Technical Power Brakes on a 1955 Pontiac Chieftain?

Working on my wife's 1955 Pontiac. It has the stock single pot master (under the floor) with front/rear drum brakes. Was looking to upgrade to a dual pot master, and maybe a brake booster to make them power? Has anyone done this upgrade? Since it isn't a tri-five Chevy there are pretty much zero kits to buy. Thinking I would have to customize something. Thoughts?

 

Not sure but i would think that some if not most of whats available for tri5 Chevys would be interchangeable or adaptable to your Pontiac. Im not sure but prior years 49-54, the difference was after the fire wall, b4 the front tires, 4 inches or so. You would know better than me tho. Just food thought.

 

Does a '55 Pontiac even have self-energizing brakes? If not, upgrading to them may make a noticeable improvement to your braking even without adding a booster.

 

You should be able to reconfigure your pedals to that of the tri-five Chevy and then everything else is bolt on to the firewall

 

Pontiac has the heater box mounted to the firewall. There was factory power brakes but they were single units also. Could you modify something? I don't know. It mounted to the removable plate that the steering column runs through.

We mounted a dual unit under the floor but it involved modifying a clutch z bar and my car is not stock. It's also not power.

You are pretty much on your own with pre 60's Pontiacs.

 

Get a Bendix Hydrovac and put that in between current master cylinder and brake lines.

 

I'm a regular viewer of the videos on your wife's car (and also the videos on those off-topic fiberglass cars. )

This doesn't answer your question, but a good source of information for 1955-1957 Pontiacs is http://www.pontiacsafari.com/index.html , he's posted copies of factory service manuals and parts manuals, along with other useful stuff.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/ is the main Pontiac forum online - there are a few guys in the 1960 and older tech section that I think have experience with this swap.

 

I helped a friend out with a '56 Safari last Summer. We installed an aftermarket pedal assembly and removed the stock heater to install a Wilwood master on the firewall. The aftermarket pedal had such a long ratio that the booster wasn't even necessary. This was all in effort to upgrade the motor and add headers as well as an under-dash heater and A/C system in the future. It already had the front disc brake conversion.

 

Ever look into the Hydro-vac systems used on some trucks? Possibly adapt one to this. It can pretty much be mounted anywhere under the floor where there is room.