I bought this car yesterday. I'm going to have lots of questions I'm sure. It's got a V8 that runs and I drove it around the block yesterday. I'm going to rebuild the brakes first because they barely work. I have all the interior trim pieces in the trunk sorted out where they belong except for these two. There are some new panels installed for the rear windows inside the car so i'm not sure if these are the old rear window channel guides or where exactly they belong. I also can't figure out where that formed piece of sheet metal goes or if it even belongs on my car.
I've just been doing the brakes on a 50. My local NAPA store was able to get me every single piece I needed.
Thank you. I have a different front bumper that is not so bent up to put on the car. I'll get it installed while I am under there.
I see you're from Little Falls. That makes us almost neighbors. Maybe we can get together sometime; there's a lot to do up here. If I may ask, where did your car come from; it looks far too nice to be a Minnesota car.
Looks like a nice project, had one and sold it several years ago, kind of regret it now. Lowered , nosed and decked mine and then it just sat most of the time, too many projects.
I bought it from Rudy at the Rufus ranch in East Gull lake. It's going to need some patching for sure but it's pretty solid, esp for MN. As far as getting together I get up that way quite often on my chopper. I'm sure I'll drive the car up there as well. I got all my brake hydraulics ordered at work today and the shoes will be here in the morning. Tomorrow I'm off work so planning on fixing the brakes all day and changing the oil, rebuilding the carb.
I know, I know, made in China. What ain't these days? They were $7 each, I know I can get them online for $24 but I don't see "USA" on those ones either. I've bought 12 wheel cylinders from Napa in the last few months, no leaks yet.
What is the best way to straighten a bumper. I have a wave in this one and I'd like to remove it. Not the dent behind the plate slots. The wave that's near my shoe in the first pic. No wonder my brakes don't work. The line came apart nicely though and I have clear brake fluid running through it.
Make shoebox-central.com one of your go to places for parts and information. It's a good place to ask questions about anything about your 50.
Hey evoscot, looking forward to watching this project come along. Your posts on the brakes made me wonder, are you doing a conversion to hydraulic, or were they already hydraulic and just in bad shape? As the (hopefully) soon to be owner of a 51 with no power steering or brakes, I've wondered about how necessary a conversion would be. I mean, traditional and original is fun and all but not at the expense of safety and driveability. I'm not so much curious about how to do it or if it's feasible for me, more in your (and other shoebox owners') opinions about whether it's worth the expense and hassle or if mechanical brakes in good condition are something that can be lived with. Appreciate any info you can share. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
If you use 69 Torino brake hardware, you will have self adjusting brakes, also the shoes are the same size (easier to find 69 shoes than 50). I did that to my 50 Tudor and it worked great. There are other years that will work, but I used the 69 parts. One or two of the adjusting slots end up not matching the adjusters, but that doesn't matter. Just adjust those before putting drums on and then they self adjust themselves. Cheap and easy modification.
Blake: Are you confusing "mechanical", "hydraulic", etc, with power brakes? Mechanical brakes on Fords stopped about 1936, somewhere in there. The brakes on a 50 Ford are just like most 50s, even 60s cars, except not self adjusters. Just been doing new brakes on my 50. No engine in her yet but when I roll her out of the shop she stops just fine on my hill. I don't have any real concerns about no power brakes on this car, she'll stop.
I have a pretty nice '51 club coupe (if I do say so myself) that I have had for 30 years and was very original when I got it. In cleaning up the bottom of the body when I first got it, I decided to replace all of the hard lines and rubber lines even though the brakes worked fine. I had a whole set of new bonded linings for it, but when I took it apart, I found it still had the original Ford script brake shoes. I took the shoes and drums to an old shop in south Minneapolis, and they riveted new linings on the original shoes and turned the drums and arced the shoes to fit. I replaced the wheel cylinders at that time, as well as having the master cylinder sleeved with stainless steel (an old Corvette trick). The brakes have always worked fine since then, and I have experienced NO fade with them, probably because I don't drive it hard. This summer, i noticed that the pedal was a little low and the emergency pulled almost all of the way out before it "took". It has been almost 30 years and 20,000 miles since i originally did this system, so I took it into a local shop for it's regular oil change and lube job, and asked them if they knew how to adjust brakes. They said "yup". When I picked up the car later, the pedal was noticeably higher and the emergency brake grabbed after about 2 inches. They charged me all of $80 for this service (including the oil change and lube job). Even if I could still crawl under the car to do this service, I'll have them do it every time for this price. I should also add that I purchased an electronic device a few years ago that will tell you the moisture content of the brake fluid (I use Dot-4). I check my cars fluid every spring, and two years ago, the moisture level in the Ford had entered the "warning" range. At that time, I purchased and installed a set of "Speed-Bleeders" for it, which allowed me to easily flush the system and replace the fluid by myself. What to take away from this? First a well set up and maintained stock brake system in a shoebox Ford is more than adequate for daily use. You probably can't road race with it, but for everyday use, it's just like an other car. Second, brakes need regular maintenance and fluid changes. I have found with my device that fluid will go 9 to 12 years before it picks up enough moisture to cause concern. The last point I would like to make is that Ford recommended chassis lube jobs every 1000 miles on these cars when new. That's right ; 1000 miles. I try to stick to that schedule, which may be why my car continues to stay in great shape even after passing the 80,000 mile mark last month.
I got the front brakes put together. Stock rebuild with new hoses,wheel cylinders and linings. When I was looking for parts I found options for 10 inch or 11 inch drums and my car has the 10 inch. I was able to re use my old hardware. The only real problem I had was with the shoes. They are the correct style but the metal was just a bit to thick for my adjusters to slide on so I sanded them a little thinner where the star wheel forks slip over the shoes. You can see the shiny spot on the shoes in this picture where I needed to sand them. The pictures have some boxes / parts in them. They are what I used on my car with 10 inch drums. Everything fit nice except having to sand the shoes where the adjusters go. The hoses are the same left and right but the wheel cylinders are different. My old wheel seals were shot of course but they had a good CR number on them when I ordered the interchange from CR to National I ended up with a single lip no spring on it seal. I didn't want to use it so I compared dimensions in the book and ended up using a double lip seal with a spring. I hope this will keep the grease in better. My inside wheel bearings were fine so I re used them. My outer bearings needed to be replaced due to pitting of the races. I also rebuilt my carburetor but I'll make that a different post
I had the same problem (thick shoes) on a set a bought 30 years ago when I first did my '51. You would think that they would have found and fixed the problem by now! I didn't use them then (I had the original Ford script shoes relined), but I used them later on for another project by doing what you did.
The Jalopy Journal
