Worn disks, leaky calipers and brake cylinders, etc......
Since I'm up for new brakes, what can I do to upgrade for better stopping???
I don't think it's worth going to rear disks for my style of driving.
Car specs below....
i doubt under any stock, or semi-upgrade you need rear disks, i have mk2s and mk3s and both with rear drum, still, no prob, then again i have a good setup and more than enough braking. the rears in these vws have a lot less weight than the front, and if you do end up 'diving' braking in an emergency, the drums are reliable, where as a disk you ll have to adjust it and can easily over brake(locking up) there by doing the opposite of what your intending.
I would have to echo air cooled on this. Just do a good rebuild with either turned drums or new drums, new cylinders as they are cheap, and proper shoes. There are many choices of materials out now that were not part of the equation 10 years ago. So you might find something that fits your style of driving better.
I did a brake job on my Ford a bit ago and upgraded the pads to something that did better with heat as I was starting to pull a trailer and that wasn't something that I had done on long trips before now.
Shop about, good luck.
brakes are a funny thing, alot is riding on your brakes, not only you, but including the suspension to the tires, its not a long guess that if your brakes are that bad, what about the adjoining systems. a healthy suspension, proper alignment. good parts, last i checked there was a good selection of parts, and the prices are good. if you swap-out the brakes and the other parts arent up to par, the whole thing can have shortened life, abnormal wear, and/or not work but so well; i ve even seen where an old part can 'snap' after another part is changed. like when you need it the most, &put it past its (tired or spacey)strength. like also a hard dive, and then its not hard to figure, a good chance you cannt control the car if it goes that far.