Does anyone know if late model 4 stud rear drums (including backing plate etc) will fit onto an early (1963) beetle swing axle rear end?

yes they do, but if your going to the trouble the get a set of late Type 3 brakes. The 63 has short axles ( unless someone has changed them) so the hub needs machining.

I have these fitted to my Orange car... bit of machining of the hub and bearing spacer. They work great with discs on the front.

Make sure you get all the backing plate, shoes , hubs, brake drum and bearing retainer.

Thanks for that Dave, the appeal for fitting the later drums is so I can run my Fuchs and buy new blank drums and have them drilled to suit so I don't have to run adaptors. If I can get blank type III drums I'll definitely go that way.

Redrilling drums is illegal right?

You need to take 15mm off the nose of the drum (for both type 3 and late beetle drums) then they basically bolt on

and make sure you remember to get the backing plate etc

The hard part will be getting Blank drums. VVDS has had NEW undrilled hubs made suitable to have the small 5 stud pattern drilled into them.

The back of the hub has to be clearence as well... and the spacer checked and machined so as to align the brake shoes correctly on the brake surface.

The new hubs have a 5 star web pattern on the rear and can be drill to suit any pattern.

I am interested to know if you find any BLANK drums as i believe they have all dried up.

Hi

I had billet blank Type 3 flanges made for my car by Dave Stocker from LMS, you could use these with Type 3 brakes, just redrill the holes in the drum face or just machine down blank Beetle drums to look like a Type 3 drive flange. I have fitted a few sets of Type 3 brakes to early bugs, they really just bolt straight on, just machine down the snout on the drum to suit as already said.

1302Steve