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

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.