I am planning on removing the drums from the wood wheels. I want to paint them (currently rusty) and have them lightly turned to true them up. Is there any special problems in removing them? Do I just unbolt them and remove? The hub will not fall apart will it? I do not want to have one of the those problems that I caused. thanks
My 2 cents on the drums.
I wouldn't worry about truing up the drums since you will be bolting them back to the wood spokes, not exactly an opportunity for high precision. I don't believe that the drums were designed to be machined and reused but that is just a guess. The speeds at which these cars were driven are all pretty minimum by today's standards. Of course there is always the concern for how fast do you really want to drive a car with 80 year old wood wheels.
If you remove the drums the wheels should not fall apart and if they do then you should get them respoked. I would mark the drum so that it is reinstalled in the same position. I don't remember off hand if the bolts are off center to provide only one position for installation.
For more info, See the link below to a recent brake repair I did:
http://www.chetscoins.com/1929/Work_Files/Brakes01062007.htm
Chet...
I removed the drums. No problems. Just unbolt from the hub. I took the drums to a machine shop and had them cleaned. The rear drums were coated with grease as the rear axle seal was leaking. Once cleaned, then I bead blasted them. I had them measured and were mostly round. I decided not to cut them but just use them. I have new shoe ordered, I had to send my shoes to get relined. I can always remove them in the future to cut if I get a pulse brake pedal or if they pull to one side and can not get that adjusted out. rusty