’34 Ford Pick-up: Putting on the brakes

Gene Meschi has nice cars. They include a beautiful full-fendered Deuce roadster, a steel Deuce three window with a blown flattie that we’re especially fond of, and this yellow ’34 pick-up. The truck is Gene’s wife’s. An older build, it’s sturdy and well put together. (Gene handmade the stainless grille himself). But the truck had brake issues. Gene and his wife live up in the Santa Cruz mountains and the downhill run into town was getting sketchy. Old car service and repair really isn’t our thing, but this wasn’t just another greasy old Ford, so we dove in.

The problem quickly became evident. The truck was running Wilwood discs up front and drums in the back. After a little research we found that the calipers had the largest pistons available in that product line — and that the master cylinder was too undersized to drive them.
Not wanting to have to bend new brake lines, we hit the internet for a bigger bore master cylinder with approximately the same form factor. We also wanted one that was American made. We eventually found the big brother: a Ford master cylinder built for F-350 trucks and buses. We did have to modify one of the brake lines, but otherwise it was a neat fit.

We cleaned up the calipers and the rear wheel cylinders, blew out the brake lines, put everything back together, and bled the system with fresh fluid. A test drive, a little fore-aft adjustment with the proportioning valve, and Gene was down the road.