Hello! Folks have been very helpful identifying the various parts on my cobbled together early Ford Sports Racer and I am hoping that you can solve another roadblock. I am trying to keep the car as close as possible to the original 1953-54 build. I was able to get the front drums turned but I am running into roadblocks getting the rears turned. The car is based on a 1937 Ford chassis, and the few auto parts stores that turn drums around here (Columbus, OH) can't do the rear drums with the one piece hubs, because the center hole is considerably smaller than the mandrel on the AMMCO and Bosch machines in the stores, so the drums won't mount. I sourced a spare axle, hoping that someone could hold it in a 3-jaw chuck, but I haven't found anyone with that setup yet. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your thoughts! Barry in Ohio
Find a shop that can cut air cooled VW rear hubs, they can do them, if the other shops you tried have Ammco brake lathes it should be a matter of just changing the machine arbor if they have the small arbor on hand.
I made an adapter for a friend of mine to do this job. He owns the machine but it wouldn’t accept the rear drums. Actually Actually he mailed me one of the sleeves and I modified it with an OD chamfer that met the ID. I’ll see if I can find a picture, it was super simple.
Here's a picture of the small OD arbor for a Ammco brake lathe. Maybe show it to the guy at the shop; he might have it buried under other tooling; but unaware of what it is for. Otherwise the previous suggestion of a VW shop might work. Something else; make your machinist aware that early Ford drum material is "valuable" and he doesn't have to be overly aggressive and turn every groove/mark totally out of the drum for it to function.
I've worked in a number of shops with Amaco brake lathes over the years an not one of them had a secondary arbor except the one that came on the machine. An automotive machine shop that does a lot of different drums and rotors might but finding one of those now is a challenge.
Champion Brake and Driveshaft of Grafton West "By God" Virginia! Has been turning brake drums since the '60's. Just a small "Mom-Pop" shop out behind the house type of deal. They turned the '39-'42 Rear brake conversion on my original, early production '32 'hind end. Around a 3 hour drive from the middle of Ohio,,,,,,.
Thank you folks for all the suggestions! I will start by calling the local O'Reilly's, but the ones that I visited had the larger arbor mounted. Perhaps the smaller one is lurking in a drawer. I will show them Rich B's photo... Next I hope to get a peek at Adriatic Machine's adapter and get a machine shop to turn one down. Failing that, I'll fill up the gas tank and hit Champion Brake and Driveshaft in WV unless someone else chimes in with a closer option. I greatly appreciate all the comments.
Just a quick update for anyone who might be looping back. I struck out at the 2 closest O'Reilly's for the smaller OD Ammco arbor, and then started calling vintage VW shops. No direct hits there, but one friendly owner referred me to Complete Brake Service in downtown Columbus and they had an arbor that fits, so I made it past that hurdle. I won't be able to stop back and pick up the drums until the week of Nov. 10 but I will update the story then. (I have picked up the drums, untouched, twice already from folks who thought that they could turn them but couldn't) Here's hopin' Thank you again for the suggestions!
Funny when my Oriellys did mine they had to "wait till the old guy came in cause they couldn't figure out how to mount them" Old guy probably had the arbor in his drawer I guess.
What's going to happen when all the old guys are gone? and yeah, I fit that description. pass the knowledge on while you can.
Sadly a lot of the younger people have no interest in leaning what we know. That's one thing that really saddens me, got no one to pass all my years of experience and knowledge down too. The shop I worked at for almost 40 years tried to find and hire someone I could teach and train frame repair too but when we could find someone after a couple months they decided it was too hard and quit. I've had numerous people and shops I've dealt with for years ask me what are they going to do once I retire.... ...
What about cutting the wedged studs out and convert the drums to slip on. Use a 5/8" hole cutter and some newer press in studs. There's video on U tube about it.
51504bat - I will ask about arcing the shoes when I am back in town and let you know. Deke/MrMike/lostone - yes, I see some of this where I am in Central Ohio. But, encouragingly, one of the O'Reilly's guys was in his 30's, and we have a few 20-somethings pursuing their grandfather's interests in hot rod. One drives his Model A roadster to work most days of the year. truckerl - I did see that YouTube video. My drums mount inboard of the hubs so that the studs are swedged into the hub flange. I could do the conversion but the drums still wouldn't slip off after the newer studs were pressed in. Barry
A lot of old school automotive parts dealers that have been in the business for a couple of generations will have the equipment to turn your drums, as big as Ohio it shouldn't be a problem to find a parts house or a small garage that can do the job. HRP
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