These pedals are new! Like never used! I was starting to get things mocked up on the frame when I thought I saw what was just a casting mark. But no, that's a crack! I feel extremely fortunate to have caught it now. Imagine under driving conditions if the whole damn thing broke off with the brake master cylinder attached. Has anybody else encountered this? I'm hopeful that by some miracle the early Ford Store will refund me for these, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
That bracket part is no doubt a casting. Can’t remember if originals were forged or not. Most Ford stuff was forged.
I had a set of “39 pedals I found in the back of a pickup I bought. Someone torched the bolts off. The torch mark sure looked like it was in steel, not CI.
A HAMBer broke a set driving his coupe and posted pics of the bracket. A couple years ago. Anyone remember who it was?
At the time when I needed a set, I couldn't find any aftermarket ones and luckily found a few used sets here on the site for cheap enough. I'd recommend finding a good used set.
I would be suspicious of anything Drake advertises as forged. A friend of mine bought a pair of his (supposedly) forged reproduction `32 v8 engine mounts. They sure look like castings to us. Forging dies are very expensive to make and then finding a true forging company to run them would be another challenge.
I suggested the Drake 39 pedals to a T5 customer for his 36. He ordered them and as above they were cracked in about the same spot. Drake refunded his money and he located a nice Henry original pedal assembly.
Well I called Bob Drake, they said their vendor stopped making the pedals quite a while back, and they opted to not invest in having them reproduced anymore. After hearing everybody's two cents, I have a feeling the quality was coming up short and so they just moved before somebody got hurt. Just my guess though. I don't want to short cut any quality on having my brakes go out. I got my hands on a set of Henry pedals now. Lesson learned, and future buyers beware. If somebody says they have a set of Bob Drake pedals, look them over closely.
I suspect Drake may be winding his business down if he’s unwilling to invest in products. My first inkling was when he said they aren’t going to make another run of 35-36 pickup windshield opening mechanisms. Seems like they were a good seller for the time they were available. Hope I’m wrong.
Yeah, I'm very suspect of a lot of repop parts where the 'Sales Department' says the parts are forged, but when you look at them, I see no parting line. I saw a guy who bought some of the cool/smooth Speedway steering arms - he then bent them for clearance. He says Speedway says they are forged . . . me, I'm not sure I believe it.
It seems like there are several issues here. First and foremost,so glad you caught the crack before finishing your car. If they were a recent purchase, someone should refund your money. BD has generally had good stuff. That '40 Ford trip a few years ago must really socked it to them. It is likely quality suppliers are becoming fewer by the minute, so not surprising they are discontinuing stuff they can't reliably get. Given the state of domestic manufacturing (nothing new), lots of our formerly reliable sources, and we, are faced with the choice of overseas production or nothing. And,again, the Chinese and other overseas producers have the facilities and the know-how to make stuff, it just takes a buyer to say "make it to this quality and we'll price it accordingly" instead of " I want to sell it for $X so make it whatever quality you can meet my price point (see Walmart)". There's a difference.
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