Bingster

My engine runs and sounded okay. I've not driven the car, however. It seems that I should do at least a minimal amount of rebuilding on the engine even if it runs okay. I'd assume it was tired. Rings? Valves? Gaskets?

Okay. Am going to resleeve my wheel cylinders for my '47 Desoto. Now for the parts. I can get NOS rubber parts for the cylinders. Should the rubber be okay to use? Now for pistons and the springs. What do you suggest? Also, should I have Joe at Sierra rebuild the cylinders or should I do it? Any tricks to it?

Wow! Looking great, Joe. Your long past that bad engine experience and looks close, egh? Have you got the chrome all done?

What kind of a sand blaster do you have?

That car is beautiful! I have a '47 Desoto Custom I'm doing. I got a quote for my grille in Des Moines. Would it be impolite of me to ask what you paid to get your grille plated? Did it have heavy pitting?

I just looked at this thread and was shocked that one of our own was hit. I'm so very sorry to hear about this and you will be in our prayers.

Thanks. I'll check those out.

So if I want a rebuilt pump like the one I take off my car, who sells those?

Yep, Reg. Nice clock! That's the period. The 1930's. After the crash of '29, we went through a technological period kicked off by the Burlington Zephr, DC-1, and many other streamlined planes, ships & trains that morphed into industrial designers like Raymond Loewy transforming product lines from toasters to refrigerators to, well, clocks, into this new style that promised hope for the future. Your clock is a classic example how how far reaching the Streamline Moderne was. You still see old buildings with that style lettering or design with rounded corners and the "speed lines" like your clock. I used to ride the passenger trains of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the SF Bay Area when I was a kid in the sixties, and they were running old cars built in 1936-41 whose interiors were pure metal decoration. Grilles, port holes, trim, etc. In this furniture piece I incorporated all the motifs that I liked about that era.

I've seen threads in the past that ask what we do for a living. Since you folks are very interested in the past as I am, I'm attching some photos of a new Streamline Moderne End Table that I have designed and built. It's being advertised in Modernism Magazine and it's the first piece in what I hope to be an ensemble.

Okay, that is the ebay vendor who makes the push pins, as you can see in the photo, but won't sell them separately. What do you mean by back door of Kanters?

Okay. I need to make a decision on these brake cylinders and push pins. The options are: 1) Resleeve old cylinders and use old pins 2) Buy new cylinders from Napa, O'Reilly, etc. and use their pins. 3) Buy Bernbaum or similar old style cylinders and use old pins. Now, re-sleeving seems to be the best way to go. Right or wrong? We can assume the Napa type cylinders with shorter push pins will work fine. I bought Bernbaum front cylinders a couple years ago before I knew anything about the hobby, and I have read where they may have a tendency to leak. I know one person who tossed them and had the old resleeved. I'm thinking of doing the same. Only thing is, where to get the old pins if the old cylinders are resleeved. Or, buy new cylinders from Napa and use the newer style pins. After degreasing, priming and painting all my brake parts, I don't want brake fluid leaking all over them. So what is the best approach?

Somebody had mentioned in another thread that at car shows they take off points if fender attaching bolts aren't original. Do they inspect the brake system and take off points if new cylinders and push pins are used? And, if the old ones must be used, why are the old pins like hens teeth to find? My parts book for my '47 Desoto Custom says that the front and rear push pins are the same part number. They don't list a separate pin for the rear brakes. Bernbaum does list the push pins but to my knowledge has not had them in stock for quite some time. For a man who remanufacturers countless other parts, and sells the cylinders, why not these pins which look very simple to duplicate?

Okay, I think this proves something. The new cylinders need the new push rods, and they must be calibrated to use the new pins, whereas the old pins are designed for the old cylinders. I bought some Bernbaum cylinders when I bought the car two years ago. Haven't put them in yet. He said to use the old pins, so I am assuming without looking at the cylinders that Bern's are exact replacements of the old.

Thanks for all the great info. Just the ticket. No, it's a driver but a real nice driver. I'll use the old bolts if they clean up nice and then the next person after me will have them. On that undercoating. . . I've been wondering wether or not to do that to all four fenders. I assume it would really help road noise and prevent road nicks coming through the metal. Eastwood has can spray-on stuff and spray-on with a special applicator gun. Any others? I'd imagine that a can would make a smaller texture of coating than an applicator made for the job.

I'm going to remove the rear fenders on my '47 Desoto to kill some time while I can't work on the rest of the car. It looks pretty simple, just remove bolts, but just in case it's one of those things where realignment will be difficult if I don't do this or that, I thought I'd check in here. Do I make any registration marks? I notice there's a fairly wide latitude for repositioning the fender.

Well, I took my push pin into a local Napa store and first off they had no pin available separately. He looked up cylinder sets that had pins but they were not of the same design. The solid portion that fits into the cylinder was quite a bit shorter than mine. So, it seems to me that this would affect pin travel and hence the stroke of the push pin, i.e., the shoe, i.e.e, braking sensitivity. So we reasoned that maybe the new cylinders that Napa stocks are different designs than the old Lockheeds, and theat this new design push pin is accurate for the Napa cylinder but not the old one off my car. I don't know. Does anybody out there? The simplest thing to do, as somebody suggested, is to have new ones made.

Hey, thanks for the tip. I'll go in and ask. Any part number?

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

For a part that was so widely used it is now so very hard to find. You'd think that somebody would make them in the different lengths needed; front & rear. You can get the brake springs, U-clips, adjusting bolts, etc. etc. but for some reason not these pins. They seem simple to manufacture. But I do wonder how many of you would buy new pins when doing your brakes? Maybe the old ones clean up pretty good but mine were pretty pitted and rough.

Great job, Joe. What a learning curve! Just a thought . . I've found that when I learn do do something like that, if I go away from it for awhile it's harder to get my head back into it later. In other words, whatever "technique" I may have learned first time around had to be learned again to a certain degree for those "now how did I do that?" moments.

I would go into a car dealership auto body shop and ask if the painter moonlighted. I know a guy did that near me. You'd proably get a much better paint job than Earl and for less than a body shop. Quite often these guys do classic and custom cars on the side.

Andy B has been out for at least the last two or three years. I've called him. But I haven't called him lately. He said to use my old ones!

Old Parts Source is selling a brake rebuild kit for my '47 Desoto (and other cars) and it comes with new brake shoe push pins for the front wheels. I emailed and asked if he would sell the pins separately but no dice. I understand his reasoning behind that decision, but those pins are a part that I have not been able to find used or NOS. It would be nice if he'd sell them, even if he had to charge a little bit more than what might be considered reasonable. I know these pins are different sizes for various makes and models. But if some of you need these pins as well, maybe we could band together with a larger purchase and persuade him to part with some.

Do they do the job?