We've had this 25,000-mile Zephyr for about 10 years. The interior is original, but the paint and chrome have been redone.

VERY NICE..I LOST ONE LIKE THAT IN TOLEDO BACK IN 77..DAD DIDNT THINK I NEEDED 2 OLD CARS...

WHERE DID IT COME FROM..ANY IDEA WHY THE FLOOR SHIFT??

JEFF

We got it from an estate in Detroit. Maybe it's the same one you lost.
I can't explain the floor shift, except that the car has a few modifications. Note that it has 1940 and 41 parking lights. It's also been fitted with air conditioning and power brakes.

Simply beautiful car, West. But haven't you read the all the automotive journals? -- your engine is shot by now.

That very nice '40 sedan has a lot of inconsistent things, custom dark maroon steering wheel with a standard interior?? A postwar heater switch? The '39 Ford transmission, would fit all right by mixing and matching parts, but me and Abe have got to see the Air Conditioning and Power brake installation-

Sorry. I can't answer too much specifics on the installation. But I have these two photos that show the a/c vents in the back (plus a center stop light). Also, the engine photo that shows the power brake booster over on the passenger side, and the a/c compressor mounted where the generator normally would be. I do know that there are two six-volt batteries... one in the trunk, but I'm not quite sure how it all works. Brian Joseph's shop in Detroit did the work (also did the paint and chrome).

That's a nice, interesting car.
Perhaps I missed it, is it a 1940?
You mention it having both '40 & '41 parking lights, but that looks like a '40 grille.

Very nice car. Definitly a '40 model. The only visible '41 items on the car are the fender mounted parking lights. Everything else points to it being a 1940 car (the list is long).

Power brakes have become almost mandatory these days for safety reasons. The new brake lining material doesn't provide adequate friction to stop the car safely. I hid a Midland power booster under the left front fender on my '41 Continental. It's tucked away out of sight and the only time I know it's there is when I step on the brakes!

West any chance of getting some more photos of the mounting bracket of the air conditioner and alternator brackets? Did you have to change the bottom pulley? What is that device in front of the battery, a brake booster? Thanks Harry

Now that is slick, Abe are you alert to this?? still the original crank pulley running the AC and water pumps, but an extra pulley on the AC running the offset alternator, as sanitary a way to accomplish this as could be done I think, but I can't imagine anyone these days driving a '40Z enough to really need AC, when all the jellybean cars come with it as standard equipment, just me, the old curmudgeon I guess-

Sorry. It's the only photo I took. We just took it out of the garage last weekend. We've had it for 10 years and have only driven it a few miles (too many cars). It's in a shop right now getting some problems fixed.
It's got one of the most beautiful paint jobs I've ever seen on a Zephyr.

I don't think power brakes would make a car with insufficient lining area stop any better; conversion to disc brakes, however, would. I'm pretty sure that all a power brake booster would do is reduce the amount of pressure the driver would have to exert on the pedal. Actually, adding a power booster on a car with inusufficient brakes might even serve to give the driver a false sense of security, mating low pedal pressure with weak brakes.

I wonder how hot the old HV-12 would run with the air conditioner on, especially in traffic.

Well, I can assure you that the car DOES stop better! (It would barely stop at all before the booster). Conversion to disc brakes would undoubtedly be more efficient, but would STILL require a power booster as well as a proportioning valve and some significant modifications. The lining area may be insufficient for the new, harder brake material, but squeezing harder on them makes up for the deficiency.

However, I wouldn't recommend this conversion for a daily driver. The brakes would probably fade pretty quickly. BUT, anybody using a car like this for a daily driver these days - in today's traffic - is flirting with disaster!

Insufficient lining area on a H model Lincoln, give me a brake, 12" diameter, approx 2+" wide?? very few cars have that much lining area I think, for years they were the most sought after brakes to adapt to early model Fords, and would stop very well indeed, as did the Lincolns, I found this out vividly when I took delivery of a brand new '56 VW, and on the first day couldn't get it to stop anywhere near as well as my Lincoln did, a Chevy was making a left turn at the bottom of a hill, and here was the result, VIVA 12" bendix brakes-

Yeah, I had a similar experience, not as disasterous, but frightening just the same.

In 1962 I was driving my newly acquired 1961 Pontiac Bonneville station wagon from Omaha, Nebraska back to Riverside, California. I was towing a 1960 VW on a tow bar behind the Pontiac. Cruising across Kansas on 2-lane US highway 54 (No Interstate highways in those days), I overtook a convoy of new 5-ton army trucks, each towing another. Nice, straight road and I thought I could pass one pair of the trucks. I got alongside the towed truck and still had a ways to go to get ahead of the towing truck and get myself and the VW safely in front of the rig. Way off in the distance, I saw an oncoming car and decided that I wouldn't have time to complete my pass safely so I hit the brakes - **HARD**. The Pontiac had power drum brakes, but they didn't slow the car down as quickly as I expected them to. It did slow down enough to allow me to pull in behind the towed truck, but the Pontiacs hood was totally undereath the rear overhang of the 5-ton truck bed, just barely missing contact with the trucks rear axle.

That incident taught me to plan far enough ahead to compensate for the *LOUSY* brakes on that fancy Pontiac!

Clean looking car. Should be able to drive anywhere comfortably and reliably. The AC compressor on top should be able to support the additional belt. Someone made custom brackets for the alternator.

I'm still studying a serpentine belt option for AC and power steering. I think I've located about enough parts, but may need to have some pulleys made for the water pumps. I'll post pictures if and when the combo actually works.

I got a small diameter power brake booster and master cylinder that fits in the stock location. Brake line plumbing is then simpler. Only thing is you also need a remote fill kit for the master cylinder as the hole in the floor no longer lines up. Mine seems to stop the car fine, no disk brakes so far.
Abe

Several years ago I had a 1939 Ford Standard coupe street rod with a small power brake booster under the floor. The car had a Mustang II front end with front disc brakes which worked very well. I sold that car without ever finding out where the builder got that booster but I'll bet it was a lot like the one you have. Where did you get it?

I didn't check any street rod parts guys because I was worried that the little booster wouldn't provide enough boost to stop a heavier car, especially with all drum brakes.

Phil:
I got the booster, master cylinder, and fill kit from Hot Rods USA near Vancouver, WA. I adapted the orginal brake pedal with a 1/2" plate behind the cross member. Hot Rods USA gave poor service, didn't send the complete package and I had to bug them. A number of after-market places sell complete pedal and booster with master cylinder assemblies for Ford that should fit fine with much less hassle. I recall that there are two chambers in the booster to make up for the small size.
Abe

Love the car - great styling. I would like it without the modifications, but that's just my opinion. They appear to be well done.

Just a comment on the earlier drum brakes, based on my experience with GM cars (Bendix duo-servo) - may apply here also. These brakes had a minor and major adjustment proceedure. The major adjustment procedure includes a method to position the anchor pin and an eccentric for the primary shoe. The effect of this is to center the diameter of the shoes with the diameter of the drum. It's critical to follow this procedure carefully to maximize the contact area of the shoes to drum. Often, the effectiveness of these brakes were pretty good, when set up correctly. Again, can't really speak to the Ford brakes (Lockheed??).

The Lockheed Ford brakes that came out in 1939 had adjustable anchor pins, and when set right, and the short shoe on the front and long shoe on the rear would stop pretty good, but us go fast guys with the old Fords had to have the Lincoln bendix's, we used 4 rear Lincoln backing plates, but the proper wheel cyinders on them, they bolted right on to the Ford spindles and rear-end, and they would really stop a lightweight Ford. Since the L brakes are very hard to locate these days, a lot of the Ford guys are using F100 Ford Pickup brakes on their early cars, 12" bendix's with the same bolt pattern, and same master cylinder, lots of ways to skin a cat-

HEY PHIL, GOTTA GET THE BIG ALUMINUM DRUMS ON THAT PONCHO...

I SENT YOU A PM..ASKING ABOUT SOURCE FOR BOOSTER THAT U USED