Sooo im picking up a toy and i would like to know if any of yall has done drilled drums with vents on the backing plates on a 4 wheel drum setup to vent gasses and keep the fade down.

 

I've seen the vented backing plates, that might work if you are street only.

Vigorous discussion here--there are 6 or more threads there on the subject, this is the latest.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...-drums.165001/

Drilled Drums

JMO but I think the returns would be marginal all things considered.

 

Ive done quite a bit of looking through forums.

http://www.tffn.net/drilldrum.html

But i was hoping i could find somebody whos rocking em in a fullsize instead of a bike like they reference in the jalopy article. My new toy isnt a truck but a 72 LTD.

 

I'd find a '72 or other compatible car with discs and go that way. No matter what you do to drums, unless you can double up on them and install dual leading shoe setups, they don't come close to even the smallish single piston jobs for passenger cars in '72.

 

I've never seen vented drums on a car, and think it would be a bad thing. I understand what you're looking for, but keep in mind that the shoes in drums in the olden days have a lot more friction surface than the pads of a disc, and as such don't need to apply as much specific pressure to do the same job. Also, consider what happens when dirt and water get in through the holes. At the same time, discs are so much better-performing and disc conversions are so easy that it begs the question: Why do you want so much performance out of drum brakes?

 

I second the disc brake motion. The only reason to keep drum is for looks, like on an open-wheeled car like a '32 hot rod.
Keeping a car original is cool, but for the sake of performance AND safety, there's no benefit. Like an overdrive transmission- no one else can see it vut you'll know it's there.....