drum brake question: 68 valiant

[spudsterier]

i have a 68 valiant with manual front and rear drums and was wondering how good these brakes are?
the car is going to have a 360 in it and i want to know if the drums would give me enough stopping power or if i should just get the disk setups now?

 

[mopar head]

If 10" you should be ok, depends on you driving habits, I`ve only puckered up twice in 12 years. But if you have the resources, discs would be better8)

 

[spudsterier]

i dont plan on driving this car all that nice.....ive always had a heavy foot and this car is going to have alot more power then any RWD that im used to...

i have heard so many different stories about what cars i can the front disc brake setup from, but does anyone have a good list available so when i go to the junk yard i can try to find the parts?

 

[65barracudadude]

GET THE DISKS!!!!!!!! If you can. It's not worth the heartache you'll have when your doing 120mph and you cant stop. I had 10" drums all the way around in one of my '68 barracuda's and I was doing about 110mph and couldn't stop in time and ended up doing a 360 in the middle of an intersection. I was scared out of my mind. And I never drove like that again until I switched a different '68 barracuda to front disks. That thing would stop on a dime.

 

[dgc333]

If the car was a \6 it likely has 9" drums which are down right dangerous at Hi-way speeds.

I swapped the disks from a 73 A-body into my 68 Barracuda. You will need the upper control arms and spindles for the swap. I used the calipers and master cylinder from the doner car as cores for rebuilt items and purchased new rotors, bearings and hoses. I used the doner cars proportioning valve. The drum cars just have a distribution block.

At the same time I swapped in an 8.25" rear end to replace the 7.25 and upp'd the back to 10x2.5" drums.

The difference was like night and day, I stayed manual so the disks do take more leg to get max stopping power but its not an issue for me but if my wife was driving the car regularly I would have to get a power booster.

 

[spudsterier]

i dont think im going to worry about going to power brakes or anything since im going to be the main person the drives the car...my wife wants to drive it once and a while but she would just be cruising around town....

as of right now i have an 8 3/4 rear end with all small bolt stuff, but i also have the 10" drums that are redy to go on.....i also alredy have the proportioning valve and some brand new NOS rotors....i just need the calipers, spindles, and i might have a set of A arms alredy, but i will probally just end up taking them off a donor car as well

thanks