Day 2: Pump the Brakes!

Day 2

Luke Kirchner

Pump the Breaks!

Day 2 started out by putting the finishing touches on the wiring harness and wrapping the last of the electrical tape. Luckily that only lasted a few minutes and we went outside to start working on the car. 


Testing if there is space for the brakes with the carpet in

We rolled out the falcon into the driveway to get more space because we were going to install the brake pedals today! The two main assemblies for the brakes include the standard brake that attaches to lines that go to all four tires and the parking brake. Although I do like accelerating more than braking, they are quite important, so we decided to do them first. 


As you may know, we are working on a '67 Ford Falcon. Unfortunately, that is not quite the most collectible or documented car from that era, so it can be challenging to know where each little piece goes, especially because it was all stripped from the car before the metalwork was done. That's where the "parts car" comes in. Much to my mom's disapproval, we have a second '67 Falcon in our side gate that my dad bought years ago for this eventual project. Totally undrivable and rusty, this car serves as our physical diagram to put new parts on the original car. It also contains certain parts that were not available aftermarket and so we can see where everything goes. 

Check out that paint job!


When bringing out the main brake assembly, we noticed there were many parts missing on the aftermarket part we ordered. We soon flocked to the parts car and took off the pedal unit and inspected it. After we took off certain parts, cleaned them, spray painted them, and let them dry, we put them on the aftermarket part. This is one example of how the super ugly parts car often saves the day. It's incredible how just missing one small screw or piece of plastic can render a part totally unusable. 

The falcon when it rolled in 10 years ago... what did he hit in the front?


Once the brake pedal was attached through the firewall onto the master cylinder, we quickly bolted on the parking brake assembly. This was fairly easy (for once), and we stuck the line out the bottom of the car to hang for a little bit until we are ready to install. Overall, it was a great day! Next for the brakes is attaching the brake lines to the physical brakes, but that will involve a full day of work. A hard day full of swearing and bending stubborn metal. Onto the next day!


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