At last, front brakes

[liquidrush]

After much research and purchases I finally have everything ready to install the front brakes. It's the last thing on my list. Everything else is lined out and finished. Remember talking about bad ideas that you see coming that will get you hurt? Well the brake hardware was original so I soaked in in evaporust, then the ultrasonic and then wire wheeled it all. While doing the springs I thought...hey stupid,bout on some gloves but no....let's get it done. The wheel sucked the spring out of my hand, smacked me on the hand so hard it left a spring pattern down my thumb into that soft meat behind it and then off the wall leaving a spring pattern in the drywall and then disappearing into the shop. It happened in 1/10th of a second. I found it but my thumb and hand is still tingly. Oh well dumbass.

[rayjay]

I try to resist the "never enough time to be careful but always enough time to go to the ER...." way of thinking. Sometimes I am successful

[dirtkeeper]

probably need some safety glass too.

what kind of front brakes are those? i don't recognize the angled springs


My brake spring story.... was trying to put new brake springs on an old ford, as i pulled one end with needle nose pliers, they slipped and nailed me right in my eye. after two weeks of recovering i went out to look and see about finishing the job and it turned out i got a busted eye but i also got the spring on.

[liquidrush]

The brakes are 53-57 style, they're only one inch wide too and there's a left and right backing plate. I had glasses on when that happened, it hit my hand so hard that I thought for sure it'd be laid wide open but by the imprint it left it hit me flat lengthwise.

[liquidrush]

Well crap, the backing plates don't mate up with the drums. They rub on the lip and prevent the last 3/8" or so of movement to seat the bearings. What to do? Search for more parts? No, I don't want to keep searching for parts and keep buying the wrong stuff. So, lets take it to the shop and machine that lip off of the drums. My original plan was to open up the groove for the backing plate accordingly so it'd fit in there but even though my machine is 14 x 40 it just isn't quite big enough to get a tool head in there, that's why I did what I did.
As you can see I cut off the outer lip so the backing plate will go over the drum. I know, now it's exposed somewhat but for what I use t for it'll be fine.

You can see t he plate's lip goes over the drum now and there's plenty of clearance plus the shoes are right in the middle of the drum's surface. I think (hope!) it'll be OK now.

Anyone who's ever machined cast iron knows how messy it is and the kind of chips it makes, I have a bunch of red burn spots up and down my left arm from operating the lathe manually while the chips stuck to me like I was a magnet and rust dust everywhere. What a mess! Oh well, if it all works it's worth it.

[liquidrush]

And this is how it ended up installed. Getting closer. Time for a cocktail break. Oh btw, I've been watching Pakistani truck on you tube, I highly recommend it. I can only imagine what they'd do to a v dub.

[liquidrush]

Can anyone recommend a better master cylinder than this one? Yes, it was cheap, fits and works ok but for being new it's leaking fluid out the back and the piston doesn't want to return the way it should. Let me know.