better add severl hundred more feet stopping distance. Also, it would randomly dart left or right when you hit the brakes even when it was dry. The car got the drums removed and I sourced used factory spindles and a used factoryproportioning valve to do the disc swap. I bought everything else new or rebuilt. The car stops soooo much better now and is very reliable and predictable when you hit the brakes. Probably one of the best things Ive ever done to the car.

Save you money and dont bother messing with the drums, they're a waste of time. Just go ahead and do the disc swap, you wont regret it at all.

 

I grew up in the 60's as well and had drums on my '65 coupe back then as well. And the only reason we had drums was because we were stupidand didnt know anything about disc's. Now that I have added a few years to my age............GET THE DISC's!! I would loved to have had disc's when I was street racing (yes...young and dumb) and had the drums fade on me during heavy braking at those damnable red stop lights. Ensure that you and anyone that rides with you the your car will stop when you want it to...GET THE DISC's. As was said earlier , there is a larger selection of wheels that you can get with the 5 lug setup......GET THE DISC's.