Featured Projects 1932 Roadster Traditional Upgrades: Lincoln Brakes, Gauges & Steering

These last few months I’ve had the pleasure of working on my friend and customer, Geoffrey Skene, beautiful 1932 Standard Roadster. Once a red HiBoy Hot Rod in the 1950’s with a magazine cover and feature, it was restored to a high degree of accuracy in the 1980’s by a local Southern California man, Dennis Kean and received a Dearborn Award from the Early V8 Club of America. It changed hands a number of times over the years and eventually was purchased by long-time family friend, Chris Wickersham of Pasadena, California. Chris loved the cars Hot Rod history and was heavily considering changing it into a fenderless Traditional Roadster once again, albeit in a strictly bolt-on fashion. Ultimately, he decided to leave it alone and move on from it.

The Roadster had caught the eye of our mutual friend, Geoffrey, and a deal was struck. Part of that deal included Chris modifying the car into a subtle, pre-War Hop Up. The original 1932 65hp V8 and transmission were removed and in their place a thoroughly hopped up Model B engine built by the late Jay Steele of Taylor Engine and B trans case with later, 1939 DeLuxe gear set assembled by Chris. The engine features insert bearings, full pressure oil system, forged pistons, performance cam, lightened flywheel and reproduction aluminum Riley 4-port head with Stromberg of England “81” carbs and a Reds header.

Additional upgrades include a modified 1933/1934 rear axle with Columbia overdrive by Joe Longobardi, mild lowering with reversed spring eyes and a couple of leaves removed, fabricated 2” exhaust with Smithy muffler and Chris painstakingly going through the original mechanical brakes making them the best that they could possibly be Excelsior 5.50 and 6.50 tires and a Pete Eastwood dropped headlight bar. Once completed, the Roadster was shipped home to Wyoming for Geoff to enjoy.

Earlier this year (April, 2024) the Roadster returned back to Southern California as I agreed to store it for Geoff at my shop, Early V8 Garage, so that he could participate in the Pasadena Roadster Clubs return of their infamous Reliability Run. While here Geoff mentioned the possibility of having me do some additional work to the car, namely converting it to hydraulic brakes. He was a little on the fence about disturbing Chris’ mechanical brake work but driving the car over the local San Gabriel Mountains in both directions on the Reliability Run convinced Geoff that it should be done.











To be continued…

 

Thank you kindly for your post and story - the car is simply Beautiful - love it and the history
thanks

 

Beautiful roadster. Love the motor!

 

Incredible car!

 

What a 32!

 

PART 1

To convert the car to hydraulic brakes I will be using one of my complete kits consisting of master cylinder bracket kit, hand brake kit and pre-formed brake lines. All of which is 100% bolt-on using only factory holes and NO modifications to the brake pedal.





As for the brakes, Geoff was fortunate to already own a complete set of original 1939/1940 Lincoln brakes and drums. These are a major advantage when used with any 1932-1936 Ford that still has a stock, non dropped axle because unlike the 1939-1948 Ford hydraulics or reproduction Lincoln-style brakes they DO NOT increase the front track width thanks to their 1” inward offset over the spindle, the same inward offset as the original mechanical brakes. The 1939/1940 front plates also have the same center hole size and bolt pattern as 1932-1936 spindles which make them a direct fit after some minor tweaks to the spindles.

This particular set of plates and matching, correct grease baffles had already been powder coated some years back then stored away. The drums had been media blasted at the same time and will need a touch up blast before paint.





The car was put into position on stands and all of the mechanical brakes, tie rod, drag link, spindles and pedals removed. The axle ends then got a thorough cleaning.

















All of the cast off mechanical brakes. The only parts that will be reused is the pedal assembly.





To be continued…

 

PART 2

With the car taken apart the next step was to finish preparing the rest of the parts.

Starting with the pedals, the shaft was replaced with the new, longer one in my master cylinder kit and the kit lever was match drilled to the 5/16” hole on the pedal upright lever. The kit includes new pedal bushings but the existing bushings are in excellent condition and a nice fit on the new shaft so there was no need to change them. Ordinarily, the kit lever is pre drilled, matched to an original pedal set I have on hand and painted but whenever I do an installation in-house I match drill to the actual pedal. After painting, the lever it is installed and bolted to the upright lever so it pivots with the pedal.





The pedal assembly is reinstalled and the pedal return springs, clutch linkage and brake light switch hooked up. The original switch functions perfectly so there is no reason to change to a hydraulic switch.



I mentioned before that the spindles need some tweaks to work with the 39/40 Lincoln brake plates. This includes grinding the top areas flat (originally slightly rounded) and warming up the steering arms and pulling them inward so that the tie rod holes are 1/2” more inboard for tie rod end clearance VS the brake plates. After this, new kingpin bushings were installed and honed then the spindles were painted.



The hubs/drums, small parts and hardware were media blasted, the drums machined, new bearing races put into the fronts and then everything is painted.













To be continued…

 

PART 3

With all of the parts prepared assembly could begin. The spindles were put in place with new kingpins and Torrington thrust bearings fit between the lower knuckle of the spindle and bottom of the axle (left red circle in first picture below.) This is a Special Kinpin Kit that I make for 1932-1936 spindles that eliminates the mechanical brake socket and larger bearing from the top of the kingpin and moves the load to the bottom of the axle like Ford did starting in 1937. I also installed spacer rings onto the spindles which properly space the drums and provide a surface for the grease seals to ride on (right red circle in first picture below.) The spacers are available from Boling Brothers Early Iron.









With the spindle steering arms moved inward 1/2” each that meant that the tie rod was now 1” too long. Rather than shorten the original rod I left it alone and made a new, shorter one. The tie rod ends were restore and new internals installed.





Another item I make is adjustable 1932-1934 drag links to match the early tie rod. The original drag link is a fixed length and once any changes are made to lower a 1932-1934 the drag link becomes the wrong length causing the steering wheel to be off center when the vehicle is driving straight. With this car having reversed spring eyes and a couple of leaves removed lowing the front about 1-1/2”, the steering wheel was off center. This will correct it.





With the spindles and steering linkages assembled the front brake plates and grease baffles can be installed. The baffles are 39/40 Lincoln specific but if they are missing 1932-1934 baffles can be made to work.









The rear plates will need to be modified to fit a 1932-1934 rear axle to clear the spring hanger brackets by trimming some small windows into them. Ordinarily I would do this before paint but with these already being powder coated I didn’t have the option. For anyone who has ever used the reproduction Lincoln brakes from Boling Brothers Early Iron on a 1932-1934 rear, they have very similar windows milled into them. These I very carefully did by hand then masked and painted the bare areas.







With the rear plates trimmed they can be installed along with the grease baffles.









To be continued…

 

PART 4

With all of the backing plates installed it was time to install the rest of my hydraulic conversion kit. The master cylinder plate bolts to the back of the K-member in original holes and uses a 7/8” bore GM single reservoir unit. Unlike any other kit, this one allows the original battery support to stay in place.

The hand brake kit is a conduit tube that clamps to the torque tube routing the front cable from the original handle to the center of the chassis where it attaches to the rear loop cable through an equalizer bar allowing it to be adjusted. The cable tubes that bolt into the rear brake plates are from Boling Brothers Early Iron. They come with their reproduction Lincoln brakes but are available separately and will fit original plates.

The brake lines are 1/4” epoxy coated steel and armor spring is installed everywhere the lines are exposed. Most of the mounting clips and brackets are hand made, not off the shelf and all fit to original holes. The front and rear T-fittings are reproduction early Ford.



To be continued…

 

Dennis, This is a very informative and well presented documentation. I will be following your updates and appreciate your detailed photos. Ron

 

STEP 5

At this point all that is left is to assemble the brakes and install the hub/drums.

The brakes use brand new shoes and spring/hardware kits from Boling Brothers Early Iron. (They also offer the rear hand brake levers and links but I had originals to use.) The shoes were all arc-ground to match the sizes of the drums. The drums all got new bearings and seals.



At this point the hydraulic conversion is complete aside from adjusting the brake shoe centering and clearance followed by fluid bleeding. But, we aren’t finished yet! During the course of the conversion the owner sent me more parts to install in the way of a beautiful set of restored Stewart Warner gauges and Neal Jennings steering gear. Sounds simple? Not really! More to come…

 

Outstanding tutorial!

 

Funny, I was looking at a stock 35 Ford today and my first thought was, “I wonder how difficult a juice brake conversion is?”

Great tutorial and I know from your scale builds your attention to detail is unparalleled!

 

I have kits for 35’s, too!

 

Beautiful workmanship on a beautiful car, I wish I had it in my garage!

 

Beautiful work, lovely details, thank you for letting us share it.
Greetings Harald

 

Very interesting and informative post.

 

Very nice!

 

STEP 6

During the brake conversion I received a couple of packages from Geoff, the owner. One of them contained one of Neal Jennings steering gears which are based on mid-30’s Hudson and Essex gear boxes also made by Gemmer like early Ford steering boxes. Originally, Neal was modifying those originals to fit into 1932-1934 Fords but thanks to a high demand and the original cores drying up he went so far as to have new gear housings cast. The original 1932 gear box is a fast 13:1 ratio Neal’s are 18:1 and have a roller sector gear (like Ford F1 and F100 truck boxes that have been a popular retrofit forever) which significantly reduces internal friction and makes for much smoother and easier steering. Neal’s boxes are direct bolt-ins and take the original pitman arm.



Also sent to me was a new column bracket/lock assembly. Based on a longer 1940’s truck bracket and also modified by Neal to be a direct fit to the 1932 dash. Neal is a true craftsman and this piece looks like jewelry!



With these new parts on hand it was time to remove the original steering which included putting our KR Wilson steering wheel puller to work and carefully sliding the original column bracket off of the column tube.









The new steering gear and column bracket were mocked up to check fit and another testament to Neal, the fit was spot-on.





The one thing I ran into is that the lock bolt in the new column bracket is positioned farther back so it was necessary to elongate the hole in the column tube and move the lock striker back on the steering shaft by drilling new set screw holes so that the lock would function. Luckily, the new column bracket still covers the elongated hole.







After getting everything fit and functioning the gear box was painted and installed. The new column bracket lowers the tube by about 1.5” for a much more comfort steering wheel position.







To be continued…

 

What fine things there are, this is all new territory for me, it looks fantastic. Greetings Harald

 

looking beautiful Dennis.

I only wish I had a project that I could buy one of your all encompassing kits for.

.

 

As always, Dennis, your stuff is just top shelf. Hopefully, see you in December for the master cylinder kit and a drag link.

 

Do you feel a little dirty for hot rodding such a nicely restored car?











No, I wouldn’t either.

 

Not one bit!

One thing about it. Between the initial drivetrain swap that Chris did and everything I recently did, it can all be undone without a trace.

 

Dennis, that car looks fantastic and the work you are doing compliments it perfectly! Are you going to use the water shields on the front brakes? They are captured by the three rivets. And thanx for the info on the dedicated Lincoln grease shields, I wasn't aware of that.
Tom

 

WOW!, beautiful work on a great looking car. I love the tutorial, thanks a bunch for all the information with the pictures. We love pictures they help a lot to understand your work and to see your craftsmanship.

 

Nice! What master cylinder are you using?

 

Hi Tom, thank you!

Won’t be using the shields, don’t have any. Don’t think I would even if we did as I’ve had a pair in the past and they were cumbersome to get on and off.

 

The master cylinder is a 1960’s GM drum unit that is 7/8” bore and it has built-in residual valve so no need for external. I also offer a dual reservoir option for those that insist but it requires external valves.