I have a sets of wilwood hanging pedals and am looking for some ideas to mount them and keep them from rocking when the pedals are depressed. Does anyone have some good pictures of this?
I used them on a Brookville deuce roadster and I added a 1/8 thick reinforcing plate on the inside of the firewall between the bracket and firewall and tied the pedal bracket to the dash. Was very solid.
I don't have a photo but have seen photos of where guys built a framework to hold the pedals. The firewall flexing is one of the main reasons I went back to floor pedals on the 48 even though I had a piece of 1/4 inch plate behind the pedal bracket. The other is that stuff that didn't belong on the firewall in the first place is ugly.
I'll try to get a better picture of this for you today...check back. For what it's worth, here's a picture early on in my build where I anchored the Wilwood hanger to my firewall. My bracing was not complete when I took this pic. I made my firewall ('33 Ford truck cab), so it was a bit easier to install the pedals on a flat surface rather than the stock one. From this picture, however, you can see the 1" sq. tubing that is the heart of the support (which seconds an adjustable the steering column support). I have the pedals bolted to those supports, as well as to the firewall. I didn't rely solely on the strength of the sheet metal of the firewall for support. You are right...you must support these things properly. Of course, every situation is different. There are other threads on this, so you might get lucky & find one or two.
The best scheme is to brace the firewall from cowl to toeboard. 1/4" plate is fine for this. If you can also brace from near pivot to dash, all the better. Note that most late-model cars brace in this manner. There's a reason for this. Cosmo
I modified a '52-'56 Ford car pedal assembly to work in my '38 Ford pickup (this pedal assembly is a near bolt-in '40-'47 pickups). As others have noted, it is imperative that you tie the firewall and dash together with the beam the pedals hang from, otherwise the firewall will flex. Having 1/4" steel plate backing up the firewall helps but is less important than having the pedal assembly securely attached to both firewall and dash. There is a reason the dash is welded rather than bolted in on an old Ford truck, as the dash does double duty as a structural member than gives rigidity to the cab structure.
Well, these pics aren't the greatest, but you might be able to catch the drift that the pedals must be anchored well. My pedals are bolted to the 1" tubing, as well as the firewall. The tubing is attached to the firewall from the outside & has gussets, which you can see in the photos, that help bolster it from the inside. The tubing is bolted to the top of the cowl & covered by the dash. I hope this helps.
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