Projects An Amateur Chops a Brookville Coupe & More

Maybe you could fabricate some brackets of aluminum that might dissipate enough heat to not be a problem?

 

I suggest looking at post #294 above?

 

I looked at those grommets yesterday and as I said in a previous post they are rated up to 500 deg.
I think I'll fire up my 55 Chevy and let it run for a while, then take temperature readings at several places on the exhaust to see what kind of temps that I'm dealing with.

 

That may be your only choice. By the looks of your build you are more than capable.

 

That does not mean they will support the weight of your exhaust and the torque that is applied to the exhaust system at 500 degrees. I hope they do. Let us know how it turns out.

 

I ordered a piece of 11 gauge stainless steel to make longer brackets that come off of the exhaust pipes to move the grommets farther away from the heat. I'll use them to replace the front and middle short brackets.
Haven't had a chance to fire up my 55 to check exhaust temps yet, maybe tomorrow.

 

I found a v-belts to use on the a/c and alternator that are the right length, so I was able to finish the turn buckles for the belt tension adjustment.

 

Got the emergency brake lever and cables installed. I'm using a Lokar brake lever and cables and decided to mount it next to the trans tunnel on the passenger side. The instructions call for a 1/2" wide by 3 1/2" long slot for mounting the brake lever, but that is to small. I made a 5/8" x 3 3/4" slot in the floor pan instead. I made a bracket to mount the cable adjuster and tacked it to the frame inline with the brake lever.


Ran into a problem with the cable connection at the drum brake backing plate. I'm using Boling Brothers Buick style 45 fin drum brakes, and the backing plates came with a bolt on tube type connection for the emergency brake cables. The Lokar cables won't work with this setup.

According to Boling Brothers you can buy a cable that will work with the tube setup, but since I had the Lokar cables I decided to modify the backing plates to work with them.
I set this up in the press to form a piece into a U shape.

Made an end cap for the cable end to mount to.

Trimmed it down to an angle that worked and welded it on. This looks more like a standard brake cable attachment.

I made sure there was enough room to get a socket in to tighten the nut.

Here is the cable routing.

I was worried that the cables would not work smoothly because of the bends in the lines, so I decided to install the rear drum brakes and test it out.
I put the brakes together and set the star wheel adjuster all the way in, but the brake shoes were to far out to get the drums on. I measured the drum id and the shoe od and it was obvious that the drums would not fit over the shoes. I call Boling Brothers to see if they could help. They said that they did have a batch of shoes that came with thick linings in the past and that was most likely the problem. One solution was to buy new brake shoes and try to find ones with thinner linings ( I would need 4 new sets). I didn't like that idea. Another fix they suggested was to grind away some metal on the shoe backing plates where the star wheel adjusters fit. I took of about 1/8" on both backing plates, and this allowed the shoes to draw in at the bottom enough so the drums fit. An easy and cheap fix.

The emergency brakes work good, the drums lock up with just a few clicks on the lever and release when let off, so the cable routing isn't binding the cables.

 

Well done! Good solutions to the varying issues one finds building hot rods.

 

Awesome work! It really makes me want to quit and take up model railroading.
FWIW, I had the same problem with too thick linings. They must be for max turned drums.
Solved it the same way.

 

another way to fit the shoes might have been to find a shop with a shoe sander . i used to have one and it was very helpful.

 

Might not be easy to find someone who can do that. I can't find anyone who will turn drums down anywhere near me.
Grinding a little metal away was quick, easy and cheap.

 

Been working on the coupe project since my last post but haven't kept you guys up to date with what has been done. So I'll start posting again to get you up to date.
I made new exhaust hanger brackets out of 304 stainless to move the grommets farther from the heat.

I cut the brackets off the frame and tubing and tacked in the new ones.

I feel better having the grommets farther away from the high heat and I think they will have a better chance of surviving.

 

I needed access to the underfloor brake and clutch master cylinders, so I cut a hole and filled it with a hinged door. I used a dzus fastener to hold it closed.

 

You're crazy, I love it...that's awesome

 

BTW, Welder Series sells those for $8/each
https://welderseries.com/store/Exhaust-Hangers-p49817129
I just had a bunch similar made by sendcutsend.com for about $3/each

 

that's not nice.....!

 

You have to be crazy to go to this much trouble just to have a car to drive.

 

Yeah what the heck, could have used that info months ago.
I don't mind making my own brackets, but I do like to use premade stuff to save time.
I wasn't aware of the Welder Series site. They have nice stuff for sale and also a 32 coupe build series that I'm gonna have to look through.
Thanks SDS for the heads up.

 

Not nice?
Just trying to help a brother out with some time savers. I used to make all my own tabs and brackets until I found these guys. If driving it is the goal, time is of the essence.
I got all these cut, including materials for $38, shipped...

 

Me too...when I found them online, I was kinda miffed
I only ended-up using welder series for their "ugly orange" high temp exhaust hanger grommets...I recently discovered sendcutsend.com and have fundamentaly changed the way I do things. At their price, going to the shop to get steel and fabricating your own just doesn't make sense $ and time wise. The laser cut parts come out perfect with clean, no slag-edges and they have many materials to choose from.
If you don't have access to CAD for creation of the files, there are many free CAD modeling softwares available online.

 

These guys are good to do business with also.
https://www.aa-mfg.com/

 

Depending where you guys are in the world laser or water jetted parts can be pretty easy to have done locally too. I have a couple places near me that can usually get me finished parts for not much more than I would be paying (retail) for the raw stock. One place gets stuff done usually the same day too.

 

Those brackets look real nice and for the price it doesn't make sense to buy material and make your own.
This is a good reason to take time to learn how to use CAD modeling.

 

I don't know if anyone noticed in some of the previous posts, I did spray two coats of epoxy primer on the interior. I used SPI (Southern Polyurethane) primer. I really like this product, it's a one to one mix of epoxy and activator and sprays on real nice. The best part of it is you can easily sand it if you have to, not like other epoxies that clog your paper.

 

Here is a little issue with the Brookville body that was bugging me. At the front floor on either side of the toe panel, there is a gap where you can see clear through to the ground.

Not sure how this area was on a original 32 coupe, so I made up a filler panel for each side.

They just screw onto the flanges of the toe panel and seal up the openings.

 

My Brookville roadster has the same holes, that's a great idea

 

I know you won't want to do this, but it was a lot easier to make those pieces with the firewall off the body. I tried to do it with the firewall on, but couldn't visualize how to shape the parts for a good fit.
Without the firewall in the way, I could see exactly what was needed.

 

I've gotten good at doing that...had the body and/or firewall on and off the car many times. Thanks for the advice, I'll template it with the firewall on and make them with it off.

Are you finding that you need to use the welding clamps to get your firewall tight to the cowl when you put your firewall back in? I think I'll lube the seal when I do the final assembly, so it seats easily.

 

My firewall fits snug to the cowl without the clamps.
You might want to look at Steele Rubber part #20-2021-43, their version of a cowl to firewall weatherstrip . The wide flange part on their seal looks flatter than the one I got from Brookville. The Steele Rubber part isn't tapered like the Brookville one. I'm tempted to order the Steele Rubber one to see if it fits better.https://www.steelerubber.com/firewall-seal-20-2021-43