Email #1 - A Sunken E-Brake Handle
Just a quick update...

We've joined the YouTube revolution! I'm adding real time videos showing how easy it is to assemble Welder Series parts to our YouTube page. I don't stop the camera until the part is finished, so you know exactly how long it takes. Each video is around five minutes long. You can subscribe to get instant updates when I upload a new video, and even make smart alec comments!
CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR ASSEMBLY VIDEOS
Tale of the Sunken E-Brake
Alright, I know this isn't a Welder Series part, but I figured you would find it interesting anyways.

When it came time to install an emergency brake handle in the '32, I wanted to keep with the theme of the rest of the car; simple and unobtrusive. First I'll talk about why this was necessary in the first place. The Bear Fiberglass body is very well made, but there are some "opportunities" to overcome certain unique features that Bear incorporates into their body. The main feature I'm dealing with here is the thickness of the floor. It's not just a single layer of 'glass... it's two layers, with a hard foam-type material which acts as both a sound and heat insulator between them. That's all great if you're ok putting your e-brake handle in a box above the floor, or on the side of the tranny. Neither of these was an option for me, because I didn't want it sticking up into the passenger's feet area. I thought about mounting it perpendicular to the tranny, but that wouldn't work either because of space.
Now that I've got that out of the way, just bear with me as I modify a Lokar e-brake handle to fit a Bear body.
Here is revision A of about G. I welded the 90 degree tabs Lokar includes with the handle slightly lower than where the bolt holes line up due to the thickness of the floor. I was figuring on making a boot to cover the bolt heads.
After some serious thinking, and some petitioning to the guy who actually owns the car, I went ahead and cut some stuff up. I made the trough that the handle is sitting in out of the outside radius of a bent 1-5/8" tube. I re-used the ratchet mechanism from the Lokar handle, and made the gusset that holds the ratchet plate to the trough. My idea was to have half the handle actually sticking above the floor, and the trough to sit just under the surface.
Here you can see how thick the floor actually is... I cut these slugs out with a hole saw then chipped them loose with a screwdriver. The masking tape is the outline of my trough.
This shot was taken by a gnome peering over the rocker panel. He said "hey, nice emergency brake handle".
I bent another tube for the cover and cut it out for clearance. There is only one bolt holding the handle to the floor - I welded a bung to the bottom of the trough just under the button on the handle. There's a button head bolt that goes through the bottom of the floor and into the bung. The cover on the back side of the bracket is sitting above the floor, so when I pull up on the handle, it's trying to push down into the floor. It's very sturdy.
The next "opportunity" I came across was the linkage. Because of where I mounted the handle, I needed to go under the frame center section. I couldn't use the clevis that came from Lokar, so I bent a 3/8" rod, threaded the end that goes through the handle so I could put a nut on the end, then I used a 3/8" heim joint as both a bolt for the tranny mount and a support for the linkage rod.
This is looking from the rear... I drilled and tapped the brass block that holds the cables so the linkage rod could thread into it. The bracket that holds the ends of the cable housings is/was a proportioning valve bracket, so I guess that makes it the bracket of the week. Part number 070700, $4.50.
Thanks for sticking around to read this - I appreciate it.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE REST OF THE '32 BUILDUP ARTICLES

Just For Fun

There once was a blind man who decided to visit Texas. When he arrived on the plane, he felt the seats and said, "Wow, these seats are big!" The person next to him answered, "Everything is big in Texas." When he finally arrived in Texas, he decided to visit a bar. Upon arriving in the bar, he ordered a beer and got a mug placed between his hands. He exclaimed, "Wow these mugs are big!" The bartender replied, "Everything is big in Texas." After a couple of beers, the blind man asked the bartender where the bathroom was located. The bartender replied, "Second door to the right." The blind man headed for the bathroom, but accidentally tripped over and skipped the second door. Instead, he entered the third door, which lead to the swimming pool and fell into the pool by accident. Scared to death, the blind man started shouting, "Don't flush, don't flush!"

Top
copyright © www.welderseries.com