1949 Ford F1 - '48-52 F-1 Disc Brakes - Tech

Requiring more preparation than usual in addition to the 3M Metalite strips, Scotty used a wheel cylinder hone to open up the bearing adapters' inside diameter so they could be driven on with a short length of 2-inch-diameter pipe.

Another problem created by the custom steering setup Chuck fabricated for his truck was the steering arm's male ends designed to pass through the spindle and clamp with two nuts on the outside of the stock F-1 drum-brake backing plate.

The solution was to install a custom steering arm available from Speedway Motors. It has 1/2-20-inch female threads that utilized the four 1/2-20 bolts included in the CPP kit to bolt the CPP caliper mounting bracket to the stock Ford F-1 spindle.

Once the steering arm, steering stops, and shock absorber mount problems were solved, it was time to mount the disc brake assemblies onto the spindles for the final time.

One look at the amount of engineering required to produce CPP's power brake/dual master cylinder conversion kit designed to replace the original F-1 setup illustrates how much of a jumpstart a person gets over starting from scratch.

In the early '50s, when Chuck Porter customized his '49, he converted the stock manual brake under-floor single master cylinder to a firewall-mounted trap (pedal) with a single master cylinder. With Chuck's Cadillac engine swap, there was absolutely no room left to install a dual master cylinder, let alone a vacuum booster. That said, here's Scotty attaching a scrounged-up stock F-1 trap before the clutch pedal was eliminated.

Due to the Cadillac's hydramatic tranny combined with a channeled cab with a flat floor, there was very little room to install the CPP dual master/8-inch booster combo. Eric modified (cut) the CPP bracket to allow the CPP brake combo room to fit.

Here is how the CPP dual master/8-inch booster combo appeared after Eric completed the installation.

This angle reveals access to adding brake fluid is difficult at best. Notice the two clear lines attached to the brake master cylinder lid.

The addition of a CPP remote-reservoir kit solved the problem perfectly. Here's a detail shot of the remote reservoir's lid.

Eric located (mounted) the second portion of the CPP remote reservoir kit on the firewall. Notice how tight Chuck Porter's customized single brake master fits behind the Cadillac V-8's left bank.