1934 Ford Phaeton Chassis and Brake Upgrade - Ultimate Underpinnings Part 2

Last month, we introduced the '34 phaeton from Kelvin Waddington's Australian Ute Company (see the May '08 issue of STREET RODDER for a full report) that we're building to drive to various summertime events and to tag along with Jerry Dixey on a few of the Road Tour legs.

There were several specific goals when the project began. First and foremost, we wanted a car that was a no-hassle driver, something that road and handled well, was simple and reliable, and that could be easily duplicated by anyone building a street rod at home. For those reasons, under that new all-steel tub body is a traditional solid axle chassis from Pete & Jake's. In our first installment, we documented the assembly of the front suspension, and this time we installed the rear suspension and plumbed the chassis.

We've always believed the simple approach is often best when building a street rod, so we chose Pete & Jake's ladder bar rear suspension for our '34. The suspension works without binding when the rear wheels encounter bumps individually or when the car is driven across an uneven surface, as the frame ends of the bars are mounted close together, unlike split wishbones attached to the framerails. Other advantages to using ladder bars include the facts that they don't interfere with the car's floor, there are no severe pinion-angle changes throughout the range of suspension travel, only two easily replaceable bushings are used, and they easily handle the forces of acceleration and braking applied to them. Last but not least, they are simple for the homebuilder to assemble.

We also elected to use Pete & Jake's Viper coilovers to absorb the bumps during the Road Tour. The beauty of coilovers is they allow the ride height to be quickly altered, thanks to multiple mounting holes in the brackets, and ride quality can be tuned by changing springs, altering the preload on the springs or adjusting the damping on the shocks.

One of the biggest advancements in street rod components has been in the area of brake kits. While there are many options, the most popular combination continues to be discs up front and drums in the rear, and that's what we opted for. Super Bell Super Stoppers with four-piston calipers and Pete & Jake's cool finned aluminum backing plates, vented rotors, and aluminum hubs are used fore; all-new drum assemblies from John's Industries are used aft.

A critical consideration when selecting brake components is the size of the master cylinder; common bore sizes range from 7/8 to 1 1/4 inches. Smaller bore sizes will result in more pressure in the system but may not supply the necessary volume. The master cylinder must be able to supply fluid to all the components with less than two-thirds travel of the available stroke. Of course, the master cylinder required will also depend on the type of brakes used. Typically, a drum brake master cylinder will have a smaller bore than a disc master, and the fluid reservoir chambers will be equal in size. A disc/drum master is designed to push more fluid to the front disc brakes, since they require more volume than drum brakes. Generally speaking, a disc/drum master cylinder will have one fluid reservoir larger than the other. This is because the disc brake pads wear faster than the drum shoes, and the fluid reservoir will drop faster.

A four-wheel disc brake master cylinder is designed to supply more fluid pressure and volume to the rear disc brakes than the disc/drum master does. This is achieved through an internal piston redesign. The piston that feeds the rear brakes on a disc/drum master will run out of stroke, limiting the amount of fluid pressure and volume that may be supplied to the rear disc brakes. If you attempt to use a disc/drum master on a four-wheel disc system, you will get poor rear brake function and experience a spongy brake pedal with excessive pedal travel.