I'm upgrading my front brakes on my 53 Poncho, and would like upgrade the MC. My question is... does any one know if there is any dual MC with or without a booster that will fit in the stock MC spot. I've searched all the other posts and I cannot find an answer. I have no experience fabricating anything or tools to if I knew how, thats why I would like to bolt one in. Thanks Scotty
Scooter, you should pay attention to this. I don't know off hand........I'm not sure it's the same as tri year cars, but let's wait and see!
I've found a Chevy Truck 1947-54 Frame Mount 7" Dual at Midwest Power Products, does anyone have any ideas if this will work?
Yep... caught this. I'm not sure, but this is something I have to look at as well. Any reason you don't want a BOOSTED, dual M/C? Is it a restoration thing or just based on the brakes you're running? And since you have my attention and we have the same car I of COURSE really want to see some pictures!!! There's not many Poncho guys around and there's even LESS '53 2-door sedans around! Point me to your pictures! I want to see!!!
I'm sorry I didn't word as well as I could have. I meant with or without a booster, I thought by saying this there would be more choices. I'm finding out there are not many options in keeping the MC in its stock spot.
Yeah, I was afraid you might say that. I hadn't looked into it yet, but I remember someone on another thread asking about M/C's for Pontiacs and it the outcome wasn't favorable or typical. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Will you be retaining the front drums, I assume? Any other modifications to suspension or will you be just leaving it stock? Love the car! I so wish mine was to this point!
It's going to be a tough thing to put a different MC in the stock location on a 53. There's very little room. I replaced mine with a unit from CPR and even changing it out was a tough go. The issue is going to be lining up the pedal assembly with the rod actuating the MC. The "replacement" will have to have both holes through the body as the 53 does. This is what will be one problem. I can visualize fabbing a mounting bracket to a GM firewall mounted MC, but I honestly don't believe there is room then to mount it under the body. I had trouble just getting the standard bolt off to get fluid into the original. Good luck, I'll be watching this one.
I guess it's time to buy some tools and learn something. I have a buddy that has a 54 Poncho in storage and as soon as he gets it out I'm going to check out and take pics of his MC. He relocated it on his firewall. I plan on putting the Scarebird kit on. This should be fun.
I was looking into the scarebird kit, as well. Also been checking out the dropped arms from Fatman as well. Fatman wants entirely TOO much for those things though.
I found a 97-up GM van pedal mount is designed to hang to the left of the column, is easy to adapt because it doesn't bolt to the steering column bolts (so you can make up a couple of pieces and bolt them on anywhere), and just might give you a shot at mounting it in one of these Pontiacs without having to alter the stock defroster setup (although you may need to put a remote fill on the master and won't have room for a booster most likely). The master I took out of a '57 I couldn't see a simple way to remove the pedal to adapt it to anything else. I can't imagine '53 is a lot different, they were under the floor 49-57 and all used more or less the same frame.
For those of you who are wondering WHY this is all such a big deal, have a look at how it's mounted. This is a picture of my '53 without the engine in (before I got it back). The MC is mounted just inside the frame below the steering column. Craziness! Sorry for the scary picture.
Oh, same as the tri year cars...............poop, I thought you had a firewall mount. I want to rebuild mine, but damn.
Found some ideas on another post here are some ideas. http://www.allstarperformance.com/product.htm?prod=904 http://www.jegs.com/p/Wilwood/Wilwood-Pedal-Assemblies/744524/10002/-1 http://www.kugelkomponents.com/products/brakesystem_firewall.php I'm thinking I might have to lose the defrost in order to put any of these in which I was hoping to avoid.
Here's some pics from a 57 Pontiac , real close to the same deal. A universal underfloor booster/master is used and a bellcrank is to operate and mount the master backwards as you can see. These pics are from Pontiacsafari.com. For my 55 i'm mounting a hanging pedel assembly from a 55 chevy. I made up a plate and welded in the area of the defroster holes to give the firewall some rigidity. Although i've found I don't like the short arm for the brake, I want my master mounted up pretty high on the firewall. So i'm using an arm from an old truck to offset the pedel assembly where I want it exactly, real close to the stock location. I don't want to have to "feel" for the brake pedal under a panic situation. A cast iron gm master bolts right up or i'm using a 85 Chrysler 5th ave master, very similar to the Wilwood master. Same for manual or power brakes. Bill
Has anything new surfaced as far as options are concerned? I am trying to do the same thing on my '57 Pontiac. I am converting my '57 Chieftain to the scarebird kit on the front end and would like to convert to a dual master with a power brake booster in the stock location. I appreciate any help. Thanks, John
Scotty, we have a new bracket that should allow you to mount a manual Wilwood dual remote master in the stock spot. Look up Wilwood 260-7563 for master info. Our bracket is "L" shaped; has the mount pattern on the short leg, and blank on the long. You would mount the master on the bracket, mock up the assy where you want it and mark where you want the hole to be drilled. Drill the holes, then measure up how much the push rod needs shortening and go from there.
Wow good timing on this one ! Im in the same boat with my 53.Everything is pretty much new and working,but been thinking I want to upgrade somewhere down the line. I ran across a guy at a swap with an entire rebuilt front end out of a 53 Chevy with discs,will this disk set up swap over ? the uprights are the same as a Chevy right?
Some food for thought. After rebuilding a customer 57 Poncho brakes and not having any fun refilling it I made this, Took the filler plug out of mc drilled/tapped thru the vent, added a hose barb and now its no trouble to fill at all. If using a non stock mc make sure you plug or fill the vent or it will leak.
Figures,could pick the whole thing up for $400. Guess I will just go with your kit when I change it out next fall.
NIce! Im in the middle of doing the same thing on mine,I just used some clear line and a resevoir from a vw bug,figured Id get something shiney to put in there later on. QUOTE=Da Tinman;5912866]Some food for thought. After rebuilding a customer 57 Poncho brakes and not having any fun refilling it I made this, Took the filler plug out of mc drilled/tapped thru the vent, added a hose barb and now its no trouble to fill at all. If using a non stock mc make sure you plug or fill the vent or it will leak.[/QUOTE]
Do you have more details on the bracket, i.e. picture, p/n and a price, Scarebird? <edit> Is this it? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Adapter-mounting-Wilwood-260-7563-dual-master-/390264664253 Any ideas on fitting a power brake booster in there? Thanks, John
I used the scarebird disc brake conversion on my 53 pontiac. For the MC I was planning on getting this setup by Jegs. http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/631090/10002/-1 I was just going to add a proportioning valve to it for disc/drum. I'll probably have to do away with the defroster but at least I get to run a booster. The scarebird bracket with the Wilwood MC isn't a bad idea though. I might consider it. -Mike
on my cousins 53 I think we used a single diaphram dual m/c out of a 80 or 83 regal booster is like 7 inches round
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