your thoughts ? 17"-18" wheels with 10" rear drum brakes ?

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rustytoolss

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whats your thought about using 17-18" wheels with 10" drum brakes on rear and disc on front/ as far as the rear drum looking too small for the larger wheel. I don't plan to use wheels that have a lot of open /see through area. But would rather find more beefy looking wheels. But would still like to use larger wheels for a more modern up to date look. Thoughts ? this is for a 1962 Plymouth Fury wagon. Thanks
 
I ran 17" with 11" drums painted black. Not a big detractor. The nice thing about larger wheels is you get a way more choices in tire compounds, modern casing designs, and superior tread designs.
 
I ran 17" with 11" drums painted black. Not a big detractor. The nice thing about larger wheels is you get a way more choices in tire compounds, modern casing designs, and superior tread designs.
^^^ What he said. Paint them black.

These are 17’s with an 11” drum. When they’re spinning you can’t tell if they’re disc or drum brakes, and when just sitting there, they nearly disappear.
My fronts are Wilwood disc. Just make sure the backspacing is correct so you don’t have fitment issues.

Your car, make it yours! :usflag:

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Not my 67 Charger but the 17" Magnum 500s look good!
Tires are 285/40
As mentioned above, there is much better selection of High Performance and Ultra-High Performance 17" tires than stock size wheels.


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front-tire-jpg.jpg
 
With 17’s it shouldn’t be too bad. With 18’s the 10” rear drums will look a little small. But it does depend on how “see through” the design of your wheels are.

I ran 11x2.5” rear drums on my Duster with 18” wheels, the nice thing about the 11” drums is that the finned version has a pretty large outer diameter. Since you'd got a pretty large B-body it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to the 11" brakes anyway. You can run the later B/R body 11.75" rotors on 73+ spindles up front. The 11.75's fill up a set of 17's really well, and don't look bad at all with 18's.

This is my Challenger with 11.75" rotors up front and the 11x2.5" drums in the back, with 17x9's and 275/40/17's.
IMG_3015.jpeg


You can see what I mean about the 11x2.5's and the finned drums, they're big.
IMG_6518.jpeg


On my Duster with an 18x10" rear wheel
IMG_6516.jpeg


And from a little further away. Painted black the drums get pretty hard to see anyway. And the Enkei RPF1's don't hide anything, they're very "see through" with the thin spokes.
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These are 18" wheels that the owner black discs/dust shields behind to hide whatever was behind them or keep the brake dust off...
Not sure but they could be Ride Tech Wheel Plates or fabricated.

upload_2021-1-17_13-29-5.png
 
How about a nice big set of cross drilled and slotted "Dust Shields"?
Yeah, not for me either...
But if you use them, make sure you have the slots pointing the right direction.
:lol:

upload_2021-1-17_13-38-17.png
 
With 17’s it shouldn’t be too bad. With 18’s the 10” rear drums will look a little small. But it does depend on how “see through” the design of your wheels are.

I ran 11x2.5” rear drums on my Duster with 18” wheels, the nice thing about the 11” drums is that the finned version has a pretty large outer diameter. Since you'd got a pretty large B-body it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to the 11" brakes anyway. You can run the later B/R body 11.75" rotors on 73+ spindles up front. The 11.75's fill up a set of 17's really well, and don't look bad at all with 18's.

This is my Challenger with 11.75" rotors up front and the 11x2.5" drums in the back, with 17x9's and 275/40/17's.
View attachment 1715671682

You can see what I mean about the 11x2.5's and the finned drums, they're big.
View attachment 1715671681

On my Duster with an 18x10" rear wheel
View attachment 1715671683

And from a little further away. Painted black the drums get pretty hard to see anyway. And the Enkei RPF1's don't hide anything, they're very "see through" with the thin spokes.
View attachment 1715671680
B-body it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to the 11" brakes anyway.
See since it's a 62 it has tappered rear axles. finding 11" rear brake drums and backing plates, would not be easy or cheap.
 
See since it's a 62 it has tappered rear axles. finding 11" rear brake drums and backing plates, would not be easy or cheap.

ohhhh that’s a good point. Sorry I forgot about the tapered axle deal. Honestly you’d probably be better off looking for a 65+ B body 8 3/4 than trying to find different brakes for that axle. Heck you might even find one with 11” drums already.

What are you running for brakes up front? Have you converted those to the later disk stuff?
 
^^^ What he said. Paint them black.

These are 17’s with an 11” drum. When they’re spinning you can’t tell if they’re disc or drum brakes, and when just sitting there, they nearly disappear.
My fronts are Wilwood disc. Just make sure the backspacing is correct so you don’t have fitment issues.

Your car, make it yours! :usflag:

View attachment 1715671666

View attachment 1715671667

Tinmannz,

Does your car have '70 Road Runner tail lamps in the rear bumper? If so, can we see it? If not, there is a car very similar to yours that does.
 
ohhhh that’s a good point. Sorry I forgot about the tapered axle deal. Honestly you’d probably be better off looking for a 65+ B body 8 3/4 than trying to find different brakes for that axle. Heck you might even find one with 11” drums already.

What are you running for brakes up front? Have you converted those to the later disk stuff?
car was converted to disc up front. Rear axle change/ maybe someday. Right now need to spend money in better places.
 
car was converted to disc up front. Rear axle change/ maybe someday. Right now need to spend money in better places.

Oh totally, I feel you. Paint the drums black and run it!

I know the availability of 8 3/4’s isn’t what it used to be. I’ve pulled complete drum to drum 8 3/4’s from PickNPull for like $175. It would cost more to rebuild those tapered axle brakes. With a ‘62 B body you have some options that shouldn’t cost as much, A-body 8 3/4’s are pretty much the most expensive ones to get. With a B body wagon and 17/18” wheels you can run a wider 8 3/4, which would open up some less expensive options.
 
whats your thought about using 17-18" wheels with 10" drum brakes on rear and disc on front/ as far as the rear drum looking too small for the larger wheel. I don't plan to use wheels that have a lot of open /see through area. But would rather find more beefy looking wheels. But would still like to use larger wheels for a more modern up to date look. Thoughts ? this is for a 1962 Plymouth Fury wagon. Thanks

Paint the drums flat black and it will look fine. I ran 17 inch Fikse rims on my Coronet for years with 11 inch drums out back and it looked fine. If the drums are painted flat black you won't even see them unless you get close and look. The most important thing with 17 or 18 inch wheels is to find the correct tires. It can be really hard to find a tire size that looks good on that size of wheel. You usually want a tire that is at least 27 inches tall maybe even up to 28 inches for a big car. Something like a 235/55-17 works pretty well on B body cars.
 
Here's mine (older pic before I lowered the suspension), it's pretty hard to see the unpainted rear 10" drums unless you're up close. I should probably paint mine black but I put 18" wheels on my car to make it handle better not necessarily for looks. Same goes for the front brakes, I have factory 11" '73-up discs and they do look kind of small but it's not really noticeable unless you look hard. This year I might be upgrading to 12" Cordoba rotors but I doubt it'll look much different, I just want more braking power for when I decide to go to the "big" local road course with an actual legit straightaway.

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