Projects John Wheeler's “Pink Hag” 35 Ford Rebuild

Worked on the brake lines today, and drilled and bolted in the transmission cross member. I still have to find a slave cylinder for the hydraulic clutch. My plan is to mount it on the bellhousing and have it push the clutch fork. I’m still waiting for the driveshaft which needed to be cut and have the proper universal joint installed. Should be soon. I’m pretty close to mounting the body back on the chassis, I really need to get to work on the firewall and the tons of other stuff that has to be addressed.



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Ok it’s been a while since I had anything new to report but today was a good day. My friend Tom came over and gave me a welding lesson as we installed the old pice of firewall that had been removed years ago.

 

What'cha usin' for a clutch master/slave set up?

 

So I picked up these old chrome Ford Master cylinders at Hershey last week and for the slave cylinder I’m going with the late fifties Ford big truck style still available from NAPA. I picked up some Ansen style pedals earlier this year when I thought I was gonna use the C-10 style (combination clutch and brake master) but I’d much rather be using Ford stuff. Because the rods for the Ford masters are a minimum of 4 inches apart the Ansen pedals won’t work. I’m told pedals from a late fifties heavy duty Ford truck should work.

 

Man those look nice! You may want to inspect the bores. I had a chromed master that had peeling chrome inside the bore. Where the chrome peeled off the bore was rusted pretty badly, but I was able to clean it out with a hone. Worth a look, just sayin'...

 

It depends on the Ansen pedal set up you have there were several. I have a original set in my vintage stock car project that use the 39-48 Ford master cylinders.

 

Thanks yes I have begun to disassemble the master cylinders to inspect the bores. They have been sitting for some time so I know they will need a good honing at the very least, not to mention the reservoirs had a lot of loose scale in them. The bore size is approximately 1 1/8 inch diameter and the bore size of the slave is approximately 1 inch so I think I’ll be ok with that unless somebody out there knows better. The Ansen style pedals I have won’t work without retro fitting so I’m still looking for Ford hanging pedals. Today I took my front seat to a local upholstery shop for an estimate and was pretty surprised by the cost so since I don’t plan on eating ketchup sandwiches for the next month I’m gonna have to figure out how to do it on the cheap or find one done already.

 

Problem with living on Long Island is it's too far from Tijauna. Lol. If it's an original seat and you want to go that way I'm sure somebody makes reupholstery kits for it. It's really not that hard to put on one of those kits. There's a learning curve but all it really takes is time.
Andy

 

Your e-mail address bounced back and I haven't heard from you in ages

 

Ok, after a lengthy hiatus I am finally back to working on the ‘35. I have numerous excuses but only one is viable and that was a recent move across town but even that really isn’t a good excuse as I went from a 20x20 garage to a 23x23 garage thereby giving me more space to work. The only thing accomplished since my last post was:
I got the body back on the chassis, and I got my front seat recovered.
The front seat was a “yard sale” pottery barn couch that I painstakingly removed all the leather from and brought the whole mess to my buddy Rob who upholstered the seat, which I’m real pleased with. I have had a long time to think about what to attack next on the Coupe and it has to be installing the steering column ( being sure to clear the exhaust port) and then the pedal assembly. I think I have at least 3 different combinations of hanging pedals and masters, Ansens/ Old 55 Ford/ and early 60’s Chevy truck pedals with the combination brake and clutch master. With Winter right around the corner and a small space heater in the garage what better time to get back to this project!

 

Well it's about freaking time!!! Lol. Seat looks amazing. Your buddy Rob is an artist!!!
Andy

 

I think I can pick it back up anytime.

 

Just caught up on this, good work, that seat looks really good.
That firewall, if it was me, I'd cut out the horizontal part of the grafted in original firewall, then make a new piece to replace it, its only four bends and a tweak back at the bottom. That would loose all those welds, and give you a clean start for mounting pedals and master cylinders. Although, it may be worth mocking all that up on it as it is, then replacing the lower section and transferring the holes you need, save mishaps on the new part. Remember to reinforce that firewall, it will flex like crazy with the pedals hanging on it.

 

6sally6 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^