I am rebuilding a 67 for myself and putting in a 427 that I expect won't develop a lot of vacuum. My question is am I better off to leave the manual brake setup in the car or try a power or disc setup? I purchased the car not running so I was unable to try the brakes but I have driven a 70 Impala with manual drums and it stops really well. Anybody ran into this before?

Imho, the stock manual four wheel drum brakes are down-right scary on our cars when pushed to extremes!!

I always had to downshift my M-20 at speed to haul mine down..

He, He!!, that and open up my drivers side door AND drag my foot!!! AND I always kept good stock shoes/drums on my car!!

pdq67

Mine always stopped great unless they were cold, hot, or wet, in which case they could easily fade, or be generally unpredictable.

The only times I really had problems was trying to follow a friend on the highway who wants to drive like an idiot, and they fade. Stopping quickly from 80mph doesn't work that well... could be that my drums were at max too. They would fade quickly, but also recover in time to do the same thing.

I recommend power disc with your BB if you ever want to drive in highway traffic. Hydro or vacuum pump, or even an extra canister. Discs are much more predictable.

I got better braking from engine compression than the manual drums! I highly recommend power disc brakes.

Camaro drums were way undersized! SCARY!

I had the misfortune to purchase a car with a completely new, including all cyliners and lines, manual drum system. Being to cheap to replace them until I either run out of other projects to spend money on, or wear them out, I downshift, pray, and drag my feet a lot.

The worst thing is the tendency to make the car "twitch" unpredictably, which will happen if they're not adjusted perfectly.

go disc.

I've only had the opportunity to drive a first generation Camaro ('69) with drums once!
I'm glad it wasn't my car. I cheaped out and went with the factory power front disc setup on mine. It's GOT to be better than plain old drums all around.
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If you plan to drive the car a lot, or in a spirited manner, go with at least power assist, even if you don't upgrade to disc.

I changed my '69 Nova from manual drums to manual discs ('67 Camaro HD brakes) and it worked fine. I had to push harder, but it stopped in a straight line (!) and didn't fade nearly as badly.

I recently converted my 68 from manual drums to manual discs and love it. I have a 427 also and the manual drums were scary. The effort on the pedal is about the same, but the car stops much quicker and is more predictable than drums.

I don't know if anyone else experienced this, but with drums brakes you have to plan your stops and hit the brakes much earlier than if you had disk brakes. I would say switch to disk brakes whether you go manual or power. My 69 had manual drums all around and I would drive the car like grandma because I was scared someone would cut in front of me and I wouldn't be able to stop. People seem to do that when you have a nice car. I have disk now and don't worry about braking any more.

IMO, there is no real problem with manual brakes. Where you will notice an improvement though is going to front discs. Front discs with no power assist work fine.

FYI, '71 Camaros & '71 Pickups had manual discs brakes as standard equipment. Power was an option.