This is one of the original brake linings I removed form the 33 Chevy. I Goggled WYRBAC and got nothing. The licence plate on the car was a 1956 CA. If anyone knows about the age/vintage of the brake linings, I would like to know. Just clues to try and establish the last time this car was on the road. Also maybe how many miles might be on the car.

The other side of the front brake. The front brakes have a flexible control rod. I will cover the riveting of the brake linings on the left front brake refurbish.

This photo shows the completion of today's work. All the parts on the right front brake have been refurbished and installed. This was a slow process today. The new rivet brake lining can be seen on the top of the brake shoe. A reminder, If you double click on any of the pictures you will bring up a larger picture.

I'm pointing to the clean hole where the rivet was removed.

The brake shoe is placed in the tool with the bottom side facing up. This is the back of the shoe. The lining is on the other side of the brake shoe. The tool is lined up in the center of the rivet, and then the tool is struck several times to drive the rivet out the other side of the shoe.

The old brake lining must be removed form the shoes.This is an inexpensive tool for removing and riveting new linings to the brake shoes. The rivet removal tool is shown in my hand.

After the parts are cleaned the rust can be stopped my encapsulating the rust. This is the chemical I prefer to use. It changes the rust and turns the metal black. It should dry for 24 hours before a paint is applied. To keep the parts free and moving well inside the brake Drum, this is the only treatment I will use.

A power wire brush will be used to remove the rust form the part. There is sand blasting, chemical baths, and dip tanks to remove rust. This process is slower but is much cheaper. I should have had my gloves on for this picture. It's hard to work the camera and do this at the same time. Also be ready to get very dirty.

This is the first in a series of pictures to show how to refurbish a brake shoe in a early 30's car. This is also for the younger set out there that hasn't seen what makes an old car tick. This is a brake shoe. The working part of a car that has brake Drums an not Disk brakes. Another difference is that the brakes are mechanical and not hydraulic. The brakes are controlled by the movement of steel rods not liquid pressure.
This picture shows the condition of the brake shoe at the beginning of the process. If one were working on a much newer car, what makes a part go, no go, is much different. This car has a top speed of maybe 55mph.

Safety and other considerations. When working on old cars one need to consider safety. Paints have lead, brake shoes have asbestos, many types of metal particles, paints and other chemicals are and where used of all kinds. I thought I'd throw in this picture of me in my safety garb. If I was in all white, I look as if I'd come from Star Wars. One of the considerations for doing this blog is to pass on the idea that almost any young man can work on a car project. You don't have to spend a fortune to do a 100 point show car.  I'm doing what might be called a refurbish rather than a restoration. In a 100 point restoration the car comes out brand new or even better. What I'm doing is a ground up "refurbish". This evolves taking almost everything apart, checking for wear, cleaning, removing and preventing rust, making sure the parts are serviceable, and finally reconditioning. Also parts are replaced when they are beyond service. The end results will be an original car that has been refurbished. Finally I will include pictures and explanations when I feel that manuals and other available information is not complete for someone new to the hobby.   

Axle, shackles, and springs far out! Another shot from the front of the chassis. My goal for September was to remove the chassis from the car, renovate the whole thing and get it back under the body. I think I might make it.....

Today was another big step. The front axle, springs and shakes were installed. It actually starting to look like a car chassis. I'll be working on the installation of the right brake parts next. I'll also work on the left brake parts. However I won't be able to install the parts until the new spindle arrives.  From my last check on eBay it may be a while. The main rod of the steering will have to be straightened. The local machine show can do that the best. They have straighten thing for me before. And did a great job. One of the great things about living in a small town is you can get little jobs like this completed. In the big city they wouldn't even look at such a small job.

Backing plate for the right brake has been cleaned. Two small 1" inch cracks were located in the backing plate, welded, ground and then the backing plate was treated and painted. The plate that holds the brake shoes is also in this picture after being cleaned treated and painted. I spent most of the day on these two parts. The left spindle, not shown in this picture, will have to be replaced. The spindle threads were badly stripped.

 Brake parts stripped form front end down to the right spindle.

33 Front removed form frame and ready for dismantle.

Brake pedal assembled parts. Highlighted areas are the missing parts.

Assembling the pedal parts to check to see if I'm missing any parts. Found two missing parts. The spring clip that looks like the one in the center of this picture. And an adjustment rod that goes form the brake light switch to the break pedal. On to eBay for parts search.

Next a steel housing was created to encase the bearing. The housing was then welded to the old bracket. This does not look stock. But I think only an expert would notice the change. Most important, I don't think there will be the same wear problem. What are your thoughts?

If you look carefully at this photo, you can make a comparison between the worn area and the new bearing replacement.

Here is the new bearing material inserted.

This is the new bearing surface that was machined.

The middle bearing surface on this mounting bracket for the mechanical brake control rod is badly worn. It allowed the shaft to wobble and make the brakes on the right side of the car almost nonadjustable. So my thinking was that I needed to increase the surface to carry the load. I decided to get some oil impregnated bearing stock and make a new bearing surface.

After the axles were installed in the rear end, the rear end was installed on the springs in the frame. This is one of those points of progress that always feels so good.

After many hours the brakes were completely dismantled, then cleaned with a wire brush on a drill. After cleaning all parts were cleaned with solvent and painted. Time was then spent making sure that all parts moved freely. New brake linings were installed with new rivets. A new brake spring was located and replaced. New oil seals were also installed. The axles were cleaned and surfaces. They are now ready for installation.

All things living and dead have been removed. One thing that I've found to be very important in the restoration process is to take lots of pictures. Not shown in these pictures is the brake shoes were worn down to metal.

Spiders, and webs, and rust, OH MY. Not to mention that many of the parts are stuck in place by rust. The oil seal had been leaking also. The only thing that has been in here since 1955 is spiders and rust. The thing that good is that all of this can be restored.

Axle and drums removed form the rear end assembly. The drums can be removed form the axles. However I chose not to do that. I cleaned and refurbished the units as seen here.

Sorry this is a poor picture. I moved the camera during this shot. My fingers are touching the"C" ring that needs to be removed in this step. The axles must be pushed in from the outside of the axle in order to remove this ring. This ring is what holds the axle in the rear end unit.

The spacer block can now be removed. The purpose of this block is to keep the two axles pushed toward the outside of the rear end assembly. This also keeps the "C" ring lock in place on the axles.

Once the screw had been removed the rod that holds the spacer block in the center of the gears can be removed. A good idea is to hold one hand up under the back of these gears shown in this picture. This will prevent the spacer block form falling through to the bottom of the case.

Inside of the rear end with the cover removed. To remove the axles and brake drums the screw seen in the middle of this photo needs to be removed first.

I've placed the rear end up on the frame so it will be easier to work on. The first process will be to remove the rear end cover then remove several inside parts so the brake drums and axles can be removed. This is required in order to do maintenance on the brakes. This picture also shows the amount of surface rust and dirt/grease buildup on this car.

Two halves of the spring mount.

The curved bar mounted on the axle is the locator for the bottom half of the Spring Mount.

The spring mounts can be removed next. This is the underside of the unit. Once you clean the excess grease and dirt form the two hollowed areas, you should see two screw heads. The screw on the right is almost completely removed in this photo.

This picture shows the order of parts moving toward the brake drum itself. Cell Phones are one of the greatest tools in the aid of the modern restoration project.

This is the order of the lever and it's parts. The top 4 parts are in the order moving away from the lever.

You will need to use a small puller to remove the lever form the shaft.

The brake lever at the rear of the brake unit needs to be removed next. In this picture the nut has been screwed almost to the end of the thread. Because of this you can see the nut, lock washer, seal cover, and the felt oilier pad.

My first direction for the car is replace and repair the rear brakes. In the 33 Chevy that's an interesting prospect. The rear end cover needs to be removed after all the fluid is drained. Next several pieces need to be removed from the innards of the rear end. When these part are removed the entire brake drum and axle is removed as a single unit. For that reason I have placed the rear end up on the frame to make it easier to get to. My guess is that this unit weighs over 200 lbs. So I had my good friend Tom help me. It was difficult for the two of us to move the unit.

All items have been removed from the frame except the rear springs. The frame had been cleaned, rust treated, and painted. At this point the restoration of the chassis can begin. I will start the process of reconditioning the rear end.

The frame removed form the car. Another unique about cars of this era is that they had mechanical brakes and drums. Starting in about 1936 cars had hydraulic brakes. The difference is the mechanical had metal rods that connected the brake pedal to the drums and wheels. With Hydraulic brakes the pressure from the foot pedal was transmitted by small piston pumps and a special oil to the drums and brakes. Modern cars use disk brakes with Hydraulics.

This is an example of a wood replacement piece in the trunk area of the 33. The top photo shows the piece by itself, note the shape. The bottom photo shows the new piece installed. I am not replacing wood that is in good condition. Water damage to the wooden frame was a problem that took these Chevys off the road. I am using penetrating epoxy to soak all wooden parts as a measure to protect for the future.

Body and Frame are separated in this shot. I just started this blog, so I'm in the process of bringing all of you out there in Blogger Land up to date. I removed the body of the car from the frame in the same way I separated the body of the Airstream trailer from their frames. One of the reasons for starting this Blog is because I'm getting to some of the small detail parts and work. This will give me a reference location for other restorers. I can say what part goes here? And then give them a spot on this blog as a visual reference to my questions. I'm hoping this will make the process easier. Airstream Forum has an excellent web site where this type of exchange takes place. It was a great help in my Airstream Bambi restoration.

The first steps I worked on were the replacement of the wooden frame parts that were missing or rotten. I am making all my own wooden frame parts. These are not kit parts. I've had to use the old parts as patterns. Sometimes this was a bit of a challenge. These parts often have multiple surfaces which slants and curves. For those of you who follow this blog and know I have also restored Airstream trailers, these part are a greater challenge. If you aren't familiar with cars of this era, the manufacturers were not able to make cars with full metal tops. The tops are a combination of wood and fabric.

Here the fenders, hood, radiator, etc. have been removed. The body and frame are the only parts present.

33 Chevrolet Master 5 Window

This is pretty much how this car looked when I bought it 1998. It has an interesting history which I get into later. From the information I've gathered this car was last on the road in 1956. It has surface rust with no major rust. This photo was taken just before I started the teardown.