Thanks for digging that up, Gary...
The last link, where the guy has used a ¾" hole saw, has a lot of discussion which I find so typical of these kinds of things.
He had the hole saw go into the face of the drum just outside the holes. He pulled the hole saw up before he cut right through so the original size hole was left intact, if only in a thinner form than it had been occasionally.
And then someone suggested he weld it back up. Why? because "I would be concerned with how the oem rim gets pulled against the drum
when you tighten the lugnuts--the nuts might deform the opening in the
rim without the proper backing from the drum..."
A statement which led to the OP going to a lot of trouble with JB Weld etc, and others looking on agreeing. But should they have agreed?
To illustrate the fact that they haven't seemed to check out things properly, I've included a photo I've taken of the back of a wheel lug pressing on a wheel I have lying around. They are all like this, the hole around the lug will be the best part of 9/16", then it tapers up at the back of the nut before it goes back down to form the part which bears on the drum. My picture shows that this one is fully 1.25" across, way wider than the ¾" these people are worrying about.
Then let's look at the engineering principles in all of this. The drum is held in place by the wheel, it needs no locating to keep it from moving in there. It is necessary for it to be centred on the wheel register, of course, but the lugs don't do anything about holding it in use. Just as the tapered axles don't drive through the key, it's friction which takes the driving force. That is an engineering principle and you can readily see the same thing in milling machines, serious drill presses and lathes where they have their own tapers to carry the work or the tools and they don't have keys at all.
By the way, some of the people on the Forward Look forum assure me that loosening the nut on the tapered axle slightly and driving around the block will usually break the hold of the taper. Then, of course, you would be driving through the key/keyway. But you wouldn't need a big puller.
Relating this to the front, such methods could be used to remove the drum, it's almost guaranteed to be rusted in place so some patience and thought might be required.
The one area in which I would urge caution is in the base of the lugs once the swage cutter or hole saw has done the job. There might be sharp corners in there which will become stress raisers and might make them subject to breakage down the track. I'd get some lugs off a later model, they are easily found in wrecking yards or you can buy them new.
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