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I used Tower Paint a few years back to mix me up a couple of cans of Roman Copper Metallic for my 56 MES Caribbean. The paint match was excellent.

Well I finally managed to get back into the garage and got things reorganized. I was able to clear out the remaining storage items from the garage, so now I can finish running the wiring on the last remaining wall. Once that is done, then I can start to finish the walls. I decided to finish the walls in 1/4" ply. This will be easier for me to install, and will be a bit more durable than drywall. The other walls that were done in drywall are already showing wear and tear.

So I took some time this afternoon, and pulled apart the Left Front brake to see what I had in there. Beside the rust and dirt, it is as I expected. It will need a new rear seal, and the wheel cylinder is completely shot. I will be replacing all the components anyway. I already have a new hardware kit, new adjusters. I just need to go to Napa and buy the wheel cylinders, and the buy some new shoes. RockAuto has the best prices on the complete shoes.

Anyways, here are the pics. One thing I noticed was that the both return springs were the same color. I think there was some conversation about this awhile back. Both springs were an aqua color. You can see that in the pictures.

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Models 5400 and 5401 use eight of the same springs, front and rear. Very unusual.

I found these front shoes at RockAuto.com. Does anyone have any experience with this part #?

RAYBESTOS Part # 264PG {Professional Grade; 11.00 X 2.50} Front $23.79

This is for all 4 shoes for the front.


The rears are:

RAYBESTOS Part # 228PG {Professional Grade; 11.00 X 2.00} Rear $24.79

I just want to make sure these are the right parts before I order them.

Someone check me on this, here are what I belive are the original Wagner Part Numbers for my Clipper:

WC Front Left Wagner F18290
WC Front Right Wagner F18291

WC Rear Left Wagner F18984
WC Rear Right Wagner F18985

Brake Hose Wagner F1191

Front Shoes Wagner 160
Rear Shoes Wagner 161

Brake Holddown Kit Wagner F19469

I just want to make sure I am referencing the right part numbers as obviously no one has listing for a '54 Clipper.

Well I made the trip to Napa today, and bought the pieces I needed to rebuilt the front brakes.

The existing shoes still had alot of meat on them, so I couldn't bring myself to order new ones, so I am just going to reuse them after a little cleanup (see pic).

Napa had the wheel cylinders in stock for about $11 bucks a piece. I also had to buy new seals as the existing ones were shot. I found out that for some reason the '54 uses a different seal than the '53 or the '55's. The seal in the '54 is National 6456 (Napa NOS17131 $14.99), I belive the 53 or 55 seal is National 5975. I confirmed the one year status looking at the Max Merrit website. They list a different part number for '54. The '54 seal is actually cheaper in price than the pre 53, 55 seals. Weird.

The seals were not in stock and had to be ordered, but they will have them by tomorrow midday. My Napa store is able to get just about anything in about 24hrs.

They also had the rear wheel cylinders in stock, but I will wait on those until I get the fronts all done.

I bought a new hardware set (springs and hold down hardware) and new adjusters a few months ago off of ebay, so I didnt need those from Napa.

I went to use my AAA card to get the 7% discount that Napa gives card holders, when the clerk sad he would give me a better discount, and he knocked %20 of the of the total bill. Must have been my lucky day.

So the plan is to pull the backing plates off, derust them, and paint them. I will also clean up the existing shoes to remove the surface that is on them. I will clean the drums up, and them take them to Kragen and have them turned, and then hit the outside with a little high temp paint to keep the rust off of them.

While the backing plates are off I will finish the degunking of the steering knuckles, and try to clean up the rest of the front suspension. Currently the front suspension and steering is nice and tight with no slop in it at all. So hopefully rebuilding it can wait until later. I will take the time to paint all of the suspension pieces when I paint front frame clip.

Once all of that is done, then I will reassemble the brakes. All of the brake lines need to be replaced as the fluid that was in turned to solid rust many years ago. I already have the new lines, I just need to install them. But I will wait until the frame is cleaned up and painted. So that will be one of the last things on my list.

I just want to get the brake mechanicals all taken care of, and then get the car back to a rolling status as soon as possible. I may need to move the car around to finish the garage renovation, and having it on jacking stands with the spindles showing really doesnt allow me to move it.

I still need to do a little more derusting on front frame clip, then it can get painted. I also need to clean up the firewall so I can shoot it with some Metallic Bikini Blue rattle can paint from Tower paint. I hopefully can get all this done by Thanksgiving.



All parts numbers have been added to the Cross-Reference to help the next guy out.

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Well I pulled the backing plates off. It required me to use the impact gun to break the bolts loose.

With the back plates off I spend about an hour with a large screwdriver scraping gunk off of the steering knuckles. I think I chisled off 5 lbs of muck. I ran out of brake cleaner, so I will need to make a stop by the store so I can finish the cleanup.

With the bolts removed from the backing plate this also allowed me to remove the steering arm from the knuckle. this made it easier to clean everything up.

Slowly it's coming along.

Well I was just browsing Ebay this evening and came across a vendor selling replacement front Packard floor pans for 51-56. They were $90 a side. I will let everyone know how they looks compared to my swiss-cheesed originals when they arrive.

I had to let the vendor know which year, and model I had. So I think he has different ones and is NOT a one size fits all kinda thing. I am not sure if these are old replacement stock, or new stampings.

I figure buying pre-made floor pans for $90 a side, is way cheaper than trying to make my own, or paying someone to do it for me.

Well I finished cleaning the steering kunckles. So clean now you can actually read the part numbers on them. I got the backplates taken down to bare metal, primed, and painted.

One question I have is that there are two gaskets (or seals) 15.4045 & 15.4072 (on this plate) that are used on spindle/backing plate. Does any one have a part number cross reference to these? I could probably find a match for 15.4045 if I took it into Napa as they came out in one piece, but 15.4072 came apart in pieces.

*BUMP*

Any ideas for replacement parts on these gaskets????