I want to put disc brakes on my 50 Ford and am considering moving the master cylinder to the firewall. Has anybody done that, and what kit did you use, and do you have any pictures how it turned out? I know there are some kits to put the new master cylinder, power booster and all that stuff under the floor but space is tight under there with the way the exhaust is routed on my car, and besides, I like to be able to easily inspect the brake components, so thus I am exploring the firewall mount option. Any input or suggestions would be appreciated. Should I also upgrade the suspension and go to a ball joint type of set up while I have this thing apart? Thanks for your help.
What your going to get as far as answers is just personal opinions. Mine has floor pedals, booster under and Disc front. I think it's the best way to go because a firewall mounted booster is just plain Ugly. Just how often do you remove the lid and inspect your fluid level on your other vehicles? What's the easiest thing you can do to keep moving forward? Why do you need power disc brakes?
On my other street rod I check the fluid level about every three weeks. My 50 Ford never stopped all that great, but when a wheel cylinder failed, all the fluid leaked out and left me with absolutely no brakes. Thank goodness the parking brake got me stopped, eventually. So that's why I'm thinking of upgrading everything. Nothing under the hood on my car is that pretty to start with, so I'm not too worried about aesthetics. What kit did you use for your under-the-floor setup?
If it’s done right it will look ok. I’ll post a picture of the setup on my 48 Olds convertible so you can see that they don’t have to look bad
Loosing brakes will get your blood moving fast for sure. Not a good deal! Growing up what your calling a "parking brake" was called an Emergency Brake. It was designed to do just what it did, Stop the car without hydraulics. When I purchased my Pile of parts that became my Avitar it had no pedal pieces. I talked to Master Power in length before ordering there "Kit". They lied to me, or at the very least the guy boxing up the parts I got didn't send me what the Tec guy was talking about. Don't deal with them. Everything I got from them except the pedal and mount bracket has been changed. Since then I have added booster and master under the floor on a different 51 using the Stock system. A fair amount of work but better than what I ended up with on my Green 51. Ground clearance is an issue for a booster. Then there is exhaust to think about.
When mounting on the firewall you need to be aware of pedal length and leverage before mounting the unit. Often things are mounted high on the Firewall because it fits best there then the pedal arm is lengthened to get the pad down where it works better for the Foot. That increase length adds leverage and speeds up travel and becomes unfriendly brake action.
Here's the Junk Master Power sells. And contrary to what they say the pedal is a long way off from the stock hole in the floor. Pay no attention to the Non H.A.M.B. friendly A-Frames.
I am working on doing the same. I am going to try ford ranger pedals. I think I can make them work. It includes a clutch pedal on the ***embly. Don’t forget to reinforce the firewall or you will have excess movement and possibly binding up the brakes or damaging the firewall. CN
I went to the U Pull It and took everything off of a 94? Jeep, I used a arts and crafts squeeze paint tube to label this stuff for future repair. It goes on thick and is readable many years after the color fades. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Puffy-White-Big-Squeeze-3D-Paint-4-25-Fl-Oz/142902139 I got the master cylinder which is bolted to the booster and has the brake line and proportioning valve. On the other side of the firewall I got the mounting bracket with brake light switch and clutch and brake pedals. I took off the clutch pedal and bolted the entire thing to the firewall. It mounts low on the firewall near the overlapping seam where the firewall is strong and needed no reinforcing. The pedal hung low inside, so I heated and bent the end to 90 degrees which is just right to drill a hole for the 1950 brake rubber pedal.It looks factory unless you notice that its a hanging pedal and the clutch pedal goes thru the floor. The oil filter was in the way so I took it off and will have to mount a better filter. I poured out the DOT 3 and used DOT 5. I poured the Dot 3 out of the master and worked the pedal to push it all out of the lines. No problem, ever. I also bought a scarebird adapter kit for the discs but Stay away from scarebirds parts. They did not fit without grinding on my spindles and I sure didnt want to do that. The adapter looks like this one for truck . You can make it. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Basic-Disc-Brake-Kit-1948-56-Ford-Half-Ton-5-on-5-1-2-Inch,37095.html After you get an adapter kit you can use U Pull It disc rotors. I bought new calipers. The master/booster/pedal ***embly was about $42. The adapter kit was about $100. The rotors were cheap, dont remember what the calipers cost but the total was incredibly cheap compared to those complete kits. Its that simple. I have awesome brakes that have been working very well for about 7 years. Also dont believe the gloom and doom about mixing DOT3 and DOT 5. I put 1/2 DOT3 and and 1/2 DOT 5 in a container and watched it for a year. It never mixed, it never congealed, it never did anything except stay two different liquids. No problem and its been in use 7 years 49-53 kit here http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/early_ford_discbrake_conversions.html
Thanks for everybody's feedback and suggestions on this. I'm going to look into the Speedway Motors universal firewall mounting kit as it appears it may fit without too much modification needed. I'll let you know how it turns out. Be safe out there - stay in your garage and keep away from people!
Resecting a dead thread to see if @Lawrence Welk ever got this setup? I currently have my master cylinder mounted under the floor but looking to move my transmission crossmember back 6 inches right where master cylinder is located. Not sure it will fit so debating moving to firewall.
The Jalopy Journal
