I am tossing around the idea of rebuilding my rear brake drums this winter. I see Performance Years has a kit that comes completely rebuilt. That could save one project, anyone have any experience with the kit?

If you are going to go that route - why not bump up to the 11 inch taxi/police interceptor rear drum kits?

But that will require 15 inch wheels in case you have not gone aftermarket disc for the fronts and had to do that already.

I did go disc up front and swapped for 15x7 all around. Give me more info about this please, I haven't heard of anyone doing this.

?? Forgive me but I might be confused by the question. Which specific "kit" are you asking about? I can't find anything like that on the brake pages of PY's Firebird catalog.

FWIW, if you just want to restore your factory rear brakes, I'll vote for just using your local auto parts store for a project like this, and skip the repro houses. Everything is readily available, cheap, and your local shop will often give you a lifetime warranty on parts. I very recently rebuilt my entire rear drum setup. Everything was in stock at my local O-Reilly's. $34 got me a lifetime warranty on 2 new wheel cylinders & shoes, and that price included a hardware kit with all new springs & clips.

Plus I gave them another $24 turn the 2 drums. Rarely do drums need replacement unless yours are REALLY badly corroded from being parked underwater for years, or if they have been turned too many times.

Everything else there was just some manual cleanup up of dirt/rust, and lubricating parking brake cables and shoe sliding surfaces, etc. All told it was $58 out of pocket, plus some grease and brake cleaner & fluid, and it only took me a couple hours, working at a methodical snail's pace...and 10 years from now if I have a cylinder go bad or shoes wear out I can exchange it for free...

That is good advice. The page number is 111. Left hand column. Your advice would save me a bundle; I did not really think the locals would have the parts.

I did this a few months ago.
All of the parts can be gotten at NAPA/ORielly/AutoZone no problem and cheap.
The only parts that are not easy to get are certain bolts, that attach the brake cylinders and any brackets, so save them .
There are particular springs that attach and seat the shoes and they should not be interchanged e.g. specific springs hold down specific shoes. The conical spring holds down the front shoe
There are particular length of "nails" that are used to attach the shoes, the hold down springs are compressed on them and held in place with a sheet metal nut.
This month's Muscle Car Review has an excellent article on the whole process.

Also take a picture of the setup BEFORE you start removing anything and only do one side at atime so you can have a reference.
Get the special brake tool set with tool for removing and replacing the hold down springs.

Remember the small shoes go front.
Autozone has a whole, cheap kit with all of the springs, nails and sheet metal nuts.

I assume you have a different catalog than I do... I'm just looking at the downloaded one straight off PY's website for Firebird. Page 111 has door locks, fuel doors, and license lamps...no brakes.

Regardless, your local auto parts store will absolutely be able to set you up with basic drum rebuild stuff to make it all work as good as new again, if that's all you're after. Frankly, almost EVERYTHING mechanical for these cars can be sourced thru local auto parts stores...but their parts will be ONLY functional...not concourse (with proper casting #'s, date codes, etc). If you want both functional AND concourse, then repro houses or NOS at old dealers will be your alternatives.

I'm glad I asked before blowing the cash. Thanks.

I rebuilt all 4 drum brakes on my bird. Turned the drums, rebuilt the brake cylinders, new pads and springs. Master and lines were fine.

If you rebuild the cylinders you need a honer (not expensive).

You can buy complete cylinders (NOS or new) on eBay for cheap.

I recommend doing all 4 drums at the same time. Fronts much more important than rears as well.

Properly adjusted, drum brakes can be very effective and you keep your car original.

I think the kit he's talking about has them all preassembled on a new backing plate. seems like a good way to go. You just have to remove the axles. I may gonthat way on my goat project, since ite needs new backing plates anyway.

I really don't think I need the backing plate and drums that it would come with. I just figured the fronts are brand new with discs, why not have the drums new too. But from the prior posts, I could have brand new brakes anyway at a fraction of the cost. I think the majority of the $400 is the assembly cost, not even adding in shipping for those heavy suckers.