Brakes: (front) drum brakes to disks?

[940_Turbo]

Originally Posted by Gibson

Thanks man. I now assume that drum brakes are not necessarily a bad thing, but still, good to know that replacing them would be more than an afternoon work..

They're not a bad thing. It can be a bit tricky to set them up so they pull up straight, they're sensitive to having the shoes adjusted equally from left to right. Their stopping power is actually greater than the disk brake setup.

The issue with the drum setup comes when the car get driven really hard. It isn't that difficult to cook the brakes when really hammering them repeatedly. It's an issue on rally cars, on a normally used road car it is fine.

[Gibson]

Originally Posted by swedishandgerman

It's true. I used to work for VW and there was this ol' boy who used to buy a new Polo every year. There was one time, little did he know, that his 'new' Polo was actually older than his 'old' one

And another reason why I never buy a "new" car..

[Gibson]

Originally Posted by jakobandhismakarov

Could it be an 'old stock' car that was registered late, or imported from a RHD country like NZ or Australia? Not sure when they got Amazons though.

It does happen, I have a mate with an N reg Peugeot 205. You could buy a 106 for two years by that point! You'd be amazed what sits around in compounds.

It was imported into Holland this year and it was originally Swedish..

[classicswede]

My memory mught be going but I was sure 64 was the change over year. Std models had drums and the 122's had discs

[asneddon]

Drums are better than disks in all but two ways:
1) They can be over heated more easily. Unless you are racing I dont think this will be a problem.
2) they weigh more, so your unslung weight is higher, giving a slightly reduced suspension reaction time to bumps. With the old volvo 70+ profile tyres Im not sure you would notice this.

I personally like drums, but possibly Im a bit weird that way.

Go for the nicer of the two.

[TomTom]

http://www.volvoamazonpictures.se/mo...odelyears.html

This gives a list of the year-by-year changes and may help you work out of the '64 car is in fact older. I would be driven by body condition, and not a lot else.

Tom

[Gibson]

Originally Posted by TomTom

http://www.volvoamazonpictures.se/mo...odelyears.html

This gives a list of the year-by-year changes and may help you work out of the '64 car is in fact older. I would be driven by body condition, and not a lot else.

Tom

Cool list, thanks..

[classicswede]

Originally Posted by TomTom

http://www.volvoamazonpictures.se/mo...odelyears.html

This gives a list of the year-by-year changes and may help you work out of the '64 car is in fact older. I would be driven by body condition, and not a lot else.

Tom

Great link. Glad my memory has not gone and 64's should be drums and changed at the end of that year.

[tom-madbiker]

go with the one with the better body/chassis as this is the expensive bit should it need attention this is through experience as i deal with a lot of old cars through my business and its always very time consuming

[Gibson]

Hi all,

Thanks a lot for the many useful reactions, we had a look (and a drive) yesterday and decided to pass on this car.

The bodywork has had some attention in the past, but the paintwork was done by an amateur, (sagging paint, rust already showing through) lower door panels had been replaced, but were rusting again, all rubbers were pretty much gone, and there was already some water in the footwells.
The brakes were not properly synchronised (is that the correct term?) and in my opinion severely lacking in power, so these would need a bit of work.
Finally: it had been imported, but did not have an MOT yet, and I think it would fail on more than just the brakes.

Anyway, we were looking for a daily driver and this was not the car for us at the moment..