Topic: Front Brake Drums

[Sunlitgold68]

I am looking for some definitive answers regarding the front brake drums used in 1968. Did Ford use different brake drums at the 3 separate plants? Did Ford switch from smooth drums to finned drums during the production year? The UAW photo shows a white fastback on the assembly line with a smooth brake, not the finned version. This photo was from last year 67.

What has been found on survivors? finned or smooth.

[J_Speegle]

Don't recall ever seeing factory finned brake drums on an early Mustang though some service replacements were made

With that stated no one seems to take allot of picture  of brake drums when taking pictures of their car. But looking though the 67-68 pictures (about 6300 I have I found.

No 67-68's from NJ or Dearborn with the finned front brake drums

Did find two (one from a real original car had one smooth and one finned so I would guess that it is a replacement)  68 San Jose cars with finned front drums. May be a different supplier but would guess that instead they were replaced some where in the past. We did have a car in a shop a few weeks ago with finned front brake drums but the dates did not match the car so they had been added at some point

Hope this helps a little

[Sunlitgold68]

yes that helps Jeff. I've had about the same # of people tell me smooth and finned. What does a typical brake drum date code look like?

I have a set of smooth brake drums and I called the man I got them from. He said he personally removed them from a low mileage 68 just last year but he could not recall the assembly plant.

[gtamustang]

Jeff,

I have come across serveral late 68s that had the finned front drums. There is one local (NLO) built July 68 that has them (Fomoco and dated). I will try to get a picture soon. John's (Sunlitgold68) Mustang is a late May build, so I recommended the finned drums to be correct.

Pete

[J_Speegle]

Jeff,

I have come across serveral late 68s that had the finned front drums. There is one local (NLO) built July 68 that has them (Fomoco and dated). I will try to get a picture soon. John's (Sunlitgold68) Mustang is a late May build, so I recommended the finned drums to be correct.

Thanks Pete - again the forum members benefit from the wide amount of experiences of participants here

[Sunlitgold68]

Scott Fuller's 15K mile original survivor does have finned front brake drums. It is a Metuchen built car built in late 68. This does not mean all 68's came with finned front drums though but makes me believe mine also came with finned front drums. It is believed a change over occurred sometime in 1968 from smooth to finned.

[dave6768]

Just discovered that my rear finned drums on my July 68 Metuchen car are too big to be turned.  Is there a source for these?  Or do I have to look for good used?   Can they be spray welded and returned?

For reference, my fronts are finned too.  I have not checked the date codes yet.

[krelboyne]

Old topic, but I found some relevant information in the Mercury MPC. Looks like heavy duty suspension received the flared or finned front brake drums. Posting copies of both Ford and Mercury MPC from 1975. Note that the Mercury MPC denotes with or without F70 x 14 tires.

[J_Speegle]

Old topic, but I found some relevant information in the Mercury MPC. Looks like heavy duty suspension received the flared or finned front brake drums. Posting copies of both Ford and Mercury MPC from 1975. Note that the Mercury MPC denotes with or without F70 x 14 tires.

April 68 MPC shows it as 67 390's ordered without Disc with the flare drums  (part number C6OZ-1102-B) or with wide ovals. No mention of suspension package. 2 27/32 brAKE surface compared to the 2 9/16 for 289 cars

Thanks for posting  now to find a few original cars ordered with HD suspension and without disc to confirm what is in print with what they did on the line. And to confirm "flared" = "Finned"  Just to put a bow on it

Just focusing on 67 (one of the two years) at the moment.

Not going to be easy to find examples

[KevinK]

I have a set of finned front drums sitting here needing a new home. I had them posted here awhile back but was only able to unload the spindles. Actually pretty clean and not rusty.

I got them from a guy who completed. A 69 project.

[dkknab]

Old topic but I wanted to revisit this given my front drums. I took some pictures without taking off the wheels. On both sides I can clearly see FOMOCO embossed on the front and the front is blacked out as would be expected for my styled wheels. I can also see B52 which I am guessing is the date code for my drums. This date code does not seem to go along with what is mentioned in the CMF Date Decoding document. These front drums are finned whereas my rear drums are not.

So can anyone tell me are these original to my car? If not are they at least service replacement parts? Do I have to replace them with non finned ones to be concours driven correct? I've been looking around and it seems the non finned ones are tough to come by.

[dkknab]

And I was also able to get another picture from the passenger side. It looks like C6 but is hard to determine what the first character is.