Over on the B-body forums a guy has a caprice with aluminum brake drums. He also said that they were used on malibu's and monte's in the early 80's. I was wondering if they were just used to hide the rust of the usual steel drums? or if they were used to save weight? or what? thanks -James  

Faster heat dissapation, a long tried experiment since the 1920s or 30s to rid drum brakes of temperature to reduce or eliminate fade. Buick used a beautiful set of finned aluminum drum brakes in the 1950s to the advent of disks, Pontiac never caught on to the idea of using brakes to slow or stop (the unstoppable GTO was just that), Chevrolet was always somewhere in between.

Aluminum is not a suitable surface to apply brake shoes against, so if you dissect the aluminum drums, you'll find a thin cast iron or steel shell inside that provides the friction surface.

Bogie