Greetings. The Ford Pilot was Britain's version of a 30's V8 Ford and was produced from 1947-1951. Were we behind the times or what? I have some Pilot spindles and am pondering the wisdom of using them on my roadster project. They look like 35/36 even though the the Pilot had hydraulic front brakes. Have any British hambers used these? I have seen photos of some on rods in Custom Car. Are you happy with them? Have any of you fitted disc brakes either using a kit or your own conversion? Fanks man!
The pilot was developed from the 1936 Model 62, so it is quite likely they are regular '36 Ford in pattern...though they might be actually '35, which are different, due to development lag. The Pilot brakes at both ends were different from USA hydraulics or mechanicals. Spindle flange presumably has the slightly smaller '32-5 bolt pattern...when converting USA ones it is necessary to move or simply slot bolt holes on later brakes. If '35 you need simple, cheap spacer on bearing part of spindle, if they are either '35 or '36 you will need a ring around center of flange that enlarges that to '32-48 Ford size...whole kit of spacers and rings is only like $20. '36 spindles have same length of snout as '37-48's so do not need the spacer I mentioned first.
Cheers Bruce. Now all I need is for some Brits to tell us about their old school British disc brake conversions. I like cheap and easy, man!
Go to the tech archive and look for a huge brake adaptation article from a 1970's Rod Action magazine. Its is ALL homemade early Ford conversions, some ingenious, some just scary. I don't think any are British, as British cars that are here are generally collector cars, but there are Volvo and VW based ones. The Volvo is one of the easiest...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200&highlight=brake&showall=1 Look at the Volvo one. Move the bolt holes in, shrink diameter of center hole to early...
The Pilot body was developed from the Model 62, but I think the front suspension was closer to the 1940 American Ford, it has an anti roll bar. Pilot wheels are the same as '36 to '39 American. Pilot brakes were pretty good once you got them set up properly, but they were very fiddley
Thanks gents. I just read elsewhere in this au****ious organ about putting a flatter Torrington bearing between the bottom of the axle and spindle like on them bigger spindles. He does it with Model B but should work with A-36 and Pilot. You can then use the more common (and cheaper) kingpins, although they do stick out the bottom a bit. Dude even gives part numbers! I could do RHD cross steering to left hand second track rod end hole or invent a steering arm for top of right hand spindle. Saw British RHD Model B spindles for sale a while back with built in top steering arm. I think that's really cool, man
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