Putting your foot to the floor could mean one of two things: mashing the gas pedal such that the throttle is wide open, usually resulting in a grimace of delight, or it could mean stomping the brake pedal to its full extent--often with both feet--in a last stitch effort to stop, the ensuing grimace being quite the opposite of delight.
Ford essentially used the same drum brakes in their cars and trucks for over 20 years from their introduction of the use of a hydraulic brake system in 1940. Yeah, there are differences through out the years like when they when to a self-energizing set up in '49, but still nothing to speak of after a couple of decades. They might have worked sufficiently for the first years of their use, but these days Joe Jerk in the Honda in front of you doesn't care that it might take you the length of a football field to stop from 60 mph in your old truck as you plow into the back of him and leave your
front bumper in his back seat or worse. Don't get mad, get even! We have to equip our classic trucks with the necessary parts to survive on the road today or the inevitable is bound to happen. We have for a great example this '60 F-100. It was subject to an armature resto attempt that made the truck look decent, and that's as far as it went. The mechanicals were left untouched which is good and bad. The good part is that it hasn't been messed with too much, but the bad part is that it wasn't maintained too well and fell victim to the "ride 'em, wreck 'em, never check 'em" mentality.
Out at California Speedway we put the F-100 through its paces and found out exactly how inept the stock drum brakes were. This truck wound up with the second worst braking test results of all that we've tested. From 60-0 mph it took the old Ford 279.27 feet to come to a halt! That's bad, real bad. Just for comparison, my stock '94 Chevy 1500 stops from the same speed in 191 feet which still isn't great, but it shows how bad this F-100 was.
Master Power Brakes has stepped in to help us all remedy this problem with their front disc brake kit for '57-64 Ford 1/2-ton trucks with the stock 5 on 5 1/2-inch bolt pattern. This kit makes use of many stock Ford and GM parts that are available at local parts houses like the rotors that interchange with '73-93 2WD Ford F & E 150 series trucks and vans as well as calipers that can be replaced with those from most '71-76 big GM cars. Stock wheels will need to be changed to at least 15-inchers to clear the new binders, but that might have been in your plans already. Also, in planning for new wheels keep in mind that MP's kit moves the wheels in about a half an inch on each side, so plan offset and backspacing accordingly.
One thing we are looking into to coincide with the greatly increased stopping power is the use of a solid-axle Ford Econoline tie-rod bar which has an increased diameter/wall thickness over the F-100 that would help to prevent it flexing under hard braking.
Read on for Round One and check back next month as we give the rear drums the same Master Power treatment to complete the transformation so we can loosen our grip on the wheel and let the blood return to our knuckles.
