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I never use the parking brake. In fact I usually drop the linkage to make sure it's fully relaxed, and also retract the shoes with the adjuster. To keep the wheel from turning I use a tire iron or length of pipe in between the puller arms and wedged against the garage floor - hope you get the idea, I don't have a picture showing that. But that's the normal way to keep the assembly from turning.

Well our long national nightmare is over. I took O-D's hint and just beat on the puller harder, and now both hubs are off and a new batch of spider webs is revealed. It's my own fault, I'm just not used to using this level of force on things due to my aircraft background I guess. I need to embrace the dark side and allow myself to take out my frustrations occasionally, if I do it right it will doubtless make me a more pleasant person without too much needless destruction. I just keep worrying about the "they don't make this stuff anymore" problem.

I bench bled my new master cylinder and while I was at it I tried to test my stoplight pressure switch again. Dang, it doesn't seem to work now. I think I'll try it once I get everything on the car with no leaks, then if it still resists I can put a new one on.

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I was on the road filling in for one of my project pilots most of last week, and I'll be gone most of next week filling in for another one. So not much time to work on the car. But I did get some time this weekend, decided to actually put some parts back on the car. What a concept, I guess we've all been there though.

So I had gone through the starter, everything was in good shape including the brushes so I just shined up the commutator and cleaned and lubed things, basically gave it a spray paint overhaul. Why let it clutter up to top of my toolbox, so on the engine it went. I still need to pick up a new relay for it, the old one disintegrated when I took the nuts off and I'm switching to 12 volts anyway.

This afternoon I reassembled the shifter linkage after installing the new master cylinder, one of the mounting bolts for that also serves as the pivot shaft for the shifter linkage bellcrank.

Then I got ambitous and reassembled the front suspension. Wow, what fun getting those coil springs in place by myself. Some experimenting with jacks and getting the lower pivot bolts to hit all the threads correctly and they were on. I used a couple big plastic cable ties to hold the springs in place while I lined up the jacks etc. A little verbal encouragement (good thing I was alone) and it all went together again. New shocks completed the job, ready to reassemble the brakes and bearings now.

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I'm on the road this week again flying, actually in my home town in western ND. So I zipped out to the in-laws farm this afternoon and pulled the heater fan motor and horns out of my brother-in-law's wrecked '55 in the hopes that they will work (thanks Dan!). I'm converting my car to 12 volts so I needed these things anyway.

I have a blower motor from a 55/56 that I got from Mike dulinsky. It worked great in my 53 with 12v. Horns could stay 6v. They're Loud!

I tested the 12v blower on a battery here and it works, my original 6v one is seized. I was under the impression that the horns were voltage specific? If not, then I guess I have 2 sets, although I haven't tried testing my original horns using a battery yet.

The horns are voltage specific and if you lean on them or keep them blaring for a long time they will burn out or pull enough current thru their own or the relay's contacts to cause issues. Other than being very loud, a normal toot toot should not cause any long term issues or overheating. You might want to replace the relay with one of the proper coil voltage though.

I have no keys for this car, gone long ago. So I will either need a new ignition switch or get this one rekeyed. With the switch to 12v, will there be a problem leaving the ignition switch on with the engine not running, to listen to the radio for instance? Coil will have a ballast resistor.

Or am I better off getting a newer style ignition switch with an "accessory" switch position, to run the radio without having voltage to the coil etc?

The original ignition switch should have an 'accessory' position if you turn to 10 o'clock left, and Ignition on if you turn to the right (about 2 o'clock)
I would bet a locksmitch could make you a key if you brought him the ignition switch and a key blank.

Front door and ign used the same key so if you have it rekeyed keep that in mind. The switch will work fine on 12v and unless someone installed an earlier switch, the 52 switch should have the acc position. The GA or long post is active in both positions and the COIL terminal is only active in the on or toward right position. To run the radio, as long as switch is in the acc position the coil won't be energized.