Tom Boehm

I found out there is a tool available to keep the piston centered while bleeding the system. It replaces the electric switch while bleeding the system. It is shaped just like the switch but the post does not move so as to keep the piston centered. I may still have to take the whole thing apart to re-center the piston and then re-bleed the system anyway.

Thank you Lahti 35 and 8E45E! Now I know what I have to do. The link to the Ford Truck forum was very helpful. 1. Check the parking brake switch. 2. Check the electric switch on the pressure differential switch. I now know that can be removed without fluid leaking. If fluid leaks out when it is removed then I need to replace the O rings inside. 3. If the switch is not stuck then the piston is probably stuck. Time to remove the whole thing to clean it out and replace the O rings inside. And re-bleed the system. 4. There is a tool available to keep the piston centered while bleeding the system. It temporarily replaces the electric switch while bleeding. When the dashboard light is tripped on, it does not prevent an otherwise healthy brake system from working properly. Front and Back.

How do I get this light to go off? 1967 Mustang with power drum brakes. The light won't go off after I rebuilt the brake system, changed the fluid, and bled the entire system. The light goes on when there is a brake fluid leak. A piston in the sensor moves toward the leaky side and makes electric contact. Bleeding the system caused it to go on. The factory service manual says to open slightly the outlet opposite the last line bled and push the pedal slowly to re-center the piston. This did not work. I understand how the sensor works. Does anyone out there have experience with this ? Responses to my post in the Ford section say this is very finnicky to get right. Does the piston get stuck? Does the electric contact get stuck and not the piston?

Another thought I had was the piston is not stuck but the vertical post that makes electric contact is stuck in the up or on position. When we were trying to fix this by bleeding various fittings the light never went out or even blinked. This possibly could be fixed without opening and re-bleeding the system. Has anyone out there had this happen?

Thank you for the tip but I got lucky a few years ago and was offered some NOS brown long cobra grain 67" wide by a retired upholsterer.

Since this is the first time I have dealt with this device, that is what I need to know. Also if I need to take it apart, I should put new seals in it. The book made it seem simple.

Yes that is how the sensor works. And yes that is what I suspected, that the piston is stuck at one end. And yes that is the remedy I thought of. That requires removing the sensor and then re-bleeding the entire system. I was hoping someone had a way that avoids having to remove the sensor. It's not the end of the world if I have to.

1967 Mustang with power drum brakes. Warning light on dash goes on when there is a brake fluid leak and pressure is lost. How do I get it to go off? I rebuilt the brake system and replaced the fluid with dot 3 and bled the whole system. The factory service manual explained how the sensor works and how to reset it. I tried that but it did not work. The process is to open slightly the sensor outlet connection opposite the last line bled and push the pedal until the light goes off. Then tighten the connection. Does anyone out there have experience with this?

I remembered. www.restorationstuff.com. They call it drip rail but it is a J shape. Page 29 https://restorationstuff.com/shop/#fb0=31

Ditto. I had glass cut for the back window of my woodie at an automotive glass shop. They made it out of auto safety glass.

I have not tackled this yet on mine. I have been observing a lot of woodies in the meantime to see what options are out there. My Lasalle was custom built in 1940 but is typical of lots of woodies. It had an extruded aluminum J shaped raingutter on the sides without hidem. The gutter goes over the tack heads holding the edge of the roof fabric. On the front my car had a narrow (about 3/8")aluminum molding screwed down to the header to cover the edge of the roof fabric. I guess the roof fabric was glued down to the header sheet metal. The screw heads were down in a groove which was covered by a strip of rubber/plastic? I plan to reuse this molding. I don't think there was any molding in the back. I think the edge of the roof fabric was tacked under the hinge for the back window. I can think of about three versions of raingutter available. One is the Ford woodie version mentioned by 46 woodie. Another is from Ford Model A suppliers. I'm not sure that comes long enough for a station wagon. And there is a plain extruded aluminum J molding that screws on with exposed screw heads. I have seen this version in catalogs but I can't remember where. Also, since you said all this was not on your car when you got it, give some thought to how all these molding will come together or end at the corners. This may require some craftsmanship to look good. again it is helpful to look at other woodies. Also I am not sure how I am going to bend the rain gutter.

I was told by Trimacar who is a retired professional upholsterer on this forum to use cotton quilt batting available at fabric stores. He said it is important to use a natural fiber because man made material such as foam will deteriorate in the heat and sun. I have purchased the padding but have not used it yet. This material is thin, about 1/16" to 1/8" thick. I got enough to do two layers in case one layer is not smooth enough. Also he said to put on a smooth attractive fabric of your choice of color down first then put the padding then the vinyl coated outer roof fabric. The first layer of fabric is what you will see in the inside of the car through the slats instead of the padding.

Look for many small pencil point size holes in the wood and wood powder on the ground under the holes. Those are the signs of wood boring beetles or sometimes known as powder post beetles.

The correct product number for Smooth Grain Black is SMG-80 at Restoration Specialties.

Hello David, do you have an International woodie and a Chevy Suburban woodie also? You seem to like the difficult restorations. I have been down this road looking for roof fabric for my car. The suggestion by 46 woodie is probably your best and maybe only option. If you find some other fabric that you like better but is not wide enough, you could have it seamed by an upholsterer or SMS Auto Fabric in Oregon. Do two seams with one wider center section and narrower side sections. I was very hesitant to do business with SMS because I have heard so many stories of their bad customer service.

Have you joined the National Woodie Club? As a member you would have access to the club roster. One of the ways the roster is organized is by cars owned by members. You could contact other owners of cars like yours. There are about 5 people including myself who monitor and post in this woodie section on a regular basis. Some are professional woodie builders and some like myself are individuals restoring woodies. Feel free to ask questions. Your Chevy sounds a lot like my 1940 Lasalle when I got it. Very rare, terrible condition, and missing some rare hardware. I have pictures of my car in another thread in this section. You have a huge task ahead of you but also very rewarding if you carry it through.

Here is something good I noticed: There were porta potties everywhere! That was helpful.

My one off 1940 Lasalle woodie had thin fabric between the slats and the roof beams. I replaced it with some strips of thin to medium weight canvas. I don't think there is a special material for this use. Any kind of fabric will prevent squeaks. It also will never be seen.

Maybe some of you veterans can give an opinion on this. This year was my third time to Hershey. Yes it is Old Car Heaven. I am surprised that a LOT of vendors had nothing but tubs of rusty unsorted junk that will never make it back on a car. Was it always like this? Fortunately, the prices they were asking for said junk were low. Of the three times I have been to Hershey, I have never seen the whole swap meet. It takes three days to see it all and I had only planned two. If I go back I will plan three days and see the Chocolate field first. It seemed to me there was better stuff and less junk on that field than the red field. Does anyone else observe this?

Gary_Ash thank you for passing on the technical info about tach/dwell meters. It seems these instruments fall through the cracks and no professionals repair them. I think I will at least open mine up and take a look for obvious things wrong. I am not skilled in electric but as luck would have it my son just graduated with an electrical engineering degree.

Thanks for the reply. I do check Ebay occasionally. That is where I got the ones that were too big.

The dimensions of the base are 2 3/8" x 1 1/16". The wide end of the wedge indicated in red on the picture is 5/8". NOTE: There is a variation of this part out there where the wide end of the wedge is 3/4". THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR ME.

Is there a repair service out there to fix a dwell meter/tachometer? The LO scale on the tachometer does not work. It is a Kal-Equip model R-11 from about 1964. It was my Dad's and I still use it. Thanks.

I need two of these but I do not know what car they came from. Base is 2 3/8" x 1 1/16". The wide end of the wedge (indicated by red on the photo) is 5/8". There is another version of this part out there where the wide end of the wedge is 3/4". This will not work for me because it will not fit in the receiver on the door jamb of my car. I would have a better chance of finding these if I knew what car they came from. My car is a 1940 Lasalle with a custom woodie station wagon body installed when new. Some of the hardware used by the body builder in 1940 is NOT from a 1940 Lasalle, hence my dilemma. I have seen the version with the wider wedge on some mid '30's Cadillacs and Lasalles. Thank you

This year was my third trip to Hershey. Once about 20 years ago, another about 10 years ago. This time my 23 year old son came with me. He had as much of a blast as me. Here are some thoughts: +I'm still making rookie mistakes. I planned two full days, Thursday and Friday to see the swap meet and the car show. It was not enough time. Three full days are needed to see all of the swap meet. I planned on seeing more swap meet on part of Friday but all the vendors were packing up. +Way too many vendors with too many tubs of rusty unsorted crap that will never make it back on a car. +Next time we will start on the chocolate field. It seemed the vendors there had better stuff than on the red field. +We were blown away by the variety and quality of the car corral and the car show. We were in awe of the parade of cars entering the show field. It was a special experience to see rare show cars running and driving rather than just sitting still. +I did not find the part I was looking for. I did find rare parts on my previous trips.