Has anybody used the Praise Dyno brake systems? A friend of mine recommended them as a reasonably priced upgrade my standard 4 wheel drums. Any thoughts about the system would be appreciated.
Here is a link to their site: http://www.musclecarbrakes.com/bib6772firebird.html

Hmmm. Anybody professional car parts company that has on their site that they sell parts that fit:

1964 Camaros

would scare me a bit.

(Look over at the left column of the page you linked)

320 bucks is pretty expensive to keep drum brakes...for a few bucks more why not do a front disc conversion??

thats for those early rare ones!

Ha! Dang... They had it correct on their home page, but that is still funny.
I'm guessing that no one has used them. In that case, does anybody still have their stock drum setup, and do you think they are adequately safe? My bird isn't road-worthy yet, and I have never driven anything like it before, so any heads up would be great.

We rebuilt my dad's car with the stock four wheel drums, but added power brakes. The car stops fast and square as the brakes are properly bled and adusted.

I would prefer disc brakes, especially since 99.9% of the cars on the road have disc brakes. Since this is a fair weather car and won't be doing mountain work or stop and go traffic, drum brakes are adequate. Repeat...adequate. They work as well as they did when the car was new. By today's standards, they would rate poor.

Remember - one of the biggest issues with drum brakes is terrible fade upon repeat uses. They get to be useless PDQ when they get hot.

Or wet.

Like Vikki mentioned, her car will only be doing "slow" leisurely driving. It all depends on how you intend to use the car. Daily driver? Definitely disc upgrade if funds allow. Just on the weekends or seasonally, sticking with drums would be fine. I drove mine all through highschool and as a daily driver up till '97 with manual drum brakes...now that I have discs up front, I wonder how the hell I didn't rear end somebody all those years of driving

Some people DO like the big bulging calf muscles one develops. But I suppose it would look weird to only have one leg built up

I've got the original power drum brakes in my car. They are more than adequate. The pedal feel is a little different than I am used to with modern disc brakes, but it stops fast and straight, and I have not yet had any issues with brake fade, even with the big hills all around, and crappy stop and go Vancouver traffic. As long as they are properly adjusted, drum brakes are just fine for a classic car that is only seeing occasional cruising. If you plan to be driving it a lot, or have a lead foot, then it's a whole other story, and you should upgrade to disc brakes.

I used to have a 74 Dodge Power Wagon with drum brakes that I used for off-roading, and the brake fade on it was terrible. I shattered several sets of pads. That's a scary feeling!

I just got my bird a week ago.. Its all original with manual 4 wheel drums.

Talking to some car people, they tell me I should restore this one, and not modify it.. Would adding a power booster to the drum brakes affect the originality (and the value) of the car?

Id like to minimally add a power booster, and possibly a disc conversion, but Im concerned that I will be lowering the value of the car.

Thoughts?
Thanks !

Reversible mods are generally not considered negative unless you are building a 100 point trailer queen. I also installed a brake booster for four wheel drums. Now that it's done, it probably wasn't at all necessary, pedal effort is very low.

Disc conversion is a little more invasive, but it's a safety upgrade and worth it if you plan to do more than weekend cruising.