'34 Dodge Brothers, double build.

Looking good sir!!!!! I still struggle with bolting things correctly to make them come apart Easily through

Placing bolts to hold things in place looks easy until you add a few more things. Then what was easy suddenly becomes not so easy sometimes.

After a while, you grow an understanding why some cars are assembled the way they are, and why some of those bolts are just hard to get at to remove.

My BIL is always complaining about why those stupid engineers (I'm being nice) put bolts where they did. He has never built anything from scratch in his life. I just smile at him as he rages on.

Yes, I agree, putting bolts in the system is sometimes harder, but necessary. Sometimes there are bolts in the darnedest places, but after you've built a few things, you realize that's where they have to go.
Anyhow, I made quite a bit of my clutch/brake pedal mounting bracket today. It has to fit in beside my trans mount, without touching it. Here's a picture of the bracket, and I'm not showing you the discarded pieces.

Today was a town day, so not much was accomplished. Also, the guys who push me to start another tractor project, [by starting it and doing quite a bit on it] showed up to look over my next project. The project was too big to start this late in the winter, so my dreams were dashed.
Anyhow, I test fitted my clutch/brake bracket and found it wanting. So I welded a bit more iron on the top and one side, bored some holes and bolted the clutch pedal system on to it. Oh yea, I test fit it again and it was OK this time.

On another town day, today, I had some time to kill before an appointment, so I went to a parts store and asked for a master cylinder for my truck. Well, the partsman asked 'what year and make?', so I had to say 1934 Dodge. He stared at me stonefaced, so I suggested maybe try for a mid fifties MC. Finally he got ticking away on his board, then after a bit he said we got one, it'll be here on Friday.' What did you get', I asked. ---- 'A 1934 Dodge master cylinder, like you asked'. He turned his screen my way and showed me a picture of it. Sure enough, it'll bolt right on. --- Who'd a thunk it.

MercuryMac said:

On another town day, today, I had some time to kill before an appointment, so I went to a parts store and asked for a master cylinder for my truck. Well, the partsman asked 'what year and make?', so I had to say 1934 Dodge. He stared at me stonefaced, so I suggested maybe try for a mid fifties MC. Finally he got ticking away on his board, then after a bit he said we got one, it'll be here on Friday.' What did you get', I asked. ---- 'A 1934 Dodge master cylinder, like you asked'. He turned his screen my way and showed me a picture of it. Sure enough, it'll bolt right on. --- Who'd a thunk it.

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My dad had that same experience for his 33 Dodge. Called and the parts guy thought he was crazy, nearly swallowed his tongue when he saw there were a number of them in the warehouse in Edmonton. It's probably the same part number that you ordered

Yep Snopro, I'll bet it is the same master cylinder. I have a '33 Plymouth out in a shed that I've been robbing parts off of and the MC looks the same. The parts house phoned today to say it was in and I could pick it up, so tomorrow is town day.
[pic one] is a shot of the clutch/brake mounting bracket bolted in to check if everything will fit. That's looking at the apparatus from the front bottom. The old master cylinder is mounted in its normal place.
[pic two] is the same apparatus seen from the bottom rear.
[pic three] is looking down from the top. So far, everything looks like it will work.
[pic four]. I took the whole gizmo out again, because, I've got the brake pedal and master cylinder looking OK, but Chrysler clutch throw-out bearing release levers are on the right hand side of the bellhousing so I have to make some way of actuating the clutch. So I made a bracket on my pedal pedestal to mount the master cylinder for the hydraulic clutch and mounted the clutch MC. I still have to make the MC actuating arm and rod.

Looking good!!!!

I went to town today and picked up my master cylinder, cool. But, over at the welding supply store I didn't fare so well. I had run out of acetylene yesterday, so I went to trade my bottle in, and was turned away. There was no gas delivered last week and the acetylene factory has shut down for repairs, they said. I'm to keep phoning in to see if they get some new full bottles in next week. So Guys, don't run out of acetylene now ,OK.

I think the future holds this problem with most gasses needed for nearly any form of production. I was a sub-dealer for a semi-local welding supply company until a year ago. Many places that used to produce the gases needed for welding have been closed down for one reason or another. 10 years ago one of the nations largest acetylene producing plants had an explosion at the plant and as of a couple years ago, it was still not at full production. I've read about a month ago that all the helium for the USA now has to be imported.

This happened to nitrous several years ago, I was filling my own 35# bottles and buying it in 250 cu ft bottles. That's when I quit using it and haven't tried to buy any since.
I haven't bought acetylene for over 10 yrs and really haven't missed it.

MercuryMac said:

I went to town today and picked up my master cylinder, cool. But, over at the welding supply store I didn't fare so well. I had run out of acetylene yesterday, so I went to trade my bottle in, and was turned away. There was no gas delivered last week and the acetylene factory has shut down for repairs, they said. I'm to keep phoning in to see if they get some new full bottles in next week. So Guys, don't run out of acetylene now ,OK.

Click to expand...

You need an old acetylene generator I guess.

Might want to consider changing over to propane. I know it doesn't have as hot of a flame.

In light of the acetylene debacle, I had to dream up something else to do. No heating or cutting. So, I went out to the big shed to my parts car and robbed the toe board and the angle piece from the firewall to the frame that the toeboard bolts to. Then I took my powersaw and cut some fallen down willows out of my way and proceeded to powersaw a 'V' trench in sewer pump out ice so the shop yard lake could drain away. It didn't take long to change that little trench to a fair sized creek.
Anyhow, I also grabbed an old shock for the truck and took it apart. I had collected four 1934 shocks and three of them still worked, but this one didn't. These units are almost foolproof, ------ almost. The first picture is the shock housing emptied out. The second picture is one of the valves and its spring. It turns out you have to put that in the housing the right way up. The third picture is the shock repaired and ready to go back on.

We have had the dam issues with welding gasses round here in the last few years!! It's always something it seems these days!

I hope the issues go away, LB.
Today, I installed the new brake master cylinder, and painted it to look like the old one. I left the old MC in the picture so you guys would believe me this time. You'll also notice the rubber pads on the pedal shafts to stop the dust and noise from coming to the cab. You just know this is going to be a high end ratrod when you see them.

Mac, the level of luxury is unparalleled...
Also, 1934 working shocks...? I don`t know much about those early cars but that is pretty awesome in my book....

I like the process you go through to keep it as close to original as you do.

I like building new things but there's almost as much engineering that goes into making things look like they are only a few months old when they are really really old and really worn out or broken or both.
Anyhow, I was put out that the pedals were pretty sloppy, side to side, so today when I was in town getting my 'long awaited' acetylene I picked up a new 'key wayed' shaft and some bushings to rebuild the pedal pivots. Here is the brake pedal with its new bushing, [honed] and the shaft fitted through it.
While I was in town I ran into a few old friends; one was building a '63 Ford unibody, one was building a '46 Dodge Power Wagon, and one wanted me to go and look at a '36 Plymouth pickup in the upholstery shop in a neighbouring town. Stories were swapped.

Aside from building yourself, the next best thing is friends with projects and stories to share.