So my nephew Rarrodder and I have been tossing around some ideas for his father's 58 Ford flip top. It has been restored to mostly stock, including the drum brakes. As can be imagined, the brakes get real hot and fade easily in the mountains when they go for extended drives. What I would like to know, if the collective can come together on this, is did Ford have a heavy duty or police option for their large cars? An alternative, would Lincoln/Mercury road barge brakes be larger? I know convert to discs, but that's not original. So what does anyone have as advice???
Well, converting to better brakes isnt origional either. Even if they are drum. I'd say, avoiding a crash is more important than "original". Best part of having an old car is driving it!
If your worried about originality and shows... upgraded brakes are not counted against in judging. Also current kits will allow complete reversal as long as you keep the parts for the next owner. When I did my 56, I did it on the original spindles and the only thing you see is the master cylinder. If you use a 67-68 Mustang M/C no one will notice. After 7 years with all drums and adjusting them every 6 months I’m glad I changed. You can still buy self adjusting kits but I would only do it on the rear if you keep all drums.
When you say "flip top" I'm assuming you mean a Skyliner. Given the weight and cost of those I'd guess they got the good brakes for the day. My first question is "mostly restored". Does it have decent, even by today's standards, shoes and linings on it, or just what the parts store had? Decent linings and proper fitting (arcing?) make a big difference. Those weren't sports cars, and traffic was different, but they weren't bad in their day. I know some guys around here have a truck shop that does the drum/shoes work for them. It's kind of a lost art in most automotive shops.
The biggest problem you'll have is if the car is still on OEM 14" wheels. Ford did offer a HD/Police brake option but that also came with 15" wheels. Not common, would be very hard to find... For 14" wheels, there's this... A152 Front Disc Conversion Brake Kit, Ford Galaxie-Non Power – SSBC-USA (ssbc-usa.com). These will require a disc-brake-style wheel however, the original ones won't clear. Switch to 15" wheels and the choices open up, as well as lower prices. And as Jimmy pointed out, pretty much any of these would allow reversal back to stock if desired.
They are in Model A judging. Just switching the steel drums out for new cast iron will cost you points.
Yes it's a Skyliner. Mostly is due to some of the sheetmetal not being available for replacement, so the people doing it had to fab stuff. I believe it was some inner front fender panels, and they didn't have anything to work from, so close but not exact. I don't think they deviated on anything that was available from restoration suppliers. I have also suggested he update to aftermarket discs on the front, but he's more of a troglodyte than I am. We do both eschew modern technology as much as practical... Hey ratrodder jump in here and correct me on the particulars. He is your father after all, I'm only his little brother!
Yeah, all pretty much correct so far. ‘58 Skyliner, fully restored about 5? 8? years ago. Great cruiser for Dad and Mom, but anytime he’s coming down a long hill he has to really plan ahead. They went through stop at higher than desirable speed a year or two back, and it’s been a concern ever since. I’ll see what other information I can get from the Old Man this weekend. He doesn’t show it at judged shows, so I don’t think non-originality is a big issue, especially with the safety aspect. He’s not going to put discs on, I don’t think, but he certainly wants to be confident that he can stop when he needs to.
There was a technique to driving drums down a long hill. Bus and truck drivers in particular will know it. But it involved braking down, then letting off. Downshifting of course. Maybe someone who knows that will chime in. All I remember is you don't drag the brakes all the way down the hill.
Find a real brake shop. The guys that reline heavy duty truck shoes often do car shoes also. Have them reline your shoes with their best linings and fit the shoes to the drums. I did this on my 57 and the brakes work better than they ever had. I no longer get the brake fade I used to.
You could go with metallic or ceramic brake lining if you can find any for that car. Won't be as good when cold, but much better when hot.
Station wagon brakes are a straight bolt on . They are wider and still keep the 14 inch wheels. I did a 64 Merc full size mechanical restoration and all we did was switch to a power brake setup with a dual master cylinder . Be sure and get the 8 inch booster . the 7 inch one did not provide the pedal feel that was comfortable. He pulls a 24 foot Airsteam travel trailer all over the south going to tin can camper events and it stops fine. He kept the 14 inch wheels so he could run the stock spinner hub caps. Bought all the parts from Mac's.
Yep, compression braking, and letting the brakes cool- going down long hills at high speed relying only on your brakes (especially small drums) can get you a surprise. Drop it a gear, and you probably won't have to touch the brakes, or not as much. "Jake Brake" exhaust brakes take it to another level- my 2001 Powerstroke duallie has an exhaust brake, and I can go down some fairly steep hills pulling heavy trailers by dropping it out of OD and using the "Jake". The big brakes on those Fords typically came on wagons, Rancheros and hipo stuff. My 406 car came with the 3" brakes and 15" wheels, which are a big improvement, but as it is a 500XL, the nice 14" 500XL hubcaps would not work
Those Fords from that year came with 11" drums that did an excellent job of stopping those Fords.. Try manually adjusting those brakes, they're really not that bad.. I would use Porterfield brake shoes..
You got that right, what did everybody do back when.. Yup good advice, so many think the answer(s) are disc swaps. Yes it sometimes is the solution and lots of times its not..
Well, Well, my 62 XL 406 car with the big 3" wide HP manual brakes stops pretty good. My 62 XL Sunliner ragtop has the standard brakes, and they are far from excellent. I have also had a 63 500 and 63 Custom with the std brakes, also far from excellent- as were most of the whalebodies of that era with their std brakes
We've given suggestions, Rats father doesn't want disc's so let them find the 3" wide drums and move on. Metallic and ceramic shoes wear out drums so they will need to watch that over time.
Thanks guys. We'll tell my brother to look for the big wagon brakes. Hey he's got to do some of the work, let him be the one to surf for it...
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