Special Section: The Rouge an Industrial Icon

By Austin Weber

For many years, it was the epicenter of the manufacturing world.

It was big. It was bold. It was breathtaking. For most of the 20th century, the world-famous River Rouge plant was a monumental complex that was the embodiment of manufacturing on an epic scale.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the sprawling Rouge plant was the largest industrial facility in the world. It was the only place on earth where you could see the entire automaking process in one day. And, the Rouge was the heart and soul of Ford Motor Co.

There were huge ore docks, steel furnaces, coke ovens, rolling mills, glass furnaces and plate-glass rollers. In addition to several chassis assembly lines, the self-sufficient complex included a tire-making plant, a stamping plant, an engine casting plant, a transmission plant, a radiator plant, and a tool and die plant. At one time, the unique facility even included a paper mill and a soybean conversion plant that turned soybeans into plastic auto parts.
A massive power plant produced enough electricity to light thousands of homes. There was so much electricity to spare that the plant provided the city of Detroit with a million kilowatts of excess power every day. Ford boasted that the Rouge facility featured "the largest completely mechanized installation of handling equipment ever installed in any industrial enterprise."
Located a few miles south of downtown Detroit, at the confluence of the Rouge River and the Detroit River, the original Rouge complex was a mile and a half wide and more than a mile long. The statistics are mind-boggling:

• 93 separate buildings totaling 15,767,708 square feet of floor area.
• 53,000 machine tools.
• 30 miles of internal roads.
• 5,500 tons of coal was consumed every day.
• 100 miles of railroad tracks and 16 locomotives.
• 538 million gallons of water was consumed daily.
• 120 miles of conveyors.
• More than 6,000 tons of iron smelted every day.
• 13.4 miles of glass rolled each day.
• Maintenance workers used 16,000 gallons of paint per month.
• Every 49 seconds, a new car rolled off the assembly line.

At its peak in the 1940s, more than 100,000 people worked at the facility. To accommodate them, the Rouge complex included a multi-station fire department, a scheduled bus service, a police force, a fully staffed hospital and a maintenance crew 5,000 strong. Every month, 3,500 mop heads had to be replaced to keep the complex clean. But, statistics alone fail to capture the magnificent power and presence of this enormous industrial icon, conceived by Henry Ford and known simply as "The Rouge."
"When you hear the word 'manufacturing,' in most cases, the picture that pops into your head is usually a sepia-toned aerial view of Ford's sprawling facility on the Rouge River," says Jamie Flinchbaugh, a partner at the Lean Learning Center (Novi, MI). "Even if you don't know it, you've seen it many times—in high school history books, in encyclopedias and in the movies: Huge barges and freighters moored next to giant mounds of ore and coal; scores of smokestacks punctuating the sky; a complex of factories; and, of course, vehicles rolling steadily off assembly lines.
"Material flowed in, parts were welded and bolted together, and automobiles flowed out; from the receiving docks to the shipping docks in only three days," explains Flinchbaugh. "The Rouge is everyone's archetypal idea of mass production—the idea of what mass production can be. Henry Ford and the Rouge are part of America's mythic consciousness.
"In the 1950s and 1960s, many Midwestern kids climbed into yellow school buses for field trips to Dearborn, MI, specifically to tour the Rouge facility. We made these pilgrimages to the Rouge for one reason: To see the miracle of American manufacturing. Then we visited the nearby Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village to understand how it all began.
"No baby boomer who visited Dearborn ever forgot it," claims Flinchbaugh. "Gone, of course, were the days of the three-day Model A, but massive amounts of materials were moved by massive numbers of people in a way that still seems like choreography—and it was."

Pastoral Beginnings

The Rouge was conceived and pieced together by Henry Ford. In fact, the Rouge represented a long succession of "let's-try-it" decisions. The first came with Henry Ford's purchase of the land a few miles from his childhood home in Dearborn, the same marshlands where he hiked and watched birds as a boy. Ford began buying the property that was to become the Rouge in 1915. In total, he acquired a 2,000-acre stretch of bottomland along the Rouge River. At one time, Ford considered turning the land into a large bird sanctuary.
That plan changed near the end of World War I, when Undersecretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt engaged Ford to build a fleet of Eagle-class submarine chasers.
In 1918, Ford built a fabricating building and a 1,700-foot-long erecting building. Inside were three assembly lines, each capable of carrying seven boats. Each 204-foot vessel was assembled with 260,000 rivets. Each keel was laid on a 200-foot railroad flatcar, which was towed down the assembly line as work on the hull progressed. When a finished hull reached the south door of the building, it was moved onto a large transfer platform and rolled on rail toward a slip. It was then rolled onto a launching trestle that was hydraulically lowered below the water in the slip, leaving the boat to float.
Before the last of the Eagles were assembled in 1919, Ford moved auto body-building machinery into the buildings, which were later transformed into chassis assembly lines.
The war demonstrated how vulnerable Ford Motor Co. was to supply shortages. For instance, the Highland Park plant suffered a number of work stoppages because of supplier failures.
Ford and his team of engineers took all the lessons learned at Highland Park and expanded them. "The Rouge was the culmination of three decades of experimentation with factory planning and design," says Lindy Biggs, a history professor at Auburn University (Auburn, AL) and the author of The Rational Factory (Johns Hopkins University Press). "It seemed to represent the direction in which modern industry would move, in both building style and production methods; it was a harbinger of things to come.
"The plant that Ford build on Detroit's Rouge River was a new kind of factory," explains Biggs. "It was innovative not only for its size and suburban location but for its buildings, plant organization, and the fact that it produced and processed almost every component of the Ford car."
According to Biggs, the Rouge complex was a great, integrated machine that was unlike other auto factories. "It was so large and had so many diverse operations that it looked more like an industrial city than a factory."
Henry Ford decided to make his company self-sufficient through vertical integration. His ultimate goal was to achieve total self-sufficiency by owning, operating and coordinating all the resources needed to produce complete automobiles.
Ford acquired 700,000 acres of forest, iron mines and limestone quarries in northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The company also owned coal mines in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Ford even purchased and operated a rubber plantation in Brazil. To bring all these materials to the Rouge, Ford owned a regional railroad and operated a fleet of ore freighters.
Ford's quest for vertical integration hinged on the idea of continuous flow "from earth to assembly." According to Ford, the idea was to achieve "a continuous, nonstop process from raw material to finished product with no pause even for warehousing or storage."
Allan Nevins, co-author of a landmark book entitled Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company (Charles Scribner's Sons), describes the Rouge as "a domain that was without parallel both in size and in sheer mechanical efficiency. The total effect on the observer was both unique and impressive. The first impression was one of vastness and complexity.
"At 8 o'clock on Monday morning, ore arriving in the slip was transferred to the blast furnace," explains Nevins. "At noon on Tuesday it was molten iron being poured into a foundry mold, and later that afternoon a finished motor travelling by trunk-line conveyor toward final assembly."
Ford's dream of making an affordable car for the masses required him to continuously reduce costs. "If those who sell to us will not manufacture at prices which, upon investigation, we believe to be right, then we will make the articles ourselves," Ford warned.
Ford's ambition was never completely realized. At no time, for example, did Ford have fewer than 6,000 suppliers serving the Rouge. But, no one has ever come so close to achieving vertical integration on such a grand scale. In fact, designing for flow and efficiency would become the precursor of today's lean manufacturing.

The Art of Production

For many years, the Rouge influenced the world of art. For instance, the complex is famous for its contribution to industrial architecture. Most of the buildings were designed by Albert Kahn, one the most renowned architects of his day. Unlike traditional auto plants, which utilized multiple floors, Kahn's Rouge buildings featured single-story construction and steel framing. "More efficient assembly was possible on one floor, and there was little need for all the fireproofing, corrosion resistance and vibration damping that made reinforced concrete so valuable in tall buildings," says Patrick Malone, a professor of American Civilization at Brown University (Providence, RI) and co-author of The Texture of Industry (Oxford University Press).
"Steel framing was strong and easy to erect, and it took up less space than concrete," adds Malone. "The wide roof trusses that could be built with steel allowed [engineers] to dispense with supporting columns, thus allowing more flexibility in equipment layout."
Kahn managed to add a sense of light and air to many of the buildings by using the Pond truss. This tall, distinctive M-shaped roof was engineered for maximum performance in ventilating and lighting the factory interior. One of the first structures constructed at the Rouge, the B building used for Eagle boat assembly, marked a milestone in plant layout. The building was the first to enclose an entire Ford manufacturing operation in a single structure and on one floor. It was also Ford's first steel-framed structure. When the Rouge glass plant was erected in 1922 with heavily glassed upper walls and ceiling, it was hailed as "the single factory that carries industrial architecture forward more than any other."
According to Brian Carter, chairman of the architecture department at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Kahn's buildings were "representative of an integrative approach to design, an enthusiasm for technology, and a belief in the potential of production."
Thanks to a series of photos, paintings and murals that were created in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Rouge is the most famous industrial sight in the world. "Through the photographic image, and subsequently the painterly eye, Albert Kahn's reluctant contributions to Modernism were transformed into icons that became an inspiration for the modern," claims Carter.
Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) was a painter and photographer who specialized in industrial scenes. His artwork often graced the cover of Fortune magazine during the 1930s. Sheeler once compared American factories to the great cathedrals of medieval Europe. According to Richard Guy Wilson, an architectural history professor at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), Sheeler became enamored with the Rouge complex and "raised up coal bunkers, conveyor tubes and body presses as the American equivalent to European monuments of civilization."
Many industrialists shared Sheeler's vision, including Henry Ford, who declared: "The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there."
In 1927, Sheeler was commissioned by Ford's ad agency, N.W. Ayer & Son (Philadelphia), to take a series of photos of the Rouge as part of a campaign for the introduction of the Model A. "The campaign was the first to portray a beauty and heroism in the manufacturing process in order to spur sales," says Wilson, co-author of The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941 (Harry N. Abrams Inc.). "The Rouge ads started a fad, as many advertisers found that industrial views could be used in popular, mass-circulation magazines as well as trade journals."
Sheeler's most famous photo was entitled "Criss-Crossed Conveyors." It was published in the February 1928 issue of Vanity Fair magazine with the following caption: "In a landscape where size, quantity and speed are the cardinal virtues, it is natural that the largest factory, turning out the most cars in the least time, should come to have the quality of America's Mecca."
Sheeler also created a series of oil paintings depicting scenes at the Rouge. One of his most famous, "American Landscape," is part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York).

The Rouge also was depicted in the world's most famous assembly line painting. In 1933, Edsel Ford and the Detroit Institute of Arts commissioned Diego Rivera (1886-1957) to create two giant murals for the entrance of its new museum. Rivera based his multipaneled tableau, "Detroit Industry," on the River Rouge complex, where he spent several weeks studying and sketching various production processes.
Rivera's murals, in contrast to Sheeler's outdoor landscapes, provide a glimpse inside the buildings of the Rouge. The North Wall depicts the assembly of a 1932 Ford V-8 engine and transmission, while the South Wall illustrates the Model A chassis assembly process.
For his Production and Manufacture of Engine and Transmission mural, Rivera combined the interiors of five buildings at the Rouge: the blast furnace, open hearth furnace, production foundry, motor assembly plant and steel rolling mills.
"He isolated the individual manufacturing and production processes and represented each in a separate perspective scheme so that one can clearly differentiate each process," says Linda Bank Downs, author of Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals (W.W. Norton). "He ties them together via curving conveyor lines, so that each section is visually connected to the next."
Rivera was fascinated by conveyors, and used them throughout his murals. According to Downs, Rivera studied the assembly processes carefully and "created an integrated composition capturing the movement of conveyors, workers and machines." Rivera used some artistic license in the murals. For instance, the final assembly line is teeming with workers wearing overalls, while the actual line employed much fewer men who wore smocks. "What is accurate, however, is every detail of the chassis, the pulley system and the conveyor line," says Downs. "The function of the machinery was so well understood that when engineers looked at the finished murals, they found each part accurately designed."

Witness to Labor History

The Rouge continued to operate throughout the Great Depression, yet Ford's obsession with ever-increasing cost reductions through methodical efficiency studies made life difficult for workers. On May 26, 1937, when a group of union organizers led by Walter Reuther attempted to distribute union literature at the Rouge, Ford security agents and a gang of hired thugs beat them severely. The infamous event, captured by newsreel cameras, became known as the Battle of the Overpass. It was a pivotal moment in the history of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
The Rouge settled down with UAW representation before World War II broke out. During the war, the giant complex produced thousands of military jeeps, tanks, trucks and airplane engines.
In the late 1940s, the roar of the Rouge began to fade as Ford Motor Co. embarked on a new era that stressed decentralization and a more global approach. The company grew to rely more and more on an ever-increasing cadre of suppliers and to methodically extract itself from other fields such as mining, lumbering and glass making.

In 1981, steel-making operations at the Rouge became part of a new independent company. When these operations were sold to Rouge Steel in 1989, Ford gave up ownership of all Rouge River frontage and boat docks, as well as 45 percent of the original 2,000 acres.
Over time, the number of operations and jobs at the Rouge dropped. Economic pressures mounted to retire old brownfield manufacturing facilities and to replace them with state-of-the-art greenfield plants. However, Ford and the UAW established a modern operating agreement and fostered numerous innovations to increase efficiency and quality at the Rouge.
The Rouge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978. During the past 85 years, the plant has mass-produced millions of vehicles, including Fordson tractors, Model A sedans, V-8 engines, Willys jeeps, M4 tanks, Pratt & Whitney R-2800 aircraft engines, Fairlane coupes and Mustang sports cars.

Total Transformation

Now called the Ford Rouge Center, the 600-acre site remains Ford's largest single industrial complex. And a massive revitalization effort is under way to restore the industrial icon's glory. Ford is investing $2 billion in the new Rouge Center. A state-of-the-art production facility called the Dearborn Truck Plant will open next month during Ford's centennial celebrations. Production of F-150 and Ranger pickups will ramp up later this year, with full production in 2004. The 1.3-million-square-foot flexible assembly plant will have the capability to interchange three vehicle platforms, producing nine different models in the same facility.
The new Rouge Center is the largest industrial redevelopment project in U.S. history and the flagship of Ford's vision of sustainable manufacturing for the future. The truck plant will include the world's largest living roof. Vegetation will store water and reduce storm water runoff while insulating the building. Ford also plans to open a new visitor's center so a new generation can get a first-hand glimpse of the vehicle assembly process.
"Integrated manufacturing wasn't invented at the Rouge," says Bill Ford, Henry's great grandson who currently serves as chairman and CEO of the automaker. "But, it was refined, combined and perfected in a way that changed the world. Over time, we hope to do the same for sustainable manufacturing with the Rouge Center redevelopment project and have an even greater impact around the world.



Source:  http://www.assemblymag.com/articles/83966-special-section-the-rouge-an-industrial-icon

Dual Carbs

Source:  http://www.modelaparts.net/webbcat.htm/catp63.htm

Fitting Front & Rear '39-'48 Hydraulic Brakes to the Model A

Ford tries to make a Point with a 1937 Ford Sedan

Model A Spindle and Rear Brake

Ford Model A Emergency Brake

Front Spindle & Brake

This subject seems to come up alot on the HAMB, "How do I fit hydraulics to my Model 'A' ". Hopefully this should show how to fit said brakes the CORRECT way.

My Model 'A' came already fitted with hydraulic brakes, but the more I studied them the more things I noticed were wrong with the way they were fitted. The true horrors weren't discovered until they were actually removed from the car.

I decided the best way forward was to start again with a fresh set of backing plates.

Here is your basic '39-'48 Ford backing plate. In this case they are the later '46-'48 plate as they have the riveted rather than bolted bottom pivots. You will also need the correct hubs and drums as the original 'A' ones will not work with the hydraulic backing plates.

We'll start with the fitting of the front brakes first.
This is the stripped hub. You'll need a front fitting kit which consists of 2 bearing spacers and two backing plate spacer rings. You can see how these are mounted to the hub.
Take care with the backing plate spacers as they are cast iron piston rings and will break easily if forced.

The Model 'A' has a smaller backing plate stud spacing.
There is two ways you can approach this:

1. Elongate the original hole in the backing plate.

2. Plug the original holes and re-drill them for the Model 'A' stud pattern.

I choice the second as I believe this to be the correct way.

You can see in the above picture the now hole-less backing plate. A plug was cut from 3/8" steel rod and then plug welded both sides and ground smooth making sure not to remove material from the mounting surfaces.

Now is time to re-drill the mounting holes.
You can get complicated here and have it all set up on a rotatory table on a mill or do what I done and just mark it from the back!

The backing plate was masked with tape and placed on the hub.

With the backing plate mounted to the hub, making sure that the wheel cylinder is at the very top on the vertical, mark the position of the holes with a 3/8" drill bit, this will be your final hole size.

Use a drill press as this way you will have a nice straight hole. You should find that the backing plate sits flat making it easy to clamp down.

Use a small 1/8" pilot drill hole, double check everything and then keep enlarging the holes until you finish with a 3/8" hole.
If you find that its gone wrong somewhere, simple plug weld the hole and start again.

The finished article. Notice how close the holes are to the edge? Thats just the way it is I'm afraid.

QUESTION:  Don't take this the wrong way. It's a great post. I am concerned about the lack of edge distance between the center of the hub and the mounting holes(which you already mentioned). I know it is a limiting factor because of the diameter of the spindle, but the way you have your holes drilled is really not much stronger than the ones you showed as the bad example. I wonder if you could add a doubler on the inside to help displace some of the load? Like a circular ring?


ANSWER:  The backing I used actually has the reinforcing spacer ring you mention. They came from the factory like this and I believe they are from an F3 truck. The difference between mine and the bad ones shown is that mine are securely located. The slots in the bad example are so inaccurate and sloppy that the backing plate had the opportunity to move on its mounting when fitted to the car. Done properly with a single hole it doesn't matter where you apply a force on the backing plate it can not move. I don't think there is a stength issue here.


If everything is correct it should all bolt up.

Complete the assembly of the brakes and its job done.

A little tip when assembling the brakes is to cover the shoes in masking tape. This stops the shoes getting covered in grease, oil and God knows what else.

That completes the front brakes and finally an example of how not to do it. Yes these are what were originally fitted to the car.

Rear Brakes

Moving onto the rear. This becomes a little more involved and will need machining to do it properly.

First off is the very outer edge will need 1/8" machined from it.

Also 1/8" will also need to be removed from the back of the rear drum.

The backing plate will sit on the rear axle casings and the holes will line up. You will notice that the backing plate will not sit flat because it will clash with the spring hanger.
The way to remedy this is a small clearance slot in the backing plate, as below.

For best results it will best have these machined on a mill as I had mine done. I would think a similar result could be achived with a angle grinder.

Comment:

A very good post regarding the 40-48 front brake swap for Model A's...I love these cars, and have 7 in my collection...But there's a few things I learned over the past 34 years. My two cents worth regarding the rear brake backing plates. I didn't like the idea of making the "window" cuts in the backing plates.

I removed the wheel cylinders and to take care of the interference with the spring mount perch, I heated the area red hot with the torch and forged a dimple so I wouldn't have to cut the two windows. This way there's less open to the weather and dirt.

Another thing I did. I did this adaption in 2001 when I had the rear end torn down for some work. I had a machinist friend with a big lathe cut 3/16" off the face of the mounting flange on the rear end housing for the backing plates. That cost me $20. This pulled the backing plates in so I wouldn't have to use shims to space out the hub. In your case you trimmed the brake drums. Either case it involves some machining to effect the same result.

I found thru the years that using the shims didn't work well for me, as they wore out every year, and I was always replacing them and the keys. Luckily I kept ahead of this on a yearly basis and didn't screw up my hubs or axles. I gleaned this info from California Bill's book on the Model A....I found a reprint of this 1952 book in a bookstore for $5! This saved me the yearly inspections and replacement of shims and keys. Nice article.




The following is the drawings to show where these slots will be in the backing plates. Remember that they will be handed.

Right rear.

Left rear.

With the slot the backing plate will now sit flat on the axle casing. Notice in the picture how the spring hanger now sits flush with the backing plate.

The second problem your now going to experience is that the wheel cylinders also have clearance problems with the spring hanger.
The way to overcome this is to rotate the backing plate forward. For reference the recommended number of degrees is 16. I found this not to be enough so I just rotated the backing plate until I had adaqate clearance with the wheel cylinder and more importantly enough space for the brake fitting and pipe.

With the backing plates held in position it was the same process as the front in marking the holes.
I used a 1/2" drill bit as this is the final hole size.

I removed the rear wishbones to make it easy to mark the holes.

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Again the backing plates were drilled on drill press. You can plug the original holes but I chose not to.
Your final hole size 1/2".

With the rear backing plate mounted with a wheel cylinder you can see the amount of rotation. I kept the rotation to a minium to try and keep the wheel cylinder as high as possible.
If you look closely you can see how with the extra rotation of the backing plate how the clearance slot has moved round.

A shot from the back.

Before final assembly of the rear brakes you want to put a large chamfer on the outer edge of each brake shoe. This is because the shoe will rub on the inside of the brake drum.

Again some examples of how NOT to do it.
Apart from the obvious poor workmanship here the new mounting holes were actually drilled the wrong way so the backing plates rotated back not forwards. this had cause all sorts of problems with plumbing the brakes

Some final information.

When you tighten everything up you may find the drum binds. This may be due to wear on the tapers.
If this is the case you will need some axle shims. The car came with 2 but I found I needed just the one, the fewer the better in my opinion.

To finish you want to torque the nuts up to 80-90 foot pounds. this is important as its the taper NOT the key that holds the hub to the halfshaft. I find it best to put a wheel on the car and then torque the nut as this stops the drum from spinning.

QUESTION:  Good work. Three comments/questions. (meant as constructive criticism, not nit-picking.)

1, The 80-90 lbs feet figure is surely too low.
I've read figures of 200-220 quoted, plus regular retightening and further tightening to the next castellation. (dont exceed 275 ft lbs) I think if anyone follows the 80-90 lbs ft figure they'll have trouble.
2, if you knew about the rotation before cutting the clearance slot in the rears, would you have made the cut out slightly different.?
3, Do you think they'll bleed ok with that much rotation? I'm not saying they wont, I just wondered if this is an established method, and people have tried it before and it's ok.
4, Is it not an established technique to use the rear backplates upside down? This just rings a bell from somewhere, I've not tried it myself. That would keep the cylinder and the backplate ridge clear of the spring mount. Anyone else seen it done this way?

You'd have to fit the cylinders the right way up of course so they would bleed ok.

Keep up the good work. Nice documentation and presentation, glad to see you're doing the car right.


ANSWER:  No problem, if there something wrong I would rather know than cause problems to myself or someone else.

I've checked three different publications and now have three different torque settings!
The first is the 80-90 ft lbs the second is a larger 125 ft lbs and the third says tighten well!
I'll look into it further.

Of course if I'd known about the position of the slot I would have done it differently.

They have already been bled and are fine. Even though the backing plates have been rotated the wheel cylinders are still the highest point.

Yes, you can mount the backing plates up-side down. I personnely don't like this way as it puts the wheel cylinder very low, which may cause problems with bleeding the system. Also the brake line will run very low leaving it vunerable to being damaged.

Source: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124112&highlight=model+brakes



Appendix:

These shots show Wilson Welding 1939 Lincoln backing plates adapted to Model A spindles. First pic shows that the center hole in the backing plates is too big for the A spindle. The 4 mounting holes are not where they need to be.

The second pic shows a piece of 4" pipe turned down in the lathe to make the spacer. You can get valve seats to add to the spindles for the grease seal to ride on.

The magazines suggest wallowing out the mounting holes with a file but you can do better.
The third pic shows the spacer welded in, the mounting holes welded shut and new holes drilled. For 1937 to 48 spindles, the backing plates bolt up and no adapters are needed.

The fourth pic shows the assembled brake complete with the self adjusting parts. The brake shoes are 12" by 2" for 1976 Chev Big Station Wagon rear wheel brakes. The wheel cylinder is a 1 1/8" front from a 1964 F-250. (The 1/2 ton has 1 1/16") The bigger wheel cylinder gives more of a 'power brakes' feel.

The brake drum used is 1940 Ford. Henry put 1 3/4" shoes in these drums but they are more than 2" wide. You get more swept area using ALL of the drums usable surface.
The self adjusting parts are also from the 76 Chev 12" brakes. If you dont have the self adjusting arm for 12" shoes, you can get all you need from the more common El Caminos and other Chevys from the 70s. The springs and all the small parts are the same, cut and weld to extend the adjusting arm to fit 12" shoes.

There was a magazine article recently promoting the Lincoln brake kits for more than $3000! and those brakes are not self adjusting. The article does not state how wide the shoes are in that expensive kit.
Bob Wilson charged $150 for the backing plates, the shoes were $13.88, the wheel cylinders were $11.88, the small parts kits was less than $5, turning the 1940 drums was $7.50 each, and I got new star wheels, they are inexpensive too. The 1" master cylinder (I used 77 Thunderbird) was about $30, A new 20' stick of stainless steel tubing cost $18 and a dozen Stainless brake line fittings are $2 each. (Advance Auto wanted $2.65 each for mild steel fittings)

Total is less than $300 for the front brakes, master cylinder and all the stainless brake line and fittings. Cost of wheel bearings, races and seals is not included in the $300. The original Model A wheels still fit as do all 5 on 5 1/2 wheels.

Source: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124317

Buick Conversions

Buick Brake Tech

There is a ton of good stuff on the HAMB about Buick drum/hydraulic brakes but no single post on the complete conversion. I just finished up the front brakes on my 29 and figured I would do a write-up on the “how to” and parts I used to tie it all together. I apologize for having links to some of the pictures, but their is a 20 picture limit on posts.

Unless you are prepared for a lot of headaches and stuff that doesn’t fit together, an old Wagner or Bendix brake parts interchange manual is a must have. I started with a set of 45-fin Buick 12” aluminum drums from a 1964 LeSabre, a set of 1953-56 F250 backing plates, early Ford 1943-45 juice hubs that mount on the INSIDE of the drums, and 1935/36 spindles and axle. The 45 fin aluminum drums were used in big Buicks from 1957-64. The F250 backing plates are the Bendix floating/self adjusting design similar to the hard to find Lincoln backing plates, a huge improvement over the 1939-48 Ford-Lockheed brakes. I went with the 1943-45 hubs because I planned to run 16” smoothy rims with a 5 x 5 ½” bolt pattern. There is a little less machining if you use the later 1946-48 hubs instead of the early Ford 1939-42 drums/hubs. I considered using my original Model A hubs but never heard of anyone using them and given the low speed design of these cars, I didn’t want to be the first to try. I picked up 1935/36 spindles/axle as cheap way to lower the front end of the Model A with the stock 2” drop axle.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details...MB/spindle.jpg

In addition to the 1964 LeSabre drums I was using for the conversion I also had a 1960 Invicta drum. They are the same thickness, diameter and have the same size hub register hole, but there are subtle differences between the early and late Buick drums. The LeSabre drums had balance weights and the Invicta drum did not. The machined area for the hub on the inside of the drum is about 1/8" smaller in diameter on the early drum and may require machining a little too close to the bolt circle for inside the drum hubs. There are also several differences between the two drums to accommodate the linings used in the two cars. The 1964 LeSabre drum has a 2 ½” wide machined surface to accommodate 2 ¼” wide shoes and the lining contact surface is recessed ½” from the back of the drum. The Invicta drum has a 2 ¾” wide machined surface to accommodate 2 ½” wide shoes and the lining contact surface is recessed ¼” from the back of the drum. Using the early drums will effectively move the drums inboard, a clever way to avoid spacers that may be needed to bring the linings in full contact with the drums for certain combinations of backing plates and spindles.

I drilled out the rivets on the Buick drums and knocked out the studs on the Ford drums to separate the drums and hubs. Be careful to support the backside of the Ford hubs when you knock out the studs so you don’t bend the mounting flanges!

A buddy of mine did the machine work to register the Buick drums to the Ford hubs. He had hoped to find a chunk of pipe that was close to the right size to make the job a little easier but ended up using aluminum stock. The drums should be registered to the hubs, NOT the studs, so you don’t need to be concerned about the orientation of the drums and the hubs in the future.

After cleaning up the snouts on the Ford hubs, he bored a hole in the aluminum stock for a light press fit on the hubs, then turned the ODs for a tight slip fit to the holes in the Buick drums. He trued up the mating surfaces of the Buick drums and the Ford hubs and turned the OD of the hub flanges to fit the recesses on the inside of the Buick drums. The register rings were installed with Loctite Spherical Parts Locker. I am running 16” steelie wheels so I wanted to keep the 5 ½” Ford bolt pattern. Pilot holes were drilled in the Buick drums to match the pattern with the final sizing waiting until the studs were installed so the holes could be machined for a nice slip fit.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details...MB/hubBack.jpg

I had used a BFH to knock out the Ford studs and the Buick drums were ~3/16” thicker than the original Ford drums so new longer studs were needed. I have seen suggestions to use NAPA 6411145, 6411138 or Dorman 610-132 studs. At 1 29/64” overall, the NAPA 6411145 may be a little short for good lug engagement, and all of these studs are larger in diameter than the originals and require machining the holes in the hubs. You can get original style studs from Mac’s for about a buck and a half (Mac’s 68-1107). At 1.56” overall (original studs were ~1 3/8” overall), the studs were plenty long to use with the Buick drums (six full threads of engagement with 16” Ford rims). They were a little loose in hub bores so we knurled them and installed them with Loctite Spherical Parts Locker. After the studs were installed, the holes in the drums were machined to their final size.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/detailshop/HAMB/assy.jpg

Speedway and Mac’s sell kits that include backing plate centering rings and spindle shaft spacers for mounting juice backing plates to early mechanical brake spindles (Speedway # 91631928 @$19.95 and Mac's #X-2000 @$17.95). I have been told that you can use Model A piston rings and valve seats but decided to spring for the $20 kit.

As it turned out, the spacers were not needed with the 1935/36 spindles I was using, 1937-41, round back or 1942-48 rectangular back spindles. Spacers or shortening the backs of the hubs would be needed with Model A spindles and the nearly identical 1932-34 spindles so the hubs do not bottom out against the backing plates. The rear bearings in the 1943-48 hubs are recessed ~3/8” and the rear bearing surface of Model A and 32-34 spindles is ~5/16” inboard compared to 1936-48 spindles. Careful measurements and the appropriate spacers/machining are needed with these spindles to ensure that the shoes are in full contact with the drums.

I showed in my original post as 35/36 are actually 36 only. The two are nearly identical with rectangular backs, large backing plate centering hole and 3/8” bolt patterns. The 35's have a long shaft like the ones used on the Model A’s and 32-34s, but the 36’s have the short shaft common to the later spindles. You would need the centering ring and spacer with the 35 spindle, but only need the centering ring with the 36. I don’t have pictures of a 35 spindle but here's a photoshop to see the difference:

The F250 backing plate/spindle bolt pattern did not quite line up, a problem if you are using any 1928-36 spindles with 3/8” backing plate bolts (early Ford 1939-48, Lincoln and F250 backing plates all use the later 1937-48 bolt pattern with larger ½” bolts). I slotted the holes in the backing plates and grease shields, and bolted them to the spindles with new 3/8” fine thread bolts and self locking nuts. I used flat washers on the hub side of the backing plate to retain the centering rings. The hubs were installed with new bearings, races and seals (same for all Ford 1928-48) also available from Mac’s.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details...MB/BPslots.jpg

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details...MB/BPbolts.jpg

The F250 backing plates use single-sided wheel cylinders but are easily converted to dual cylinders by drilling an additional mounting hole. Most folks use F100 cylinders (1 1/16” Wagner #F41718/F41719). I did a little poking around on the Bendix website and found some whopping big 1 3/16” cylinders from a 1992 F250 Supercab that were a direct drop in for the backing plates. The bigger cylinders provide a little extra hydraulic force to the front wheels and the only difference was that they used a smaller 3/8” fitting instead of the typical 7/16.

I wanted to take full advantage of the F250’s Bendix brake design and robbed the adjusting hardware from the rear of the 1964 LeSabre 45 fin drum donor. You can also use the rear hardware from a 1971-76 Caprice Wagon with 12” drum brakes that is still available from GM.

Things started to get tricky when I looked into the brakes shoes. Not taking the steps to ensure correct relationship between the brake linings and the drums has undoubtedly been the cause of many poor performing conversions. Mismatched spindles, spacers, backing plates and hubs could leave you with less than 1” of usable lining width!

The stock F250 backing plates used 2” wide shoes but the Buick drums can handle up to 2 1/2” linings. I mocked up the 2 ¼” and 2 ½” Buick brakes and the half round cutouts at the top of the shoes were machined differently throwing the shoes way off center (the Buick pivot pins are ~1/4” closer to the edge of the backing plates). I try to avoid modifications to service parts whenever possible and went with the 2” F250 shoes so I wouldn’t have to machine the critical pivot pin radius. I drilled 9/32” diameter holes in the bottoms of the shoes for the Bendix self adjuster springs and tweaked the slots in the shoes to improve the fit of the self adjusters.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details.../brakeAssy.jpg

If you have your heart set on the larger 2 ¼” and 2 ½” shoes, it might be easier to modify a set of the early Buick 12” backing plates. You can get the spacers you need for the swap from Mecutem on the HAMB and has Pete Smythe psmythe@patrons.com has adapters and machined Buick backing plates for $200 plus shipping. Lots of good info in this thread:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...882&&showall=1

The outer lips of the F250 backing plates are ~3/8” wider in diameter than the 1939-48 Ford and Lincoln parts, and just fit inside the grooves on the backsides of the Buick drums. Keeping with my philosophy of avoiding modifications to service parts, I used a 4 1/2" electric angle grinder with a grinding wheel and thinned the lip by carefully removing ~1/16” from the inner edges of the outer lips of the backing plates for better clearance in the grooves on the backsides of the drums. I also machined an access hole for the self adjuster of the left hand backing plate. The F250 plates are not left and right and a new hole was needed to line up with the star wheel of the adjuster.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details...justerHole.jpg

The early Ford juice and Lincoln backing plates require machining of the inner lips of the grooves in the Buick drums to accommodate the outer lips on these backing plates. If you are using the later 1946-48 Ford hubs that mount on the OUTSIDE of the drums, the thicker face of the Buick drums will move the drums inboard requiring a bit of machining to the top surfaces of the inner lips of the grooves in the Buick drums. If you plan to use these backing plates or hubs, you will have to mix and match these modifications so the backing plates clear the drums.

Careful measurements are required to ensure full contact between the linings and the drums. The offset of the F250 backing plates provides full contact between the 2” linings and the Buick drums, but this is not the case with the 1939-48 Ford backing plates. The shoe anchor pads of the early juice plates are offset ~7/16 “ inboard compared to the F250 backing plates. I have heard that some folks simply machine away a portion of the linings so the back lips of the drums don’t cut the shoes. The linings for these backing plates are only 1 ¾” wide. With a little more effort, you can correct the offset rather than sacrifice lining width.

Using 1946-48 juice hubs that mount on the OUTSIDE of the drums will move the Buick drums inboard ~3/16”, the difference in thickness between the original Ford and Buick drums. Using the early Buick drums designed for the larger 2 ½” brakes will effectively move the drum inboard ¼” compared to the later drums designed for the 2 ¼” linings. I have not mocked up either of these combinations, but it looks like this may be all that is needed to bring the shoes into full contact with the drums. Spindle/backing plate spacers can be fabricated as needed to move the backing plates outboard. The grooves on the backside of the Buick drums will have to be machined accordingly to accommodate the offset. Measure carefully and do whatever you have to do to ensure full contact between the linings and drums for the parts you have.

I do not have any Lincoln backing plates and can’t say how the offset of these plates affects lining/drum contact. Can somebody chime in on this?

Here are a couple shots of how everything went together. About ¾” of the finned drum is visible beyond the inner bead of the 4” wide 16” steelie wheels.

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details.../BPrearRim.jpg

http://www.sunbunnybrown.com/details...drumOffset.jpg

There are many combinations of spindles, hubs and backing plates that can be used for the Buick drum conversion, but just getting the pieces to bolt together doesn’t guarantee that they will function as an effective brake drum assembly. I think I have identified everything you’ll need to watch out for if you try the swap. Now if I can only get the time to slip the new axle under the A…


Source:  http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122603

Comment:

With the F-250 backing plates, if you use the '40 style hubs where the drum mounts on the outside of the hub, you should not have to trim any of the lip of the drum as shown in the attached pictures of a Buick drum on a '40 style hub.

If you mount the drum on the inside of the '48 style hub as normally done when using the Lockheed brakes you will have trim both the aluminum and the iron drum liner and with the rough measurements I made in the past, it seemed like there was not enough metal "above" the groove to allow the depth of cut needed.

If you compare the difference between the pieces of steel clamped to the hubs, in the the one picture, it should give you an idea of the difference in drum spacing between the the two style of hubs.

Comment:

The 40 hubs must be machined down on the OD to fit in the bottom of the cone shape of the center of the Buick hub. The pictures of 48 hubs would show the hub hanging over the edge of the drum. Cutting the hub means the outer support on the wheel is not making contact with anyting as the drum is angling away. 40 hubs can be drilled for the small patern but must be spotfaced as the surface is angled. I am very much concerned with folks trying to use the 40 hubs and not knowing the problems. The spacing is off in every dimesion stack I have done so it is possible but difficult to get the drum to cover the shoes completly. I have seen assemblies on cars where you could look down at the drum and see the shoes.

Question:

What if you are wanting to run 40 hubs with the big 5x5.5 pattern, 40 backing plates and spindles and 66 Buick drums? Is it better to run the 40 hubs or the buick hubs?

Answer:

I would only run the 46-8 hubs.The buick drum does not have a big enough mounting surface to contact the outer support nubs on the Ford wheels. The 46-8 hubs are considerably bigger in diameter. You could make a support plate that was the reguired diameter to support the wheel and put it on the outside of the drum. The 40 hub would still have to be greatly reduced in diameter to go inside the Buick drum. The new support plate would only be clamped at the inside and would need to be pretty thick. The whole thing is not as nice as using the 46-8 hub

Comment:

Thanks for the help Andy.

Ended up going with the 40 hub. And yes, we had to machine the hub down just a small amount and made a sleeve to locate the drum on the hub.

Yep, after looking at it, we made a 8" dia spacer to run on the outside of the drum to support the wheel. Hopefully I will get to putting it all back together this weekend. We will see, our new 3 week old son seems to keep distracting me

One side on, one to go... well, and get the finished spacers.

 Source: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122603&page=2