Buffalo wire wheel hubs - Removal?

[m-mman]

The car: 1929 Cadillac Town Sedan equipped with buffalo wire wheels. 
I have the Buffalo tool and have removed the wheels, and now I want to remove the drum & bearing. BUT HOW?

Do you remove the 12 nuts that are against the drum? Are they locked studs or free turning bolts?
Do you remove the 'dust cover'?  Does it unscrew? And what is the little nut/stud next to it for? does it lock it somehow? 
I have included pictures

I am starting with the fronts, but if there is anything you can tell me about what I will find on the rears I would also be grateful.

[alsfarms]

Per the picture above, you need to remove the hex cap to access the wheel bearings.  Remove the spindle lock nut.  Having the lock nut out of the way, you can wiggle the whole drum assembly off the spindle.  Once the hub/drum assembly is off the car you can study and find the answer to your questions.  You are lucky, these wire wheels/hubs are some of the best designed wheels used during the late 1920's.  Good luck.

Al

Edited January 1, 2017 by alsfarms
spelling (see edit history)

[Ivan Saxton]

You will find that little nut, when tight, closes slightly a milled slot in the thread of the cap; and this prevents the grease cap from coming loose by itself.  You should have a double-end large tube spanner which fits the hex on the cap, the nut and locknut which retains the outer tapered roller baring cone, and allows you to set the pre-load of both bearings.   For the rear hubs,  after you remove the outer cap, remove the spring ring that retains the full-floating axle.  when you have the axle out,  you can remove the pair of large ring nuts which retain and pre-load the taper roller bearings.  Then the hub and drum slip off.           If you read Maurice Hendry's book on Cadillac, which AQ published about 40 years ago, you will learn that a couple of years into the OHV  V16,  they switched from the steel drums to sg cast iron drums, which improved the brakes out of sight.   You can achieve the same result by a sprayed coating of Metco  Spraysteel LS from an oxy-acetylene wire feed 10E or 12E  gun, where by the wire is fed through the flame by an air turbine which turns the feed rollers; and the compressed air propels the molten particles onto the prepared surface, and keeps the work down to suitable range of temperature.  "LS"stands for "low shrink", and the coating has significant molybdenum content.  It work-hardens in service, is compatible with modern brake linings that do not work brilliantly on old steel drums.  It is invisible modern technology which does not affect your authenticity.  You wil most easily find someone who uses an arc-spray machine with two feeds of smaller diameter wire for the same coating.     I have given more detail several times in past posts which you can find on the forum.