Help!Did 1959 Bonnevilles come with heavy duty brakes?
 

I was just wondering since I need to buy front and rear brake drums and I thought I read somewhere where there was an option for heavy duty brakes on a 1959 Pontiac and I have a Bonneville and was wondering if the Bonnevilles came with the heavy duty brakes.I was looking at some drums online and some fronts were 3 inches and some were 2 1/2 inches and some rear drums were 2 1//2 and some were 2 inches.If anyone has any infromation on how wide they should be or if there even was a heavy duty brake option in 1959 or whether a bonneville came with the bigger brakes I would greatly appreciate it.Im probably going to have to take wheels off and measure them to see what I really need.Thanks

All Pontiac models that year would have come with the same brakes as standard equipment. There may have been a heavy duty option for heavy duty chassis cars (like police cars, taxis or ambulances); the option would have been for finned brake drums and/or possibly metallic brake shoes, but the dimensions of the shoes would have been the same.

You can look at a parts catalog on the Pontiac Safari website: http://www.pontiacsafari.com/MPC/index.htm

Yep...
 

although I cannot SWEAR '59's had 'em...early Ponchos had a HD brake option that included larger finned brake drums and 15" wheels to accommodate them. Jim Hillard showed me a set and I believe they came on police cars and taxi cabs...commercial fleet cars basically. I know...no help but just a FWIW. I'll do some digging.

Thanks for the info.I wonder why diiferent widths for the brake drums not unless they are measuring them wrong or maybe one is the inside and the other wider is an outside measurement.

Im almost sure my front drums are finned but they are 14 inch.Rears are not finned.My father ordered the 59 new and I know he wouldent have ordered heavy duty brakes and thats why i asked if the came standard on a bonneville since i thought maybe they did with the bonnys being heavier but it doesnt look like it from the info Im getting

I was under this 59 ambulance unbolting the 389 and manual trans setup when I glanced over at the finned front drums. The owner had them sold but they came stock on the ambulances and taxis.

Thats strange that an ambulance had a manual tranny

It also has floor mounted pedals like a 55-57...weird! BTW, I can zoom in on the original huge photo of the car so see the aluminum finned drums...look kinda like buick 45 fin drums but the fins are even bigger.
I grabbed the "compounding" unit from the clutch linkage. My old 57 chieftain had the same unit. I think it's there to make clutch pedal pressure low. My 57 piece was badly worn but this one looks like almost new.
I ran across a 57 ambulance in Wyoming that not only had a manual trans, it had factory tri-power. I've heard the tri power option didn't sell very well and the left over units were used on ambulances and hearses just to get rind of them.

Do you know if the brake pads are the same size as a car with the regular drums?thanks

My Hollander says all Pontiacs used 2.5" front shoes [Hollander number 25] from 59 to 64 and 62/63 big olds no matter which drums [aluminum or iron] are used.
Rears are 11"X2" [Hollander #26] in the same years.
Oh yeah, my book shows the H.D. brakes only came on taxis and police cars. It says nothing about special order H.D. brakes being available on Bonnevilles although my personal opinion is the H.D. brakes should have been standard equiptment on those big, heavy cars.
Also, 59 was the last year for ball bearings for the front hubs while 60 was the first year for roller bearings...a much better bearing IMHO.

When I was in high school in the early 60s a friend worked for a funeral home part time and they ran Pontiac station wagons modified to be ambulances. All were tripower three on the tree vehicles. I hung out at the funeral home some when he was working and rode shotgun when he answered calls. I remember when the new '62 came in and he and I took it out to the edge of town and wrung it out; it went. I do not know if those wagons had heavy duty brakes or if they were 425a cars and did not know enough back then to look. This was long before the days of EMS.

They actually used ball bearings on the front wheels through 1961, and changed to roller bearings in 1962.

Woops! I should have qualified that post....Hollander number 110 [hub and drum section] shows 60 and 61 front hubs with roller bearings for police cars.........doesn't say anything about ambulances or hearses tho.
Al spindles are the same from 59-64 with no changes for heavy duty brakes or changes from ball to roller bearings. And a H.D. front hub from a 60 Poncho is the same as a normal duty for a 61...weird.

here's a blown up photo.......wish I'd been able to grab these when I got the motor/trans.

The good thing about that is swapping to roller bearings is as simple as using later hubs. I have 1962 8 lugs on my car, they bolt right on.

There was a special roller bearing available that would fit 1961 and earlier hubs (they had a larger outside diameter to match the ball bearing race size); someone was selling them on eBay a few years back, but they were pretty expensive.

I have the conversion bearings on my '60. The outer races are extra thick in order to compensate for the smaller OD of the roller bearings compared to original ball bearings. I saw a set recently on E-bay....I think the starting price was around $150.00 for the set.