Aluminum Drums

HotAirGN

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2002
I picked up a set of aluminum drums from a camaro but am a little hesitant to use them. They have plenty of meat left on them the only thing is that when I see all the other ones there is a weight on one drum and two on the other.

The ones I have do not have any weights on them and not sure if the person ran them unbalanced or if they are ok. Brake shop says the weight is usually tact welded on but there are no signs of them just falling off.

Are these safe to use?
 
Since no one responded I guess I will...You won't hurt anything by trying them, if you go down the road and you feel vibration then you know they aren't good.
 
Your brake shop don't know SHzzT about aluminum drums as the weights are put on them with a real funny rivet stud thing and when the weight comes off the rivet thing is still there. If yours just have some like 1/8 in. holes around the outside then yours didn't need any wieght. Cast iron drum weights were tack welded on. Why didn't they just spin them up for you to see if they were out of balance? I've seen them with 1 weight and I've seen them with 4 weights on them and some with no weights on them. RUN UM.
 
Where can one buy Alum. drums ? Is it as simple as ordering a set for a T Type car and choosing the "with alum. drum" option, or is there a specific optional car to buy them for like the Camaro mentioned above ? If so, what year ?
 
Th
Where can one buy Alum. drums ? Is it as simple as ordering a set for a T Type car and choosing the "with alum. drum" option, or is there a specific optional car to buy them for like the Camaro mentioned above ? If so, what year ?



Third gen 82-92 Camaros and Firebirds had them. My 87 limited had them. I parted a 87 we4 that had them. Gbodyparts was redoing them but they are not cheap.
Autozone and aftermarket stores like that will not have them.
m233roller might have some.
Like Mike said they didn't all have weights on them
 
Received the drums today. Look great. Thanks. Anxious to install them.
 
My experience (limited compared to folks that have seen 100's of these cars) is that the aluminum drums were on the Non-posi TR cars. If the car was a factory G80, then it got steel drums. I had a 1886 GN that was a 1 owner non-posi car with aluminum drums. Also bought a rear out of a 87 Turbo T in lower Maryland from a salvage yard that was not a G80 car (I saw it together) and it also had the aluminum drums (this was back in 1992). If anyone else knows more about this, please share what you know.
 
since this got bumped up ..
posi were steel , open were aluminum and no option to change that ..only regal with posi to get aluminum drums was the GNx .
if anyone is looking for aluminums kirbansperformance.com will soon be carrying new aluminum drums
 
Its true we wil have reproduction aluminum brake drums sometime next month. Project has taken about a year. The idea was mine and I supplied an original example. Cardone did the rest.....they also made ones for the 12 bolt rear ends which has a slightly larger center hole veen though GM never made one for the 12 bolt.
ALuminum brake drums is one of thos eparts that needs no description as most owners know the benefits they offer over rusty steel ones. In 198 from
GM thye listed for $125 each....by 2001 according to my Buick Price books for the dealership they don;t even show up so they have not been available new for over 15 plus years...

finding good used ones is a basic crap shoot...until you get them and see how much meat is on them some states with inspections have certain requirements the other issue is some can have hairline cracks in them making them unsafe....again these have been my findings over the years and whY i Have had very very few sets for sale....

tough to find yet cam eon a multitude of a f and G body cars...not just our immediate market. Had Buick been more on the ball and made them an option they would have sold may more sets....been nice had they made the bumper aluminum reinforcement braces an option also....again sales would have been alot more....

again just my thoughts....as yo can imagine the market is huge for aluminum drums so we will be offering it to many other vendors

watch my weekly inner circle for more info and photos and pricing....currently I have no additional info on them. It was a tough sell to convince
Cardone to do it as they are in the rebuilding and replacement business and did see the market potential since steel drums are available all over..I think I won them over as I was the one that pushed them to make the brake bowl which has been very successful in our narrow market. By narrow I mean its not one of their big sellers across the board. .

This is not a part that will prove popular in a regular store if a person needs rear brake drums...they won;t care about the material unless they have a GM muscle car....

denniskirban@yahoo.com
 
Its true we wil have reproduction aluminum brake drums sometime next month. Project has taken about a year. The idea was mine and I supplied an original example. Cardone did the rest.....they also made ones for the 12 bolt rear ends which has a slightly larger center hole veen though GM never made one for the 12 bolt.
ALuminum brake drums is one of thos eparts that needs no description as most owners know the benefits they offer over rusty steel ones. In 198 from
GM thye listed for $125 each....by 2001 according to my Buick Price books for the dealership they don;t even show up so they have not been available new for over 15 plus years...

finding good used ones is a basic crap shoot...until you get them and see how much meat is on them some states with inspections have certain requirements the other issue is some can have hairline cracks in them making them unsafe....again these have been my findings over the years and whY i Have had very very few sets for sale....

tough to find yet cam eon a multitude of a f and G body cars...not just our immediate market. Had Buick been more on the ball and made them an option they would have sold may more sets....been nice had they made the bumper aluminum reinforcement braces an option also....again sales would have been alot more....

again just my thoughts....as yo can imagine the market is huge for aluminum drums so we will be offering it to many other vendors

watch my weekly inner circle for more info and photos and pricing....currently I have no additional info on them. It was a tough sell to convince
Cardone to do it as they are in the rebuilding and replacement business and did see the market potential since steel drums are available all over..I think I won them over as I was the one that pushed them to make the brake bowl which has been very successful in our narrow market. By narrow I mean its not one of their big sellers across the board. .

This is not a part that will prove popular in a regular store if a person needs rear brake drums...they won;t care about the material unless they have a GM muscle car....

denniskirban@yahoo.com
Cant wait to get a set have to do the brakes soon any way hopefully will be this month since the car is sitting at the shop
 
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