drum brake - blank drums or drill

For the TR4 vintage racer - my local sanctioning folks want to see floating axles on TR4s (there have been a couple TR axles breaks on the carousel at Road America - with resulting squashed TRs) - the option is an expensive conversion of the triumph axle by a guy doing it part time or drop in a ford 8". Being cheap - 8" for me. Found one, cut it down....now for brakes - I'm planning on keeping the car 4 x 4.5 lugs with 10" drums on the rear to meet the spec. Is there someplace to get blank drums for the 4 x 4.5 or just have some off the shelf 5 lug drums redrilled for 4-lug. Apparently a 10" 4 lug ford drum is a unicorn part and I managed to pick up a rear without backing plates/drums

The Datsun rear I have (in my Austin) has 4 X 4.5. But I think the drums may be 9".

According to what I've seen the following cars could have the 4 X 4.5 pattern:

Older Mustangs & Capri 6 Cyl, Some Datsuns, MGB, certain Mazda & Toyota

The tricky part is that the 4-lug mustangs, comets, mavericks I've come across had 9" drums, everything with 10" seems to be 5-lug. This is the point where I really miss parts guys that know their stuff.

I'd redrill what I could find in 10" drums. It is just a few bucks to redrill at the machine shop.

Drums are normally made to pick up the spud on the axle if the 10" drums have same axle ID hole then its quick easy drill job if not and you wish to rely on the stud to center the drum your in for a pain in the butt.... You'll need to make a drill guide to pick up the drums id and then have guide holes for the studs and then a final ream to size. Then hope your studs are drill and in straight.... BTDT. My drill guide was 4inch thick chunk of Alum with stud holes that fit drill bushings so i could use center bit swap out the drill bushing install bigger id bushing and drill bigger hole then swap again for the reamer. It works but was not quick or easy. I tried other methods and never ended up with out a pulse in the pedal from "out of round" drum.

http://4wheelonline.com/products.aspx?categoryid=39524&productid=102783

He's not cheap, by any means. But he's got all the parts you need.

Lots of 4x4.5" out there, the big 10" drums are the hard part.

A Toyota Van '84-89 up? could be a canidate, 4x4.5 and 10" drums.....

MGA and MGB rear drums are 4 on 4.5 and 10".

So why not adapt the TR4 backing plates etc to the Ford axle? Couldn't be THAT hard.

So I can pick up some early bronco backing plates for about $25 (small bearing 9" diff will match up with the 8"). matching 10" bronco drums will be 5 lug on 5 1/2"... At least that's where my head is for now. Gets complicated with different pad widths/years, bearing size and I'm a little out of my element on drums.

So is it a big deal swapping out toyota or whatever drums with ford backing plates or do I need the matching set?

I now get what you are doing. I remember I had a big Bronco that had 11" drums....and I think a Bronco II has 9" drums? Not sure about the 10" Bronco drums, but they are probably out there. What wheels are you using?

It may not be worth the effort and aggregation of some Toyota/Ford hybrid drum combination. It is probably easier to get Ford axles to mate up with some Ford drums you use. The wheels will need to work with the axle/drum combo also.

For instance, I ran into a problem with this Jimmy GMC build. I re-drilled the 8.8 Ford axles/discs for a Chevy pattern. The centering circle on the Ford axle protrudes out about 3/8 inch after the disc rotor is installed. . The Chevy Corvette wheels won't fit over this Ford centering circle. I could lathe it off, but I am now making 3/8's spacers. Kinda a pain.

If I were you, I would simply re-drill the matching Bronco 10" drums for 4X4.5". If you do not do it (re-drill them) yourself, most axle companies can do it for you, pretty cheaply. Currie would charge $50 each? $50 pair? not sure.....? to re-drill the drums for you.

HTH http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/productsRE.aspx?id=2339